New AI “copilot” helps engineers design better structures

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The use of algorithms to design structures has led to new parts optimized for ultralight aircraft, high-bandwidth antennas, and F1 racing cars.But the best algorithmic design techniques still require lots of computation and time: Users only see the final design after it’s complete, after which they often must start the design process all over again to make changes. That process also makes it harder to trust that the final designs are structurally sound.MIT researchers are making algorithmic designs more collaborative with a system that acts like an AI copilot. As the algorithm is generating the structure, it presents regions to the human designer for feedback.In an open-access Communications Engineering paper describing the system, the researchers showed it led to more easily manufacturable structures with higher buckling loads while adding only 15 seconds to the total design time compared to all-algorithmic approaches.The researchers believe the approach, which uses a design technique known as topology optimization, could make algorithmic design more accessible and manufacturable for a broader class of design engineers.“Right now, the human doesn’t have any agency or control over the design process as it’s playing out,” explains lead author Dat Ha PhD ’26, a recent MIT civil and environmental engineering doctoral student who is now a structural designer at LeMessurier. “For these really complex designs, we wanted to also tap into our brain, which is the most complex machine there is, to solve these design problems in a way that’s more practical to industry.”Joining Ha on the paper are Ferdous Alam, a former MIT postdoc who is now an assistant professor at Georgia Tech; Markus Buehler, the MIT Jerry McAfee (1940) Professor of Engineering; Faez Ahmed, MIT associate professor of mechanical engineering; and senior author Josephine Carstensen, MIT associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.Bringing a human in the loopTopology optimization is one of the m