• US Defense Department agency to leverage Siemens expertise, software
• Siemens-led team to address the future of design technology
• Research aims to expand Siemens’ CAD, additive manufacturing capability
• New technology development to facilitate rapid design-to-manufacturing

A team of researchers, led by Siemens Corporate Technology, and including Siemens’ product lifecycle management (PLM) software business, Georgia Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, and PARC, has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to participate in their Transformative Design (TRADES) Program. According to DARPA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies, the program intends to develop advanced engineering tools to address highly complex design representation, analysis and synthesis. Technologies developed through this program should enable engineers to discover new designs and leverage new materials and manufacturing approaches, creating the future of design systems and processes. With the help of Siemens’ expertise and NX™ software, which includes highly advanced features for computer-aided design (CAD) and additive manufacturing, the team plans to create fundamental technologies to facilitate rapid design-to-manufacturing capabilities.

“Bringing this impressive team together to address these design challenges is a critical project, and can have significant impact on high performance products in industries such as aerospace, defense, automotive, medical devices and consumer products,” said Dr. Suraj Musuvathy, Senior Scientist, Siemens Corporate Technology. “By providing engineers access to tools that define designs simply, and encode fabrication requirements automatically, our research will enhance the ability to create, optimize and fabricate the complex designs of the future.”

Siemens’ NX software includes highly advanced features for the design of heterogeneous materials, composites and lattice structures, as well as preparation for additive manufacturing. In joining the DARPA TRADES project team, researchers will work to further expand these capabilities and create a new approach for designing models with billions of geometric attributes, as well as the manufacturing of these highly complex objects. Using these new technologies, many products could be engineered to be lighter and more durable, while also providing far better performance. Specific applications include rotating turbo machinery in jet engines, gas turbines and electric motors across multiple industries.