Data Science is at the heart of Zephir Project’s commitment to high performance and eco-responsibility.

For Zephir Project, technology and data science in particular are an essential tool for understanding the world around us. At the Grand Pavois 2024 in early October 2024, Zephir Project brought together several partners in La Rochelle. We were able to share a privileged moment with the team. Marc Amerigo, the project’s engineering manager, and Antoine Albeau, 26 times world windsurfing champion, were present, as were Olivier Ponrouch (UFO fins) and Pierre Schmitz, prorider.

They were able to attend a round-table discussion on high-performance sailing between our team and the SP80 project (“target 80 knots” for this atypical boat). It was clear that the eco-responsibility values espoused by Zephir, combined with high technology such as data science, are key to our future.

A busy summer of data science and simulations for the Zephir Project teams

Between numerous pleasure sailing sessions at Antoine’s club on the Ile de Ré, the summer was a busy one. On the agenda: big data, AI analysis models and digital simulations!

Admittedly, this phase is not very spectacular! But it’s absolutely decisive if we’re to achieve our goals of high-carbon performance. We’re making good progress.

BPCE Solutions Informatiques have identified highly efficient numerical models for speed prediction. The 2-second accuracy we’ve achieved is astounding! And we should be able to implement them experimentally as navigation aids in the coming months, thanks to new partners.

On the ALTEN side, the numerical simulations are bearing fruit, and the next prototype boards for Antoine are almost ready for release. Tests are scheduled for October.

Also, thanks to SBG Systems in particular, for whom I spoke at a conference, a new “nomadic” and autonomous measurement chain has been created. We’ll be able to multiply high-precision data acquisition at 200Hz on multiple media and configurations.

Bright prospects for Zephir Project with our data science experts

It’s very promising indeed, especially as BPCE Solutions informatiques have automated the processing cycles for our big data acquisitions.

Pierre Schmitz’s windfoil, pure speed aileron board and wingfoil will be put through their paces by these machine learning, deep learning and reinforcement learning algorithms and models over the coming months.

The result could be multi-media predictive models. Already the beginnings of a revolution in water sports?

It was also an opportunity to discuss the project’s latest advances. Alain Seux-Bos was present, one of the 5 data scientists from BPCE Solutions informatiques working on the project. They are working on a revolutionary algorithm to predict speed according to multiple factors.

Let’s meet up to talk about it on stage and, of course, on the water with Antoine and Pierre. Our conferences here