Uncertainty quantification is a new paradigm in industrial
analysis and design 
as it aims at taking into account the presence of numerous
uncertainties 
affecting the behavior of physical systems. Dominating
uncertainties can be 
either be operational (such as boundary conditions) and/or
geometrical 
resulting from unknown properties, such as tip clearances of
rotating 
compressor blades or from manufacturing tolerances.
Whether bringing a new product from conception into
production or operating 
complex plant and production processes, commercial success
rests on careful 
management and control of risk in the face of many
interacting uncertainties. 
For example a new aircraft or aero-engine must be designed
and engineered 
within a given time frame and budget to meet a given set of
performance 
requirements, and then manufactured at unit cost and rates
that meet an 
overall business plan. Todays fiercely competitive market
and increasingly 
stringent regulatory environment is such that there is very
little margin of 
error. Failure to appreciate, understand and appropriately
manage risks 
inevitably results in severe financial penalties, and even
irrevocable damage to 
reputation.
Historically, chief engineers and project managers have
estimated and 
managed risk using mostly human judgment founded upon years of 
experience and heritage. As the 21st century begins to
unfold, the design and 
engineering of products as well as the control of plant and
process are 
increasingly relying on computer models and simulation. This
era of virtual 
design and engineering opens the opportunity to deal with
uncertainty in a 
systematic formal way by which sensitivities to various
uncertainties can be 
quantified and understood, and designs and processes
optimized so as to be 
robust against such uncertainties. Human judgment will
always play an 
important role, but leading companies in many fields of
engineering are 
increasingly aware of these possibilities and uncertainty
quantification is 
beginning to feature strongly in their strategic
aspirations. Thus this is a very 
opportune moment to introduce a two- day awareness course on
this 
emerging topic. The aim is to share the aspirations and
requirements of 
leading companies in the fields of aerospace, energy,
transport and chemical 
process; review emerging methods and techniques and how
these are being 
deployed; and define the current state-of-the-art and map
out-near term 
future possibilities.
Uncertainty quantification has become a critical feature of
a computational 
methodologies which will be utilized within an engineering
design process. 
There has been considerable progress in this field at both
the national and 
international level. The purpose of this two-day hort course
is to bring some 
the most promising approaches and developments in this field
to the 
attention of researchers and engineers from academia,
industry and research 
laboratories.
A recent development has been a short course arranged by Dr.
Charles Hirsch 
of Belgium, who has organized an ERCOFTAC short course,
Uncertaintly 
Management and Quantification in Industrial Analysis and
Design, which was 
delivered in Munich, Germany on March 3-4, 2011. This course
is being 
brought to the US research community by the National
Institute of Aerospace.
Speakers:
Prof. Charles Hirsch, Numeca International, Belgium
Prof. Anthony Hutton, Chairman, ERCOFTAC, UK
Dr. Alberto Pasanisi, EDF, France
Dr. Bernhard Eisfeld, DLR, Germany
Dr. Jacques Peter, ONERA, France
Dr. Gilbert Roge, Dassault-Aviation, France
Dr. Thomas Zang, NASA Langley Research Center, USA
Dr. Andrew Booker, The Boeing Company, USA
Prof. George Karniadakis, Brown University, USA
Dr. Karl Alexander, Rolls Royce, USA