This talk will discuss the shortcomings of current mechanical conceptual and detailed design tools and provide the motivation for the two DARPA programs that are developing the foundations of future design systems. The ultimate aim of these programs is to enhance a designer’s ability to create entirely novel designs and designs that fully exploit the possibilities of novel fabrication processes and advanced material architectures. The talk will cover the different approaches taken by the performers and highlight some of their unique technical insights. The talk will finish by providing motivation for a new program to understand sub-system level interactions to manage complexity.
Dr. Jan Vandenbrande joined DARPA as a program manager on July, 2015. He is interested in developing math and computational tools to radically improve design of mechanical products. Topics of specific interest are: exploiting new platform performance possibilities enabled by new materials and fabrication processes (3D printing, composite fibers, micro truss structures); systematic design discovery and new material development and adaptation accelerated with computational tools. He currently manges the Defence Sciences Office design through manufacturing portfolio which includes: FUN Design, TRADES, EQUiPS, MoDyL, TFF, OM and MDP (details available on DARPA’s website).
Before joining DARPA, Dr. Vandenbrande was a Technical Fellow and Senior Manager of the Applied Math Geometry and Optimization group at Boeing. He leveraged his knowledge in geometric reasoning, production automation and design processes to create several advanced geometry processing systems to change how products are designed and made. Boeing uses these tools to conduct design trade and optimization studies; to enable proprietary composite layup fabrication processes; and to visualize metal machinability issues. Dr. Vandenbrande authored several parametric air and space craft models for design trade studies such as the hypersonic X-43C and the Orbital Space Plane study.
At Unigraphics, now Siemens NX, Dr. Vandenbrande worked on the architecture of the next generation Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) system, improving tool path generation performance and revamping the CAM user interface. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester for his work on machinable feature recognition.