Project DOME (Distributed Object-based Modeling Environment), developed by the ERC for Innovation in Product Development at the Massachusetts Institution of Technology (EEC-9529140), offers a fundamentally new infrastructure for integrated modeling and simulation. Overcoming the extreme difficulties of large product simulations, DOME provides a “World-Wide Modeling Web” that allows all developers to participate equally in simulation—even when they are separated by great distances, and are using different modeling tools and computing environments. DOME also secures proprietary knowledge, ensuring that each member of the design process has only the appropriate and necessary information. In a 1999 pilot project, for example, DOME integrated the door glass design for a Ford Escort.

The DOME system incorporated 3000 shared design parameters and 21 distinct design models, all geographically dispersed among Ford’s engineering, purchasing and supply departments, as well as at two outsourced seal suppliers. A simulation would run to predict performance implications, and everyone participating in the change could see the new design reflected in terms of their own tools and specialties, and in as little as 10 seconds (15 minutes for a full analysis). This contrasted starkly with the previous time required—a week or more. Several organizations in addition to Ford have implemented DOME-based projects: Boeing, the US Navy, and LG Electronics, the world’s largest producer of consumer air conditioners. An industry-driven working group has been meeting quarterly to share their DOME experiences (http://cadlab.mit.edu/DOME_Working_Group.) Researchers in the Alliance for Global Sustainability (MIT, University of Tokyo, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) are creating a DOME-based simulation that evaluates green house gas reduction strategies in the city of Tokyo. Further, DOME’s achievements led to the formation of Oculus Technologies (http://oculustech.com), a Boston-based spin-off company funded partly by Ford. Oculus recently launched a new software product that is being tested by several organizations, including United Technologies and Otis Elevator. With its modest hardware requirements, this application brings integration technology to users with even limited resources, an important consideration in less developed parts of the world.