Episode 128 I spoke with Sergiy Nesterenko about: * Developing an automated system for designing PCBs * Difficulties in human and automated PCB design * Building a startup at the intersection of different areas of expertise By the way — I hit 40 ratings on Apple Podcasts (and am at 66 on Spotify). It’d mean a lot (really, a lot) if you’d consider leaving a rating or a review. I read everything, and it’s very heartening and helpful to hear what you think. Enjoy, and let me know what you think! Sergiy is founder and CEO of Quilter. Sergiy spent 5 years at SpaceX developing radiation-hardened avionics for SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy's second stage rockets, before discovering a big problem: designing printed circuit boards for all the electronics in these rockets was tedious, manual and error prone. So in 2019, he founded Quilter to build the next generation of AI-powered tooling for electrical engineers. I spend a lot of time on this podcast—if you like my work, you can support me on Patreon :) Reach me at [email protected] for feedback, ideas, guest suggestions. Subscribe to The Gradient Podcast:  Apple Podcasts  | Spotify | Pocket Casts | RSSFollow The Gradient on Twitter Outline: * (00:00) Intro * (00:45) Quilter origins and difficulties in designing PCBs * (04:12) PCBs and schematic implementations * (06:40) Iteration cycles and simulations * (08:35) Octilinear traces and first-principles design for PCBs * (12:38) The design space of PCBs * (15:27) Benchmarks for PCB design * (20:05) RL and PCB design * (22:48) PCB details, track widths * (25:09) Board functionality and aesthetics * (27:53) PCB designers and automation * (30:24) Quilter as a compiler * (33:56) Gluing social worlds and bringing together expertise * (36:00) Process knowledge vs. first-principles thinking * (42:05) Example boards * (44:45) Auto-routers for PCBs * (48:43) Difficulties for scaling to larger boards * (50:42) Customers and skepticism * (53:42) On experiencing negative feedback * (56:42) Maintaining stamina while building Quilter * (1:00:00) Endgame for Quilter and future directions * (1:03:24) Outro Links: * Quilter homepage * Other pages/features mentioned: * Thin-to-thick traces * Octilinear trace routing * Comment from Tom Fleet Get full access to The Gradient at thegradientpub.substack.com/subscribe