NextGen-AI for Engineering Design
Faez Ahmed Associate Professor, MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering
Generative AI is reshaping many industries by offering innovative approaches to creating content. While LLM and VLM tools like ChatGPT have proven effective in multimedia, their application in engineering faces unique challenges, such as maintaining precision under varying requirements. This talk will explore some of these challenges, with an emphasis on achieving designs that are innovative, feasible, and achieve high functional performance. We will examine case studies across various engineering disciplines, such as kinematic design and topology optimization. Furthermore, we will explore how precision-focused generative AI can transcend mere mimicking of statistical patterns to address performance, constraints, and innovation in engineering. The talk will show examples of AI-driven design co-pilots for engineering tasks, along with covering methods that effectively combine multimodal generative models with engineering optimization and tools, highlighting how this fusion augments the design process. The presentation will conclude by highlighting the broader impact of generative AI in facilitating design democratization and fostering rapid innovation across the engineering sector.