Plenary Speakers

Evolutionary Computation is a powerful computational tool for engineering design. Design space can be mathematically defined by design variables and design objectives. If multiple design objectives are specified, design space can be regarded as a multi-objective optimization problem. Among the multiple design objectives, conflicting objectives are essential and they will provide Pareto-optimal solutions, which form a Pareto front, a key feature in the design space. The shape of the Pareto front tells various aspects of design tradeoffs. If such a computational tool creates a Bird’s-eye view of the design space including the Pareto front, the result provides the map that will support design activities better.

The first commercial jet aircraft developed in Japan, named the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), completed its first flight on November 11, 2015. The development of MRJ focused on environmental issues, such as reduction of exhaust emissions and noise. Moreover, in order to bring the jet to market, lower-cost development methods using computer-aided design were also employed. Collaborating with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), the design of the aircraft was formulated as a Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) problem and a new approach named Multi-Objective Design Exploration (MODE) was developed. MODE reveals the structure of the design space from trade-off information and to visualize it as a panorama for a decision maker by using the Pareto front. Industrial applications of MODE will be reviewed, including the development of MRJ.

Professor Shigeru Obayashi is a full professor and director of Institute of Fluid Science (IFS) at Tohoku University, Japan. His research interests include Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO), Multi-Objective Design Exploration (MODE), Evolutionary Computation, Data Mining, Experimental Fluid Dynamics and Data Assimilation. Prof. Obayashi received his PhD degree in Engineering at University of Tokyo. He was a senior researcher at NASA Ames Research Center and helped to develop the three-dimensional unsteady Navier-Stokes numerical algorithms. He joined the department of aeronautics and space engineering at Tohoku University since 1994, promoted to a full professor in 2003 and served as the director of Transdisciplinary Fluid Integration Research Center under IFS from 2008-2013. He is associate fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), fellow of Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME), Japan Society of Fluid Dynamics and Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences, and President of Japan Society for Evolutionary Computation for 2015-2016. He received several research awards, including JSME’s 2007 Funai award and The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2014.