The Work Ahead

With the end of 2025 rapidly approaching, Digital Engineering has once again surveyed our readers as part of our annual Technology Outlook edition. There weren’t a lot of surprises—artificial intelligence (AI) remains a hot topic, simulation continues to expand its role in engineering workflows, and readers are still keen on additive manufacturing even if they aren’t buying a lot of 3D printers. 

 

But the data we gathered continues to highlight the work ahead. We’re pretty deep in the “simulation is great” camp here at DE, but about half our readers still aren’t using it regularly. That means there is plenty of opportunity for growth and innovation. It’s fun to talk about generative CAD, AI-created surrogate models, design for additive manufacturing, generative design and more, but many of our engineering readers still need guidance on how best to deploy CFD and FEA solvers, and how to convince their managers of the benefits of simulation.

In October, we held our annual virtual Design & Simulation Summit, which included some great case studies and a keynote panel focused on how AI can best be leveraged in the design space. You can watch the on-demand sessions here.

I also wanted to take a moment to note a couple of DE-related transitions.

First, our longtime publisher Tom Cooney officially retired this year. While he sort-of retired last year, Tom graciously stayed on for the first part of 2025 to help manage the transition to our new sales team, capping off 10 years at the helm of Digital Engineering. Tom hired me for this job, and I will always be grateful for the opportunity. He also guided us through a number of ups and downs (including the weird COVID years), was a shrewd salesman, and was a great traveling companion. We here at DE wish him all the best.

On a sadder note, we also lost our former publisher Tom Conlon this year, who succumbed to metastatic uveal melanoma back in July. Tom was a key figure when this publication was still being printed and was known as Desktop Engineering. I actually worked for Tom Conlon several times over the years. At the start of my career at Advanstar Communications, he was our group publisher and VP, and when I first started freelancing for this magazine I was happy to encounter him again. You can read more about his life, and the interesting paths it took after he left publishing, here. Our deepest condolences to his family.

We have a lot of interesting coverage in the works for 2026, and we can’t wait to share it with you. We here at DE hope you have happy holidays and a prosperous new year.