Uploaded December 2021 | Updated September 2026, 18 hours ago
Fighting cancer. Flying safer. What is the connection?
The human body is one of the most complex natural systems, yet mortality due to a disease such as cancer is lower than 0.2%.
In a similar way, airplanes are one of the most complex machines in the world, yet it is well known that flying is the safest mode of transportation, enabling us to safely travel for 20,000 years, continuously.
The development of a typical drug ranges from 1 to 2 billion USD, and the development costs of an intercontinental airplane approaches 15 billion USD. The A380 costs more than 1000 DC3s to develop.
These costs are due to the heavy use of physical experimentation, compounded with the increased complexity of the development methods and skills required.
The trend is for our world to become more personalised.
Medicine adapts to the patient, humans will be augmented by computers and aircrafts become adaptive and self-aware.
Personalisation, which used to happen in the lab and was thus limited, will happen "on the fly".
To achieve this vision, we need to master the development of smarter, lighter and stronger materials and structures, as well as superior sensing devices. And we also need to excel in the generation and real-time treatment of data.
This data will drive the selection and adaptation of the best mathematical models, used to predict the response of the system.
Achieving this will allow future generation treatments to adapt to each patient, individually. And next generation aircrafts and space systems will be able to automatically adapt to the environment and navigate smartly around the world and beyond.
Onboard systems in augmented humans will continuously inform microprocessors, which will treat the incoming data and decide upon optimal treatments and lifestyle.
We will learn faster, think faster, and our body will be under surveillance by smart and adaptive processing units.
Similarly, aircrafts will continuously generate data which will inform computer models about their state of structural health and their residual life.
The European-funded project DRIVEN is currently investigating the maths behind these digital twinning methods.
These mathematical data models are in fact the common language between the disciplines of material science, engineering and medicine.
Thanks to DRIVEN, we will help alleviate symptoms of Parkinson's disease through deep brain stimulation, build lighter, more environmentally friendly and durable materials and structures, have a better understanding of the beautiful and elegant mathematical principles behind data science and big data, and even be able to rebuild destroyed archeological sites.
If you want to know more on how this project is driving fundamental innovation with far-reaching application potential, get in touch with us.
Fighting cancer. Flying safer. What is the connection?
The human body is one of the most complex natural systems, yet mortality due to a disease such as cancer is lower than 0.2%.
In a similar way, airplanes are one of the most complex machines in the world, yet it is well known that flying is the safest mode of transportation, enabling us to safely travel for 20,000 years, continuously.
The development of a typical drug ranges from 1 to 2 billion USD, and the development costs of an intercontinental airplane approaches 15 billion USD. The A380 costs more than 1000 DC3s to develop.
These costs are due to the heavy use of physical experimentation, compounded with the increased complexity of the development methods and skills required.
The trend is for our world to become more personalised.
Medicine adapts to the patient, humans will be augmented by computers and aircrafts become adaptive and self-aware.
Personalisation, which used to happen in the lab and was thus limited, will happen "on the fly".
To achieve this vision, we need to master the development of smarter, lighter and stronger materials and structures, as well as superior sensing devices. And we also need to excel in the generation and real-time treatment of data.
This data will drive the selection and adaptation of the best mathematical models, used to predict the response of the system.
Achieving this will allow future generation treatments to adapt to each patient, individually. And next generation aircrafts and space systems will be able to automatically adapt to the environment and navigate smartly around the world and beyond.
Onboard systems in augmented humans will continuously inform microprocessors, which will treat the incoming data and decide upon optimal treatments and lifestyle.
We will learn faster, think faster, and our body will be under surveillance by smart and adaptive processing units.
Similarly, aircrafts will continuously generate data which will inform computer models about their state of structural health and their residual life.
The European-funded project DRIVEN is currently investigating the maths behind these digital twinning methods.
These mathematical data models are in fact the common language between the disciplines of material science, engineering and medicine.
Thanks to DRIVEN, we will help alleviate symptoms of Parkinson's disease through deep brain stimulation, build lighter, more environmentally friendly and durable materials and structures, have a better understanding of the beautiful and elegant mathematical principles behind data science and big data, and even be able to rebuild destroyed archeological sites.
If you want to know more on how this project is driving fundamental innovation with far-reaching application potential, get in touch with us.
