1. Curves – geometric design

Computer-aided mechanical design for the automotive industry was undoubtedly the first major application of geometric polynomial modeling. It was pioneered by two French engineers in the late 1950s, Pierre Bézier at Renault and Paul Faget de Casteljau at Citroën. An enthusiast of uncompromising rigor and the ultima ratio, Pierre Bézier succeeded in the 1960s in obtaining a budget of 3 million francs. to design and build his UNISURF system with his team. The system consisted of a 7-meter-long drafting machine to produce the "grand plan" of a car, a 3-axis milling machine to produce the models, and an 8 KB RAM CAE 530 type computer developed by the Compagnie Européenne...