CD/DC program update, early bird closes June 1
Washington, DC, July 15-16
A reminder that early bird registration for CD/DC closes Sunday, June 1.
Group rates are available for registrations of 4 or more from the same organization.
The two-day program takes place in the Union Market district of Washington, DC, with an evening demonstration session on July 15 open to government employees at no cost.
What the program looks like
The program is shaped around how computational design, simulation, and AI are actually being deployed across aerospace, defense, robotics, architecture, and software.
Ryan McClelland of NASA delivers the keynote. Two years on from his “Text to Spaceship” talk at CDFAM NYC, the update covers how AI-driven workflows from systems requirements to mission-ready hardware have moved from speculative to demonstrable.
Brandon DeMille from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems on topology optimization in aerostructure conceptual design, specifically the compression of time between initial concept and informed engineering decision.
Pratap Ranade from Arena Physica with Atlas RF Studio now in public beta, putting AI-driven electromagnetic design into the hands of practitioners rather than researchers.
Brian Ringley from Boston Dynamics on the shift from programming humanoid robots to teaching them, and what that requires of the underlying AI architecture.
Marta D’Elia from Atomic Machines on the Matter Design Engine, a workflow that turns informal descriptions into manufacturable MEMS 2.0 devices while keeping AI in a constrained, physics-grounded role.
Giorgia Cannici from Virginia Tech on magnetotropic plants engineered so their growth direction can be steered in real time through externally applied magnetic fields. Not an immediate application area, but a worthwhile lens on where continuous differential material systems are heading.
Speakers from Thornton Tomasetti, Neural Concept, SysGit, Luminary, Istari Digital, Pasteur Labs, MIT, CannonDesign, Lexset, SimScale, Intact Solutions, Cognitive Design Systems, Stantec, and Not a Robot Engineering complete the program. A few sessions are still being finalized.
Evening demonstration, July 15
A live integration of six tools from Istari Digital, Arena Physica, Luminary, nTop, C-Infinity, and SysGit, showing an end-to-end workflow that updates a UAS design and re-certifies it for manufacturability and safety in less time than it takes to assemble an Ikea bookshelf.
Government employees attend the evening session at no cost.
Hiring activity in the field
The CDFAM job board added more than 100 roles this month. Many come from companies presenting at CD/DC, and as many again from companies attending. Anduril, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman alone account for over 20 open positions spanning hypersonic thermal engineering, sensor fusion, additive manufacturing, agentic AI, and digital thread integration. Simulation engineers, computational designers, AI/ML researchers, and advanced manufacturing specialists remain in active demand across defense, aerospace, robotics, architecture, and industrial software. AI is creating these roles, not displacing them.
