In our article series « Testia Experts », we present short interviews with our employees – the experts that really make Testia what it is. In this issue we speak with Cédric Bertrand, a Software Activities Coordination Manager at Testia.
You can also watch this video interview on YouTube.
Could you give us a brief overview of your career path and your role at Testia?
I started my career as an intern in Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) at Airbus, at the D42 building in Toulouse. I have been a developer for NDTkit, which was one of my first assignments when I joined Testia and one thing leading to another, it has now been 6 years since I took the role of Software Activities Coordination Manager. So as of today, I am managing a team of 10 people and we are mainly developing post-processing software.
Can you briefly explain what a software development engineer does?
Our field combines software development with a strong understanding of NDT requirements. Our primary mission is to meet operators, visit factories, and understand how they work, what their needs are, what their constraints are — including ergonomic ones. It’s about gathering all their feedback and turning it into software, in order to provide them with tools that help them in their daily analysis and flaw detection work.
Could you quickly walk us through how a new piece of software is built?
The first part consists in gathering requirements from NDT operators as well as other stakeholders in the NDT field, such as engineering or quality control teams. This then serves as a base to build a detailed specification sheet. After starting the development of the software we usually have several rounds of back and forth with the same stakeholders to refine and adjust it, making sure we meet everyone’s requirements. One of the advantages that we have at Testia is that we have operators working on industrial parts directly in our premises. This allows us to maintain a close relationship and gather these requirements directly, without always having to visit plants. That way, we have people that we can reach out to on a daily basis to help us with our software design challenges.
Do you have an example of a project you have worked on?
In terms of examples, I didn’t have the chance to be part of Testia when NDTKit was launched, which is a software that has over 20 years of experience now. However, since 2023, we’ve been developing a software called Smart IM which uses web technologies to manage production and prepare for Artificial Intelligence integration. Thanks to this project, I have been able to witness the genesis of this software development, and as part of the requirements gathering, we visited many industry professionals in factories, also beyond the aerospace field, which allowed us to write a comprehensive specification that meets a wide range of needs.
What is it about Testia that keeps things exciting after more than a decade?
One of the best things about my job is that it combines several fields: software development, Non-Destructive Testing, and more and more nowadays, AI. All these fields are constantly evolving and we are always learning new things so there’s no room for boredom!
What exciting challenges are you and your team going to be working on in the coming months?
Right now, the big challenge is to release this Smart IM software, specifically to start integrating AI into our software and to partner with vendors capable of designing algorithms that can detect potential flaws. We also have a new release coming for NDTkit: version 4.1.1, which is coming out soon and will allow us to add features for handling large or complex components. These are our main challenges for the coming months.
Thanks for taking the time for this interview!
Watch the video interview YouTube
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