Digital Engineering: State-of-the-art and perspectives

Over the past decades, the trend of digitalization has expanded from the internet to nearly every application, including aerospace, manufacturing, healthcare, finance, agriculture, and more. In this context, digital engineering (DE) has gained increasing attention from both industry and academia. DE refers to an engineering paradigm that utilizes next-generation information, digital, and artificial intelligence technologies to develop both digital and intelligent power to gradually construct and enhance virtual space based on physical space, so that the engineering capability can be enhanced to meet the technical requirements of products or complex systems in the design, manufacturing, and maintenance phases. While many studies have been conducted on DE, a comprehensive review and understanding of DE are rarely discussed. To address this issue, this paper introduces the state-of-the-art in DE, including its concepts, reference architectures, technologies, and practices. Then, this paper also discusses the expectations and challenges of DE and provides potential directions for future research and development.