Meet Frédéric, Operations Research Engineer at Kardinal
- August 31, 2021
- 2 mins
Science enthusiast, Frédéric is an Operational Research Engineer at Kardinal since April 2019.
The math enthusiast that spent over a decade studying them
As a student and mathematics enthusiast, Frédéric has completed no less than 14 years of university studies. He first completed a degree in computer science and specialized the following year in electronics with a bachelor’s degree.
“I then enrolled in a professional university institute (IUP), followed by a Master’s degree in Computer Science. I wanted to do a PhD thesis on transportation modeling for the Lyon metropolitan area”.
A few years later, Frédéric resumed his studies by enrolling in a Master 2 in Epistemology, Logic and History of Science.
Initially interested in computer science, he worked for ten years as a FullStack Developer for a consultancy company, where he gained experience Data Science while working for a video game company.
The position offered by Kardinal appealed to this Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research enthusiast, subjects that had fascinated him during his studies. “After several years of wishing I could use the concepts I had studied professionally, I was thrilled to find this position, especially in a young and innovative company“. When at the Kardinal office, Frédéric really enjoys the “start-up” spirit of the company, with its horizontal approach between employees and founders.
Mathematics are at the center of his work at Kardinal
Frédéric is part of the Operational Research team in charge of Kardinal’s optimization solver, an advanced algorithm that calculates the best possible route optimization according to given constraints (minimized number of vehicles, optimized cost, etc.). “My role is to code these mathematical calculations that will enable the Kardinal software produce the best vehicle routes much faster than a human could”. Frédéric also receives operational data from another technical team, the Back team, and converts it into mathematical data to feed the solver.
The Kardinal software was initially designed to never stop optimizing. Since the context can greatly change depending on the activity, it is essential that the routes are always up-to-date. A supervisor cannot afford to wait hours to get the calculated routes and start making decisions. Frédéric’s mission is to ensure that the machine’s response is as fast as possible while maintaining maximum quality.
An infinite quest for knowledge
The Operational Research team consists of 3 people and works on different projects. “I really enjoy working with fellow PhDs who share my interest in research and the desire to create the best possible product using the most advanced technologies”.
Frédéric is happy to be working in the field he had chosen during his studies and considers his job to be diverse and exciting. “I regularly improve my skills on Operational Research issues, but also on IT issues, mainly by learning GO and RUST programming languages”. In fact, it was with this language that Frédéric helped create Kardinal’s solver. The external solver used until then was too generic to meet customer needs. Therefore Kardinal chose to build its own solver, specialized in route optimization issues. “Being part of this ambitious project using a very powerful but difficult to understand language was quite a challenge. I am proud to have contributed to its success”.
Constantly on the hunt for more knowledge, Frédéric enjoys participating in scientific events such as the ROADEF congresses (an organization promoting the development of Operational Research and Decision Support in France) or the Pint of Science (gatherings aimed at making science accessible to the general public in a more casual setting). “Writing a scientific paper and having it published and presented at a ROADEF conference would be very rewarding”.
At Kardinal, we are happy and proud to have Frédéric on our team!
