Abstract: AIAA’s Digital Engineering Integration Committee (DEIC) was chartered in 2020 to accelerate digital transformation across the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the premier aerospace professional organization in the United States. This collaborative group is a blend of industry, academic, and Government practitioners intent on digital transformation promotion across the aerospace domain, with application to commercial and Department of Defense programs. The depth of digital engineering activities organized by DEIC has grown since 2020 to its current state at AIAA SciTech 2025 of 18 technical working sessions and 4 after-hours workshops on emerging digital transformation topics. Integrated products teams within DEIC cover diverse topics such as digital thread and digital twin best practices, and design and implementation of digital ecosystems. This committee also address emerging capabilities such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and rigorous validation and verification for aerospace systems. In this talk, Dr. Graves will introduce the goals and objectives of AIAA’s Digital Engineering Integration Committee, and discuss near term and longer term DEIC objectives, with a particular focus on STEM outreach for digital engineering for Region 3.
Biography: Dr. Rick Graves is a Senior Research Aerospace Engineer within AFRL’s Aerospace Systems Directorate. He is the lead for AFRL/RQV’s Digital Engineering Applications Team, a program manager for the FlyerOne program focused on implementing digital airworthiness, and is an AFOSR Lab Task Lead investigating bio-inspired vehicle design and flight testing. Dr. Graves is an AIAA Associate Fellow, and currently leads AIAA’s Digital Ecosystem Sub-Committee for AIAA’s Digital Engineering Integration Committee.