Virtually Edison

This article highlights modern analysis technology that allows engineers to answer what-if questions that would have been impractical or perhaps impossible to manage in Edison’s day. Edison pushed engineers to test their designs as thoroughly as they could. No one is about to suggest that physical prototyping and real-world testing will ever become a thing of the past, but building prototypes has become more expensive over the years as products have become more sophisticated. Successful companies today allow for experimentation that strikes the right balance between computerized simulations and Edison’s hands-on prototyping method. Engineers and analysts work closely with reliability engineers, who are also in the loop. The latter group ensures that the machines are as reliable as possible. They are the engineers who perform in-house accelerated and component testing, working mainly with already-built machines. Experimentation, analysis, and prototyping—both physical and virtual—cannot be sidestepped. But engineers need to strike the right balance between physical and virtual experimentation appropriate to their companies.