Ben Hardy PhD

Projects, Publications, and Experience

A headshot of me

Hello, I'm Ben Hardy, a Senior Application Engineer at DesignForge with a PhD in Physics. I build agentic AI for RF and microwave design in Ansys HFSS, and software that makes electromagnetic simulation faster and easier to use. I build with Claude Code and Cursor and often run several agents in parallel.

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Highlights

Featured: agentic RF design in HFSS with DesignForge AI

One-shot 10 GHz Wilkinson splitter

HFSS geometry from a few prompts

More highlights

Breathing Simulations

Breathing Simulations

Blender Animation Import

Blender Animation Import

On-Body Devices

On-Body Devices

Projects

16-rung birdcage coil in its RF shield next to the uniform k = 1 quadrature B1+ map and the k = 2 map with a null at the centre

birdcage-palace: an MRI birdcage coil builder for Palace

An open-source, scriptable builder for MRI birdcage RF coils. It sizes the capacitors with a ladder-network model, solves the full-wave eigenmodes with the Palace FEM solver, and picks out the homogeneous k = 1 mode automatically. Simulation only.
 Inductance predicted by the surrogate against HFSS on held-out spiral designs

A neural surrogate for MMIC spiral inductors

A neural surrogate that maps GaAs square-spiral geometry to L, Q and self-resonant frequency, benchmarked against held-out HFSS solves. All results are simulated (HFSS vs HFSS, generic textbook GaAs stack).
 Obsidian graph view of the HFSS knowledge graph

HFSS knowledge graph

An OWL ontology and SHACL-checked RDF graph of the PyAEDT knowledge layer an HFSS agent uses, with SPARQL competency questions. 52,732 triples, rebuilt in three seconds.
 10 GHz elliptic low-pass filter verified in HFSS against its mask

MMIC LPF Builder: from a filter spec to an HFSS-verified lumped MMIC layout

A local web tool that turns a filter spec into a lumped filter laid out on a GaAs MMIC process and verified in full-wave EM. Low-pass and high-pass run end to end; band-pass runs at circuit level.
 Top views of four gold benchmark designs in HFSS

Evaluating an HFSS agent: benchmarks and an honest loss

How I evaluated an AI agent that drives Ansys HFSS. An atomic prompt suite and gold benchmarks graded against reference projects, and an A/B race between two agents on the same task.
 Taper design end to end in DesignForge AI, from one prompt to a verified HFSS result

DesignForge: A Klopfenstein Taper from One Prompt

One prompt in DesignForge AI designs, builds and solves a 50→90 Ω Klopfenstein taper in Ansys HFSS, then checks it against the analytical model. The orchestrator ran on Claude Sonnet 5.
 A square spiral inductor on GaAs built in HFSS by an agent skill

MMIC skills and IMS 2026 demos

Agent skills that turn hours of MMIC component work in Ansys HFSS into minutes, a skill chain that built a GaAs bandpass filter end to end, and the demos from the DesignForge booth at IMS 2026.
 Geometry IoU of agentic Parallax against single-shot multimodal reconstruction on 13 diagrams

Parallax: telling an AI agent where its drawing is wrong

A five-phase image pipeline that helps an AI agent reconstruct engineering diagrams such as PCB traces and RF filter layouts. On 13 diagrams it beat single-shot multimodal reconstruction every time, with mean geometry IoU 0.95 against 0.59.
 TIE fighter geometry built in HFSS with DesignForge AI

DesignForge: HFSS Geometry from a Few Prompts

A TIE fighter built in Ansys HFSS from a few prompts in DesignForge AI, and why geometry is only the start.
 10 GHz Wilkinson splitter designed in HFSS with DesignForge AI

DesignForge: One-Shot 10 GHz Wilkinson Splitter in HFSS

An agent in DesignForge AI designs a 10 GHz Wilkinson power splitter in Ansys HFSS in one shot, tuning for parasitics along the way.
 In-cabin range-Doppler breathing simulation

In-Cabin Range-Doppler Simulations for Breathing Detection

Range-Doppler simulations for detecting breathing rate of children in cars; supports neural network work for breathing anomaly detection.
 Remcom Fusion Studio

Remcom Fusion Studio — Bridging Remcom Products

Desktop application that runs Wireless InSite, WaveFarer and XFdtd from one place, with a queue for batch simulation runs.
 Particle swarm optimization UI

Geometry Optimization with Particle Swarm and Custom UIs

Particle-swarm optimization with custom UIs for optimization and parameter creation—tune geometry and design parameters with automated search and visual feedback.
 GPS satellite tracker and simulator

GPS Satellite Tracker & Simulator for Wireless InSite

Python tool that predicts GPS signal strength at wearable devices over time by feeding real satellite positions into Wireless InSite ray tracing.
 Project preview

Convolutional Neural Network to Predict Breathing Patterns

I created a convolutional neural network to predict breathing patterns from Radar returns off of an animated human chest.
 Blender Animation Import

Blender Animation Import Utility

A utility to import Blender animations into Remcom's platform, streamlining the workflow for simulating antennas with moving humans.
 Huygens Box Controller

Huygens Box Controller

A UI element for managing Huygens box simulations, enhancing user interaction and control over simulation parameters.
 SAR Simulation Utility

Synthetic Aperture Radar Simulation Utility

A comprehensive tool for simulating and analyzing synthetic aperture radar data, enhancing research and development in radar technology.
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Apps

The first screen of the EM solver guide: FDTD, FEM or MoM?

FDTD, FEM or MoM? An EM Solver Guide

An interactive guide to the three main full-wave EM solvers. See the real mesh each solver uses on 20 devices, learn how each one works, and pick a solver and a tool for your problem. Runs in the browser.
 The visual RF calculators gallery: skin effect, coax and microstrip cards with their field pictures

Visual RF Calculators

Five RF and microwave calculators that show the physics: skin effect, coax, microstrip with a live field solve, rectangular waveguide modes, and path loss with a link budget. Each one checks itself against published values. Runs in the browser.
 Maxwell by Heart: Gauss's law for E with draggable charges and a flux circle

Maxwell by Heart

Learn to write Maxwell's four equations from memory in about 15 minutes. Interactive fields show what each law means, then you build and recall each equation. Runs in the browser.
 Smithy's Match: a Smith chart with a solder bench and the Smithy character

Smithy's Match and the Smith Chart Tutor

A Smith chart game and a guided tutor. Solder parts onto a bench, watch the impedance move on the chart, and learn matching from the Smithy. Runs in the browser.
 RF Bench mismatch tab with a standing wave, Smith chart and return-loss ruler

RF Bench: Interactive RF Fundamentals

An interactive bench for RF and microwave fundamentals. Change a part on the left and watch S-parameters, Smith charts and load lines respond on the right. Runs in the browser.
 Budget app Sankey diagram

Cash Flow Visualization (Sankey Budget App)

A web app for visualizing personal cash flow with Sankey diagrams—upload transaction CSVs, filter by month, and save/load your data.
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Publications

A Cryogenic Tune and Match Circuit for a 650 MHz MRI Probe

A liquid N2 cooled circuit designed to double the SNR of a 650 MHz MRI probe.

Experimental demonstration of diffusion limitations on resolution and SNR in MR microscopy

A study on the effects of diffusion on resolution and SNR in MR microscopy.

Bench to bore ramifications of inter-subject head differences on RF shimming and specific absorption rates at 7T

A study on the effects of inter-subject head differences on RF shimming and specific absorption rates at 7T.

Other Publications I've Coauthored

A collection of publications I've coauthored.
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