The Next Disruption in Aerospace Could be Measured in Qubits
We at Boeing are preparing for a major disruption in the aerospace industry: exponential gains in computing power and networking capability.
On Oct. 17, we announced a new Disruptive Computing & Networks organization to take advantage of coming breakthroughs in quantum communications and computing, neuromorphic processing and advanced sensing. The rapid advances we’re seeing in these technologies tell us it is time to look for applications in aerospace.
What kinds of applications? I’ve shared a lot about the emergence of a new breed of air vehicles for moving people and cargo. Think for a moment about an airspace that has millions of vehicles flying simultaneously, some flown by pilots and others flying autonomously. Optimizing an air traffic management system for this presents a set of complex computational problems that we’ll need large-scale computing power to help solve.
These vehicles will require new sensing capabilities and underlying hardware in the form of neuromorphic chips. These chips process information in the way our brains are wired, mimicking how our neurons operate and are interconnected. When a sensor aboard an aircraft sends billions and billions of data points to the chip, the machine learns, remembers and adapts with efficiency approaching that of a human brain (which is really efficient, by the way!).
We also see how computing breakthroughs can help us introduce new materials into our designs and production systems much more rapidly. For example, if we need to predict the cure properties for a new kind of resin to be used in an aircraft, we’ll be able to perform a lot of the chemistry using modeling, simulation and analysis, and it won’t require a lengthy set of empirical lab experiments and testing. Currently, this process is measured in years. We will always perform tests in the real world, of course, but we’d get the bulk of the work done much more quickly.
This next disruption will get us better answers faster -- and these answers will help us change the world.
Good post. We’re at an incredibly fast moving and exciting time in our history. This is the point where we’re finding answers by partnering not only with other companies, but with intelligent technologies like AI and ML. Technology is not only the force behind disruption, it is also the power behind solutions.
Model Based Engineering Leader
6 年Thanks for sharing Greg. With your vision we, Boeing, are changing the world. #changetheworld
Greg; It is easy to say, "We at Boeing are preparing for a major disruption in the aerospace industry: exponential gains in computing power and networking capability." By what means are you preparing? By what standards will you know that you are prepared? By what standards will you know that you have succeeded? The difficulty of complex optimization problems themselves grow exponentially with size. Name the problem, form the team, publish the results.?
Business Development Executive & Strategist
6 年It will be interesting to see how "Qu-puting" and associated annealing algorithms impact design tradeoffs across all product segments.