Insights

Digital engineering trends 2024: The technologies shaping the future

UST Product Engineering

With the ubiquitous digital influence, there's a growing demand for smarter, more connected products in both B2B and B2C spaces. Businesses are shifting their focus toward creating products that meet functional needs, incorporate connected, data-enabled services, and enhance the overall customer experience. This transition challenges traditional engineering approaches that once separated physical products from software manufacturing processes.

The rise of embedded products, such as wearables and autonomous vehicles, necessitates a synergy between hardware and software, expanding the scope of product engineering beyond the operational technology environment.

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The evolving nature of digital engineering

Digital-heavy products demand complex, sophisticated design and engineering capabilities that necessitate the integration of expertise in both product and software engineering. This marks the advent of Digital Engineering, enabling enterprises to seamlessly incorporate mainstream and emerging technologies into their existing development ecosystems, creating a digital thread throughout the production life cycle.

As the global digital engineering spend is expected to reach USD 1.6 trillion by 2026, enterprises must acquire transformative capabilities to stay ahead. Successfully adopting a software-hardware co-design approach demands a shift in engineering mindsets, prioritizing skills in systems thinking and interdisciplinary communication.

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Benefits and challenges

Fostering a collaborative culture becomes crucial, as tools like integrated development environments (IDEs) and simulation tools can play a significant role. While the benefits include reduced development time, improved performance, and cost savings, certain challenges arise due to the distinct nature of software and hardware components. Overcoming these hurdles necessitates expertise in both domains and strong problem-solving acumen that can address compatibility and integration challenges.

As we settle into 2024, with emerging technologies gaining mainstream attention and continuous innovation introducing new ones, it is interesting to observe the dynamic interplay of technology, product development, and enterprise adoption in building resiliency amidst a rapidly changing market.

At UST, we help enterprises transform their ideas into market-winning products by seamlessly integrating the latest innovations into their value chains through creative thinking and robust engineering. Here are some trends in emerging digital engineering technologies that could shape future product development.

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Technologies shaping the future of digital engineering

Generative AI

AI continues to be a dominant agent of change in this decade, powered by emerging technologies, including NLP, computer vision, and deep learning, in creating solutions that address today's evolving business needs. Utilizing artificial intelligence in engineering in the recent past has unlocked business value with algorithm-driven automation and machine learning for predictive maintenance, helping enterprises reduce operational and maintenance costs with streamlined production workflows and real-time issue detection.

Generative AI is slated to unlock the next frontier for AI in product development. Gartner predicts more than 80% of enterprises are set to leverage it in their production environments in the next couple of years. Generative AI empowers engineers to create diverse designs within specified metrics. Configuring parameters generates multiple designs for the same product using complex algorithms, enabling precise testing for specific requirements. Unlike the traditional linear approach of developing one prototype and addressing challenges as they arise, the flexibility of designing from multiple angles with Generative AI provides engineers with a nimble edge.

The growing influence of Generative AI and LLMs is fueling a vast demand for high-performance GPU servers, and the semiconductor industry gains focus as an enabler of this transformation journey. With AI semiconductor revenue expected to reach USD 111.6 billion by 2027, organizations should seize the opportunity to digitally transform silicon engineering and scale up with agility to meet market demands.

While realizing the potential of AI-driven innovation, enterprises should also focus on building trustworthy frameworks and clear governance policies for the responsible usage of Generative AI and address the growing ethical concerns and challenges.

Modernization - prioritizing MACH

As enterprises face challenges in scaling up and streamlining operations while navigating tight go-to-market timelines, the need for modernizing legacy systems becomes apparent. Composability takes center stage as organizations increasingly adopt modular, component-driven solutions that offer easy integration and enhance flexibility and independence within development phases. The rapid proliferation of digital platforms built on cloud-native and microservices-based architecture underscores the demand for platform engineering services that meet business needs for swift deployments.

Simulation - Digital Twin, Virtual prototyping

Simulation technologies, including digital twins and virtual prototyping, are increasingly shaping the product development landscape. McKinsey's research indicates a notable shift in how businesses perceive simulation tools, with a growing emphasis on accelerating time-to-market rather than solely enhancing product performance. This evolution reflects the broader integration of simulation into engineering workflows, driven by advancements in accessibility and speed of simulation tools.

In this context, UST's Metaverse solutions offer a compelling addition to the scenario. The Metaverse represents a convergence of physical and digital worlds, providing immersive and interactive experiences that extend beyond traditional simulation environments. By integrating Metaverse capabilities into simulation projects, organizations can enhance their ability to visualize and interact with digital twins and virtual prototypes.

Digital Twin technology, a cornerstone of simulation projects, enables organizations to create digital replicas of physical entities, processes, or systems. Metaverse solutions can enrich these digital twins by providing immersive environments for visualizing and manipulating them. This integration enables stakeholders to explore real-world scenarios and make informed decisions with greater clarity and depth. Moreover, combining digital twins with Metaverse solutions opens possibilities for leveraging emerging technologies such as generative AI, IoT, and AR/VR. These technologies enhance the fidelity of simulations and virtual prototypes, enabling real-time behavior prediction and more accurate assessments of product performance.

The semiconductor industry, in particular, stands to gain significant practical benefits from the synergy between Digital Twin technology and Metaverse solutions. By leveraging detailed visualizations and immersive environments, semiconductor companies can optimize manufacturing processes, reduce waste, and minimize environmental impact. This approach aligns with sustainability goals by streamlining development processes and resource usage. By harnessing the power of immersive experiences and advanced simulation techniques, businesses can confidently accelerate time-to-market, optimize resource utilization, and drive sustainable growth.

Security - Increased focus on DevSecOps

With an increased emphasis on incorporating security testing throughout every phase of the software development process, enterprises are embracing DevSecOps as a vital practice. Detecting security vulnerabilities early in the lifecycle can minimize the costs and time associated with fixing issues later. Enhanced collaboration among development, operations, and security teams fosters a security-aware culture, encouraging innovative solutions and best practices that prioritize creating robust products and services.

Ensuring security throughout the digital transformation process is vital in product engineering. Prioritizing cybersecurity is imperative for safeguarding networks, data, and devices against cyber threats and malicious attackers at every stage.

Sustainability

Green engineering practices gain momentum as organizations emphasize constructing processes and utilizing tools that effectively monitor and mitigate emissions. Sustainability presents a critical challenge for the semiconductor industry, especially with the anticipated increase in demand for digital products. With manufacturing processes heavily relying on power-intensive data centers, enterprise focus should double down on transformation through design for sustainability, embedding reusability, and recycling.

Enhanced connectivity and speed: surge of IoT, 5G, Edge Computing

Investments in technology to enhance connectivity are expected to persist throughout the year. The proliferation of devices with IoT(Internet of Things) connectivity is experiencing exponential growth. With the market forecasted to expand at a CAGR of 52.4%, 5G technology heralds an era of remarkable speed and accelerated mobile communication and information processing.

Companies are also focusing on edge technology. Edge computing refers to processing and storing data closer to where it's being generated, which benefits organizations with decreased latency and high speed with real-time data processing.

The rising significance of these technologies directly influences semiconductor manufacturing, and the demands for more versatility in catering to high-speed and connectivity requirements will also rise. Silicon engineering processes must transform rapidly to accommodate 5G chipsets and address the heightened demand for connected products.

Automotive revolution: Autonomous cars, ADAS

Along with a demand for self-driven cars, technologies like Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) highlight the industry's trend toward advanced automotive intelligence and electrification. According to IDC, the ADAS market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 19.8%. Infotainment is expected to grow at 14.6%, emphasizing a substantial reliance on semiconductor chip manufacturing.

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Digital engineering - a look into the future

The upcoming year will bring significant changes in technology adoption while paving the path for further innovation, channeling a new wave of reengineering in product development. The use of quantum computing in complex simulations will be extensively explored for unparalleled accuracy in product development. Incorporating intelligent digital technologies such as AI, cloud computing, IoT, robotics, and automation into production cycles has accelerated the evolution of Industry 4.0 and the future of manufacturing, transitioning from traditional product line cycle management to a more connected and cloud-intensive form of digital engineering.

To navigate the evolving market landscape successfully amidst geopolitical tensions and natural disruptions in a highly competitive market, enterprises must embrace adaptability and foster an innovative mindset in product development. It's time for product engineering to integrate the best software engineering and shift towards digitization and continuous innovation in traditional product life cycles. However, choosing the right engineering approach is paramount while developing future-ready products. A thorough assessment of existing capabilities combined with business needs would help harness modern solutions better and build resilience in the face of change.

At UST, our team of technologists and engineers helps productize your ideas and deliver your vision at speed, cost, and scale. We use the latest technology to build market-winning products from chip to cloud, mobile to desktop, and IoT to AI. Learn more here.

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Resources

https://www.ust.com/en/ust-engineering