Christopher Van Dyke | Manufacturing Inspection Podcast | Overview AI

Next-Gen Computer Vision Technology for Manufacturing

In this episode, Ken Forster speaks with Christopher Van Dyke, co-founder, and CEO of Overview AI. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Overview is a company building reliable, adaptable computer vision systems for any factory.

Since founding Overview in 2018, Chris has been instrumental in building a company and team dedicated to disruptive positive impact on manufacturing. 

Overview AI integrates cutting-edge computer vision and deep learning technology to previously unsolvable manufacturing inspection challenges. The company places physical cameras across a facility, performs inference at the edge, and manages massive deployments – feeding terabytes of video/image data to its cloud-based platform, ultimately assisting customers with superior insights and data analytics.

Before co-founding Overview, Chris spent nearly eight years at Tesla in different senior manufacturing engineering roles where he supervised an 80-person design team for Tesla's Model 3 battery from concept to high-volume production. Chris was also responsible for designing the infrastructure and equipment for Tesla's first Gigafactory, including the equipment used to manufacture battery cells. Last but not least, he helped launch Tesla's electric vehicle supercharger network, which now includes over 25,000 outlets worldwide

Prior to joining Tesla, Chris was a senior engineer at H2Gen Innovations, where he co-authored a number of patents. Chris graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering.

Discussion Points:

• What would you consider to be your 'Digital Thread'?
  
• You had an early startup experience at H2Gen in being part of the team that grew this from 20 to 150 people. What early lessons did you learn from this startup effort?
• You joined Tesla in 2010, contributing to several large-scale engineering efforts. As we mentioned, the supercharger program, Gigafactory and the Model 3 battery design. What was it like to work at Tesla at such a formative time? What lessons did you learn from it?
• What were some of the key insights that led you to co-found Overview AI in 2018?
• What do you see as the opportunity space for visual input inspection? How does your solution complement these more general-purpose platforms and solutions?
• What are some of the early use cases and wins that Overview experienced?
• How do you know when an organization is ready to adopt your solution? What best practices have you seen in helping that company realize that potential value?
• What do you see as the greatest opportunity areas for manufacturing, given your background in your company, in the next five years?
• How did Y Combinator help you define and scale your company?