Boeing Visiting Professorship Program facilitates new research and education opportunities

For three weeks this summer, Chris McComb stepped away from his lab to explore AI in the aerospace industry as part of Boeing’s Visiting Professorship Program. 

Embedded in the company’s commercial aircraft division, McComb worked closely with research and technology leadership to understand what type of AI would best aid Boeing’s product development and how it could be rolled out effectively. 

In one project, McComb explored uncertainty quantification for large language models. His team studied ways to improve the usefulness of models across topics like career development, python programming, and composite wing structure designs. 

“Uncertainty quantification of large language models is something that I would like to see become a benchmark in the industry,” said Ron Engelbeck, an associate technical fellow who started work with Boeing on the B-52 over four decades ago. “Engineers are going to want to understand how much the uncertainty of the prompts are influencing the model responses. This will probably be one of the criteria we would look at to decide which large language model Boeing engineers will want to utilize.”

McComb also worked with Allison Fisher to model AI uptake within the organization. Leaning into past research that used AI to explore pathogen risk, the team used a mathematical models for disease spread to treat AI as a “pathogen” - studying the way that people new to AI adopt it (“become infected”) as well as how those who use AI share that knowledge with others (“spread the disease”). 

“By utilizing this model, companies can effectively plan for the uptake and adoption of AI technology,” said Fisher, a technical lead at Boeing. “It can help with planning for future opportunities in human-AI teaming.”

I have a better understanding for how to prepare students for the aerospace industry and also drive industry-relevant research.

Chris McComb, Associate Professor

McComb is eager to continue his collaboration with Boeing and bring students into the mix.

“We are looking for projects that are both valuable for Boeing and are good learning and development experiences for master’s students interested in AI, manufacturing, and engineering design,” he said. “We are at the stage now where the functionality of Generative AI can be applied to a multitude of places, so we want to find applications across a broad range of engineering problems.” 

Beyond new research opportunities, McComb believes the experience will also help him to be a better advisor and advocate for his students that are interested in a career in the aerospace industry. 

“I had a great experience with Boeing, and now I have a better understanding for how to prepare students for the aerospace industry and also drive industry-relevant research.”