Advanced design Technology

Advanced Design Technology (ADT) is a London-based UCL spin-out and a global leader in physics-driven, AI-enabled design software for turbomachinery: the pumps, compressors, fans and turbines at the heart of aerospace, automotive, energy, process, water and HVAC/refrigeration systems. ADT was founded in 1998 as a joint venture between University College London and Ebara Research Co. of Japan. It develops and commercialises TURBOdesign Suite, built on the 3D inverse design method developed at Cambridge and UCL.

Our technology
Conventional turbomachinery design relies on slow trial-and-error loops of geometry changes and CFD analysis. TURBOdesign reverses this process. Engineers specify the flow field they want, such as the blade loading, and the software computes the 3D blade geometry directly, in minutes. Inverse design parameters relate smoothly and physically to performance, so they give machine learning a compact, well-conditioned design space. As a result, our surrogate models need far fewer CFD samples and generalise better than models built on raw geometric parameters.

ADT has built on this foundation to create a physics-enhanced machine learning workflow. Design-of-experiments sampling uses inverse design. Each design is evaluated with CFD and FEA, then Kriging/Gaussian-process and neural-network surrogates are trained on the results. Multi-objective optimisation (TURBOdesign Optima) then produces Pareto-optimal designs that meet aerodynamic, structural and manufacturing constraints. Every candidate design remains physically grounded and traceable. The workflow runs on the customer’s own hardware, so proprietary design data never leaves their environment. It is already in use in industrial design programmes.

Impact
Our customers include leading OEMs in aerospace, automotive and turbocharging, power generation, marine, oil and gas, refrigeration and fans across Europe, Japan and the US. They report shorter design cycles, higher efficiency, lower noise and easier transfer of know-how between design teams. Better turbomachinery design reduces the energy use and emissions of the equipment that moves most of the world’s fluids. It also enables new applications such as hydrogen liquefaction, fuel cells, heat pumps and electrified propulsion.

Where we operate
ADT is headquartered in London and has a presence in Japan and Germany. Its US affiliate, TURBOdesign Technology Inc., serves North American customers. Our team is made up mainly of MSc and PhD engineers and software developers. We have a long track record in UK and European collaborative R&D, and we keep close links with UCL’s research in turbomachinery and physics-informed AI.

What we are looking for in BridgeAI
We are seeking medium or large UK deployers in energy, aerospace, automotive and e-mobility, hydrogen, HVAC, water and process industries. We want to work with organisations that design, specify or operate turbomachinery and want to move AI-driven design and optimisation beyond pilots into trusted, routine use. We also welcome partners with expertise in AI assurance, verification and validation, and test facilities, who can help build the evidence base for decisions on safety-critical and performance-critical components.