Digital Engineering at Lincoln Labs: Extending the Digital Thread into System Development

The MIT Lincoln Labs is a US DoD Federally Funded Research & Development Center (FFRDC) chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. There is an initiative at Lincoln Labs to implement many of the best practices defined in the DoD's Digital Engineering Strategy, which promotes the use of digital representations of systems and components and the use of digital artifacts to design and sustain national defense systems.  

MIT LL chose the Aras Low-Code Industrial Platform to create and maintain a custom digital thread, capturing and connecting data from requirements to systems models, to engineering data and simulation, back to requirements for V&V, and manufacturing. Starting from engineering design, the thread is being extended to reach backwards to systems models and requirements (MBSE), and forward to manufacturing process planning (MPP) and beyond. Ultimately, IoT data from systems deployed in the field will provide feedback to the digital thread, to enhance predictive maintenance procedures and better guide future designs.  

In this session, Denise Fitzgerald who leads the digital transformation efforts will present an overview of the labs' Digital Engineering Initiative and the projects that have been implemented. This will be followed by a software demonstration of the digital thread covering the areas of requirements, systems modelling and simulation, and V&V.  

Tuesday, April 20, 2021, 10:45 AM - 11:15 AM
Denise Fitzgerald