SAE International has formed a new Digital and Data Steering Group (DDSG) to strategically identify emerging technologies, and coordinate standardization activities across SAE standards committees necessary to support digital and data technologies at the system, subsystem, and component levels, as well as within the supporting infrastructure.

Digital technology is playing an ever more important role in the aerospace industry. Many organizations are focusing on technologies that enable a broad range of opportunities, including digital twin, the Internet of Things and big data analytics to drive productivity, quality and cost improvements throughout the product lifecycle. SAE International’s DDSG is expected to be critical in shaping a digitally integrated approach to design, manufacturing, operations and maintenance through consensus standards and other documents such as recommended practices and information reports.

“The digital and data related technologies are mature enough to disrupt the traditional aerospace engineering and operational practices, and have been penetrating into every aspect of a product lifecycle, which in turn disrupt the related business models for OEMs, operators, and suppliers. Valuable information about products and operations are embedded in data, which are digitally transferred (connectivity), consumed (analytics), and utilized (business models and mobility). This imposes a lot of new challenges to the industry,” said Dr. Ginger Shao, Honeywell Engineer Fellow and the first elected Chair of the SAE DDSG.

“Enough challenges exist across the industry. Examples include: 1) Data ownership – how should we define who owns the data and what are fair business practices in pricing the data? 2) Data governance – how do we trust each other in sharing the data? 3) Data interoperability – how can we consume each other’s data with minimized barriers and costs? 4) Data management – how do we make efficient integration of data-related operational processes with traditional operational tools and procedures? 5) Digital products and certification – how do we utilize potentially lower design assurance COTS digital products to support decisions with higher assurance? 6) Data security – it is a challenge that not only aerospace, but all digital related practices face. These and other industry-wide challenges together with the underline supporting technologies are the subjects that the industry standard community should take on to drive the consensus and synergies out of the industry, so the industry can best benefit from the productivity that the disruptive technologies enable us,” Shao added.

In addition, general responsibilities of the DDSG will include:

• Capturing standard needs from emerging fields and technologies arising from the trend to D&D

• Identifying gaps in existing or emerging standards covering the relevant technologies

• Defining roadmap in filling in the D&D standard gaps

• Providing requirements and recommendations to the existing or new SAE standard committees to develop necessary standards

• Coordinating and support other SAE portfolio offerings as appropriate

The next meeting of SAE Digital and Data Steering Group will be held the week of March 12, 2018; it will be hosted by Honeywell.

Any mobility engineering professionals interested in participating in SAE Digital & Data related activities should contact Jordanna Bucceire, aerospace standards specialist with SAE International, at +1-724-772-7517 or Jordanna.bucciere@sae.org.

SAE International is a global association committed to being the ultimate knowledge source for the engineering profession. By uniting over 127,000 engineers and technical experts, we drive knowledge and expertise across a broad spectrum of industries. We act on two priorities: encouraging a lifetime of learning for mobility engineering professionals and setting the standards for industry engineering. We strive for a better world through the work of our charitable arm, the SAE Foundation, which helps fund programs like A World in Motion® and the Collegiate Design Series™.

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