AI's Pervasive Impact in Aerospace and Defense beyond Cybersecurity

Boasting over 30 years in engineering management, Milad Shaheen is a proven leader of large technical organizations and currently serves as a vice president of engineering at CIRCOR Aerospace and Defense. He crafts a clear vision, meticulously plans strategic initiatives, and ensures their successful execution. His expertise extends to managing budgets and optimizing resources for intricate, time-critical projects. Being a leader with deep technical knowledge, he consistently keeps teams laser-focused on achieving well-defined goals.

Shaheen is a results-oriented professional with expertise in various areas, including global team development, complex systems engineering, performance improvement and strategic planning. He is also well-versed in customer relationship management, ensuring projects meet technical and economic requirements. His experience extends beyond engineering to encompass international business and cultural contexts.

Through this interaction, he highlights AI's transformative impact on business practices across various sectors, including its crucial role in cyber security.

Are there any specific trends or industry challenges you'd like to shed light on for our audience today?

Artificial intelligence and its transformative impact on our business practices moving forward are truly captivating and innovative, whether it pertains to the aerospace and defense industry or any other. It's undeniably the most talked-about topic, and I'm actively working on AI initiatives and leading the charge within our organization.

Do you perceive AI primarily from the cyber security perspective, or do you see its influence as even more pervasive?

Cybersecurity is undeniably crucial, particularly in aerospace and defense. As the Department of Defense has released regulations on controlled and classified information, such as NIST 800, cyber security hygiene is paramount, even in artificial intelligence. Understanding how AI, especially large language models, impacts data integrity—whether it's intellectual property or sensitive military information—is vital.

“One key aspect of any new technology, like AI, is its initial excitement—the "shiny new thing" effect. However, the real measure of its value will be in the return on investment (ROI)”

While cyber security remains a significant aspect of AI implementation, the essence lies in how it permeates every facet of our organization. AI's potential to revolutionize processes is immense, from engineering and supply chain to business development, marketing, finance and human resources. Our current journey involves harnessing this powerful technology effectively to create use cases that benefit our organization.

As we navigate this journey, the central question revolves around leveraging AI to enhance productivity and ensure equitable decision-making based on data-driven insights.

Could you share any interesting or impactful projects or initiatives surrounding AI?

From my engineering background, I'm interested in how AI can be harnessed to foster innovation and generate ideas for new products and solutions. AI's power lies in its ability to emulate an experienced subject matter expert by processing vast historical data within a specific domain. Unlike humans, AI has limitless scalability in processing data, which is a significant advantage.

Another advantage is integrating the latest simulation tools to model product performance, using resulting data to train AI models for optimal solutions. While this technology is cutting-edge and relatively new, some companies are beginning to offer such tools. The challenge lies in understanding, adapting, and educating the organization about these capabilities, akin to the early days of the Internet.

Like the internet revolution, AI represents a transformative shift, and grasping its potential is crucial for leveraging its benefits. In engineering, AI can streamline repetitive tasks like quality checks on drawings or assessing producibility, tasks that demand expertise but may not engage engineers. Leveraging AI for such tasks could significantly enhance productivity.

What predictions do you have for the future regarding new developments or advancements?

One key aspect of any new technology, like AI, is its initial excitement—the "shiny new thing" effect. However, the real measure of its value will be the return on investment (ROI). There will be use cases where AI demonstrates clear benefits but lacks a substantial ROI. Conversely, many scenarios will show significant improvements in productivity and ROI.

As awareness of AI's capabilities grows and the technology matures, we will see major efficiency gains. This directly impacts the bottom line for organizations like ours by enabling us to achieve more than we could before AI was available. Those who can adapt, manage, and leverage AI will lead to growth and better business performance.

In addition, advancements in computational power, such as GPUs and TPUs, will have a huge impact on our ability to manage large datasets. In simulations, where significant computational resources are required, these advancements will drastically reduce the time needed to process information from hours or days to mere seconds. This will be a game-changer for industries reliant on high computation, including mechanical and high-tech sectors.

One of the biggest enablers of AI is this enhanced computational power, which is already here. The main constraint, however, has been the cost. However, as technology progresses, electronics and computers become more powerful and less expensive. Increased accessibility and affordability of these tools will significantly advance AI and machine learning.