Research Areas

Deep Generative systems design

Many of the challenges of modern engineering design require carefully weighing trade-offs between competing concepts. Unfortunately, there are so many possibilities when designing from a clean sheet that gathering data on them all is virtually impossible. Thus, designers have traditionally had to rely on their intuition and reference to past designs to help them figure out new challenges.

By leveraging modern artificial intelligence techniques and high speed simulation, we can bridge the gap between what’s been done before, and what we hope to do tomorrow.

conceptual Future Aircraft design

Small drones and other unmanned aerial systems have already begun to transform our airspace. Full sized eVTOLs for urban transport, quiet supersonic passenger aircraft for crossing continents, and a new generation of ultra-efficient transports are all beginning to crest the horizon.

New challenges demand new solutions, and new solutions demand new techniques. By developing more detailed and accurate simulation and analysis tools, utilizing more robust and capable optimization algorithms, and applying these to our most pressing challenges we aim to stay ahead of the curve in the rapidly changing world of aerospace.

high performance computing

Meeting the challenges of applying artificial intelligence to engineering design problems, particularly in the demanding aerospace environment, requires tremendous computational resources. While analysis techniques range from those that can comfortably be run on a personal laptop to those requiring weeks of time at full throttle on a supercomputer, limitations are encountered at all levels.

By finding opportunities to integrate low-cost, high-performance hardware early on in our design processes, we can vastly accelerate the pace of innovation and deliver new, better solutions faster than ever.

Publications

2021

J. Smart, J. Alonso. CPU Parallelization and GPU Acceleration of SUAVE: Advancements in Sampling and Optimization. AIAA Sci-Tech Forum, 2021.

2019

J. M. Vegh, et al. Current Capabilities and Challenges of NDARC and SUAVE for eVTOL Aircraft Design and Analysis. AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum, 2019.

J. Smart, J. Alonso. Primary Weight Estimation of eVTOLs via Explicit Analysis and Surrogate Regression. AIAA Aviation Forum, 2019.

M. Clarke, J. Smart, E. Botero, W. Maier. A Comparative Study of eVTOL Configuration using SUAVE. AIAA Sci-Tech Forum, 2019.

2016

J. Smart, H. Benaroya. An examination of non-linear and passive technology transfer in the space sector: Consideration of the Contingent Effectiveness Model as a basis for formal modeling. Space Policy, 2016.