UTOPIAE (Uncertainty Treatment and Optimisation in Aerospace Engineering) will host a CPD workshop in early 2019 to present two problems with solutions for teachers of Advanced Higher students to consider introducing in their classrooms.

1. Optimisation – The Brachistochrone Problem

2. Uncertainty Quantification – Probability and Statistics

Why is this of interest?

In an expanding world with limited resources and increasing complexity, optimisation and computational intelligence have become a necessity. Optimisation can turn a problem into a solution and computational intelligence can offer new solutions to effectively make complexity manageable.

This is especially true in space and aerospace where complex systems need to operate optimally often in harsh and inhospitable environments with a high level of reliability and robustness. In space and aerospace sciences, many applications require the solution of global single and/or multi-objective optimization problems, including mixed variables, multi-modal and non-differentiable quantities.

From global trajectory optimization to multidisciplinary aircraft and spacecraft design, from planning and scheduling for autonomous vehicles to the synthesis of robust controllers for airplanes or satellites, computational intelligence (CI) techniques have become an important – and in many cases inevitable – tool for tackling these kinds of problems, providing useful and non-intuitive solutions.

UTOPIAE is a four-year research and training global network co-ordinated from the Aerospace Centre of Excellence at the University of Strathclyde and funded through the European Commission’s H2020 programme for four years.

Whilst UTOPIAE is working within the domain of aerospace, these tools and solution can be applied in other contexts.

UTOPIAE is the first training network that addresses the challenge of finding the ideal compromise between enhancing reliability and safety and reducing resource utilisation.

Newton

UTOPIAE stands upon the shoulders of the existing theoretical and practical developments in the areas of Uncertainty Quantification and Optimisation but progresses beyond the state of the art, pushing the boundaries to the edge of what can be computed.

From the control of manufacturing processes to air traffic management, from decision making on multi-phase programmes to space situational awareness, Uncertainty Quantification plays a key role to deliver reliable solutions.

At the same time optimised solutions have become a necessity and optimisation is now an essential tool to handle the complexity of our world. Different sectors and communities, deal with uncertainties and optimisation in different forms often equivalent or complementary.

UTOPIAE exploits the intimate relationship between optimisation and UQ to make Optimisation Under Uncertainty (OUU) of complex engineering systems tractable.

The workshop will be hosted in early 2019 at University of Strathclyde in the Aerospace Centre of Excellence’s state of the art Concurrent Collaborative Design Studio in the Technology and Innovation Centre, 99 George Street, Glasgow.

If you would be interested in attending, please fill out this form.