The Messi of Artificial Intelligence is from Rosario and triumphs in United States.
Barbara Béssolo spent much of her life in the Bella Vista neighborhood. The story of someone who revolutionizes motorsport using Artificial Intelligence.
She is not a trend on social networks because she has a low profile, but she is an influencer in the field of cutting-edge technology. Barbara Béssolo is from Rosario. She left her beloved Bella Vista neighborhood in 2000 to begin a new stage in her private and professional life in the United States. She was first based in Connecticut where she worked for a company that generated large-scale electronic products for laboratories. Then she settled in Indiana when she was called by the internet giant: Technicolor. And then everything changed. This industrial analytical chemist and former South American rhythmic gymnastics champion decided in 2021 to open her own path and go for everything. So, she created an Artificial Intelligence Software that predicts failures in cars in real time and that can also be used in all areas. Their revolutionary product was used in IndyCar and passed the test with flying colors. She is currently contacted by other giants to incorporate her product. In the United States business circles, she is recognized as the Messi of AI, despite the fact that she takes refuge in work and in seeing how to continue growing without falling into the clutches of media and corporate temptation.
The brilliant mind behind this company is Barbara Béssolo. She is 52 years old and managed to position herself as a pioneer in the market of technology applied to motorsport. Its innovative software with Artificial Intelligence completely changed the way racing teams can analyze and optimize the performance of their vehicles. It can also be applied to other markets.
“One day it occurred to me to create Artificial Intelligence for cars, and when this year, for the technology session that was held in the run-up to the Indianapolis 500, which is the space used to see what the future of motorsports is going to be, they called me, it was something wonderful and unthinkable. I also thought it was fun and crazy at the same time, ha,” Béssolo, who lives day to day with her father Miguel Ángel and her daughter Sofía, told Motores Béssolo.
—I am the founder and creator of an Artificial Intelligence company that started with this topic in 2021. What the AI I created does is it predicts what’s going to happen to a machine in the future, but in real time. For example, it tells you what’s going to happen to your car in the next thousand miles, before you drive and complete that trip.
—Does it work through software or with some other operating system?
—No, it’s just software. The plus is that it can be used with any car and any type of connectivity. That is, it can be implemented in a vehicle that is 20 years old as well as in one that has just been manufactured. Basically, the difference with what it is now, with respect to an Artificial Intelligence technique that we created, is that in current products you analyze one sensor at a time.
—What would it be like to see one sensor at a time?
- Today the vehicle tells you if you have problems with a wheel, the battery, the motor, and it does so in a limited way because it sees one sensor at a time and it is reflected when one the lights on the dashboard turns on. When you already have a failure. Instead, we first evaluate one sensor at a time, and then look at the whole car together, so that it allows us to predict what is going to happen to it or what is going to break in the future precisely, and we also tell them what they should do to avoid reaching that extreme point, which also generates headaches.
—Who or what company currently uses your software, since at the time it was used in an IndyCar car.
—It’s true, we started with racing cars fully because it was the most difficult case to do, since it requires a lot of sensors, it moves very fast, and it was really complex to do. However, we succeeded. After our first successful Indycar test, we went to AT&T (the largest telecommunications company in the United States and one of the world’s giants), which ended up investing in us, and it has 85 percent of the connected automotive market in this country. By this I mean that implementing our AI allows each car in the company to know when it will need maintenance, whether it’s mechanical, electronic or of some other nature. We can predict every sensor, so, it prevents everything, which generates cost savings and greatly improves the capitalization of time.
—And how did you venture into Artificial Intelligence focus on race cars, especially at the beginning of your business stage, not being a motorsports enthusiast?
—Because I saw it in a different way. I was working at Technicolor, where we made the internet box for homes. So I started to see cars as boxes, because they also have sensors. Although the difference is that the vehicle moves and the box does not, it should be noted that the operating system is the same. Then it occurred to me to start with race cars, since I also live in Indiana and here is IndyCar. I said to myself, if I can do it for a house, I can do it for anything else.
—But did you go to races before that, or did you think about implementing it in race cars?
No. I did it because it occurred to me when I went to see a race. Being in the pits I realized that in the pits they did not look at the data in real time. Everyone leaves it for later, that is, when the car stops. I noticed that and I said to myself, if I can do it in real time while they are competing, a lot of things can happen, like saving a person’s life, saving ~97 percent of energy, and you predicting when a wheel or engine could break for safety. I also took it as technology challenge because it has a wide variety of applications.
—How did you get to this revolutionary software with Artificial Intelligence being that you are an industrial analytical chemist?
—Because when I was at Technicolor I switched to the electronics area, so I learned a lot about basically the internet. And how did I learn Artificial Intelligence? Essentially learning as you go, because even today there aren’t many people who know much. In addition, there is a reality versus myth, AI is nothing more than a mathematical equation, therefore, if you know math, you will do better this field.
—Was it easy for you or now you see it as simple?
—It was easy for me because I understood numbers. In addition, I learned by learning, even though it seems like a play on words. Many companies started working with Artificial Intelligence this year, but I started in 2021. It seems like a short time, but it is not in this market.
—How does your company work?
—With investors and a great work team where there are engineers and professionals from other areas. I am the head of DynamoEdge because I am the creator and founder, but until a while I had a partner who was also a friend, Gil de Ferran (winner of the Indycar 500 and former sports director of McLaren Racing), who unfortunately passed away last December. I even have a team in Rosario.
—Can this technology be turned over to other branches or does it only work in racing cars?
—No, it can be implemented in any car, company, and vertical.
—Do you mean that it can be implemented in sports, science, or any other area?
“Absolutely. For example, it can be applied in agriculture, where we actually have an agreement with Peru. The machines that are in the field tell you when they are going to break, how the operation is going, and what you have to change to avoid a problem in the short term. In factories it can also be used because instead of placing the sensors in a car, you put them on turbines or specific machines. It can also be used in hospitals, in the central rooms where the instruments are to connect oxygen, air, etc. All of this can be measured, so you can tell each nurse what problem each medical device has or will have at a certain point. Anything that is monitoring remote operations, this software is ideal. Even for companies that want to optimize inventory.
—And how would it work in sport because human is not something mechanical…
Of course. How would it work? All the players in a football game are like machines because each player is monitored as if they were a car. Today a replay is done to train to predict how the other football player, or any other athlete, is going to move. It is true that humans are not a machine, quite the opposite, because they are unpredictable. But it is also true that we always move in the same way. While we can’t tell you exactly what you’re going to do on your next move, I can assure you what’s the most likely move you’re going to play, because you’ve always played that way. Even if we look at the watches players use to train, we can tell them how many electrolytes they should take. Athletes can be monitored with AI. And sometimes you don’t even need to put a sensor. What happens is that this field is very broad, and the answer I am giving you is short, because the ideal case to evaluate the need, scope it and show it. And there you can see that our AI works and it is very effective.
—Is it true that you were offered entry into the Guinness World Records?
Yes. We were offered to enter the Guinness World Records because our company DynamoEdge is the first technology that can predict what is happening in cars while they are in motion, it is something that had never happened before, since it is one thing to solve any problem in the workshop after an specific light on the dashboard comes up, or after the computer has been connected to the vehicle, which tells you where the fault was. Here, we tell you before it happens and while the car is running.
—How do you experience this knowing that it is something revolutionary?
I must confess that I don’t take it very seriously. Look, for me, there are more opportunities here for people who want to work. I didn’t get smarter or dumber by leaving my country and being based in the United States. There is also another point that I always highlight among friends, and that is that for me money is not the essential thing, or the priority. For me, the most important thing is always and will continue to be, doing what I like. This crossed my mind, and here I am. I did it. How? By doing it, there are no secrets or mysteries.
—How would you define yourself professionally then?
Uh, I honestly don’t know why I never thought about it. I don’t know what to say… What I know is I like what I do. And I enjoy it very much.
“Was everything rosy as it looks now?”
“No, nothing to do with it. Here I summarized it in a few words, but this has not been easy. On the contrary, it has been extremely difficult for me to enter, interact, and position my brand because I am not only a woman, but I also speak with an accent because I am Argentine, ha.
—How was the reception of mechanics or engineers when you entered the world of racing?
— UH, well there you have another case. It was also complicated. Imagine that a woman comes and tells you that what you are doing is wrong. To that, I add other issues because I am not from motorsports, and this is something that if they wanted to, or logically, they should have created it themselves. But well, it happened like that and I am grateful. But it really wasn’t easy at all. Today I enjoy growth, although in the past it was difficult to move forward.
—How do you keep your feet on the ground knowing that they are growing by leaps and bounds?
It happens that when I win, I’m not happy, I feel an emptiness. In this aspect I am the same as Gil (de Ferran), who one day told me that this happened to us because we were hunters, and we needed the adrenaline to create and move forward. What makes me happy and keeps my feet on the ground is the fact that I keep building, keep reaching goals. My head it’s always on the next thing I’m going to do.