The Air Force Institute of Technology’s Digital Innovation and Integration Center of Excellence recently hosted their first annual “Digital Materiel Management Symposium” for the DMM community.  The purpose of the symposium was to bring together subject matter experts, innovators and DMM and model-based system engineering users in a collaborative space to showcase the benefits of these valuable digital tools. [contributed photo]

AFIT Hosts Digital Material Management Symposium for AFMC Enterprise

By Jaclyn Knapp, AFIT Institutional Advancement

The Air Force Institute of Technology’s Digital Innovation and Integration Center of Excellence recently hosted their first annual “Digital Materiel Management Symposium” for the DMM community.

To accelerate capabilities to the warfighter, the Air Force is shifting to digital model-based systems engineering tools.  As these digital tools are introduced to the workforce, many in the acquisition community are either unaware of the benefits of DMM or MBSE tools or need assistance with learning how to use them.

The purpose of the symposium was to bring together subject matter experts, innovators and DMM and MBSE users in a collaborative space to showcase the benefits of these valuable digital tools.

“The DMM symposium was an outstanding display of how the USAF is moving rapidly into the modern digital world of model-based everything,” said Mr. Chris Garrett, Senior Leader, USAF Technical Advisor, Systems Engineering, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.  

“In the symposium, we saw the power of how models can connect organizations together and enable rapid analyses for rapid decision making. From mission engineering to Test and Evaluation, the DIICE is moving to the forefront of being a nerve center for propelling modern processes like MBSE to be an integral part of USAF acquisition business.

This inaugural symposium was an excellent step by DIICE to show how a Center of Excellence can integrate academia, acquisition program offices, industry, and the warfighter together to achieve the vision of delivering war-winning capability to outpace all our threats,” said Garrett.

Sessions included AFIT student research presentations, panels for members to share their experiences leveraging research for innovation and product demonstrations of DMM.

DMM Symposium panel member, and end-user, Oren Edwards, chief engineer, AFLCMC/WII, shared his experience working with DIICE, “In our first project with DIICE, they created a system model from hundreds of gigabytes of source data in less than a month, and instantly captivated our attention.”

“Our office saw the potential to significantly slash data entry labor when DIICE developed a tool that could automatically read thousands of pages of PDFs of test plans and test reports, and automatically generate intuitive dashboards for status reporting to program leadership. 

DIICE also introduced us to tech firms along the way for further innovation and collaboration.  The collaboration with DIICE completely opened our eyes to the tools and organizations available for accelerating this transformation.

By far, the main success we took away in working with DIICE was dispelling many myths about barriers-to-entry on DMM,” said Edwards. 

AFIT’s Digital Innovation & Integration Center of Excellence, or DIICE was established in October 2023 and is sponsored by the Air Force Materiel Command.  The Center directly supports AFMC's DMM’s goals to accelerate integrated capability delivery across the materiel lifecycle and functional disciplines. 

DIICE focuses on four lines of effort: education excellence, research and technology transfer, consulting, and best practices to generate digital solutions centered on model-based systems integration efforts that result in improved execution of weapon acquisitions and support across the AFMC enterprise in support of the warfighter. 

The Air Force Institute of Technology, or AFIT, located at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the Department of the Air Force’s leader for advanced, multi-disciplinary academic education, as well as its institution for professional continuing education.  AFIT is committed to providing defense-focused graduate education and related research, and operationally-relevant initial skills training and professional continuing education to sustain the technological supremacy of America's air, space, and cyber forces. 

For more information, please visit the DIICE webpage: https://www.afit.edu/DIICE/index.cfm or contact AFIT.CZ.DIICE@us.af.mil.

The Air Force Institute of Technology’s Digital Innovation and Integration Center of Excellence recently hosted their first annual “Digital Materiel Management Symposium” for the DMM community.  The purpose of the symposium was to bring together subject matter experts, innovators and DMM and model-based system engineering users in a collaborative space to showcase the benefits of these valuable digital tools. Sessions included AFIT student research presentations, panels for members to share their experiences leveraging research for innovation and product demonstrations of DMM.  [contributed photo]