In 2008 KE-works was founded by a team of entrepeneurial scientists, Stefan van der Elst, Jochem Berends, and Joost Schut, together with two leading minds in the research fundamental to KE-works, professor Michel van Tooren and professor Gianfranco La Rocca.

KE-works has its roots at the aircraft design department of the Delft University of Technology. In 2001 professor Michel van Tooren intensified research in the field of knowledge based engineering or KBE in short. In his inaugural speech of 2003, sustainable knowledge growth, he envisioned a new type of engineering design environment. This environment enables companies to allocate their people to more innovative processes by automating the routine ones. This requires automation of knowledge intenvise work, the focus of the knowledge based engineering technology. To make the best use of KBE it is integrated with established methodologies such as systems engineering to translate current methods into efficient and comprehensible software applications.

The research focuses on applications within industrial environments. In the past years the technology has been prototyped together with industrial partners, such as Stork, Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Oce, Philips, and Ferrari, among others.

Knowledge based engineering

Knowledge based engineering or KBE in shortintegrates computer aided design (CAD) with artificial intelligence (AI). The term, knowledge based engineering, was coined in the 70s and the field has been in development since. It is regarded as a technology which aims at time and cost reduction of repetitive processes in multidisciplinary engineering environments.

KBE is a design technology that allows capturing and reusing efficiently product and process multidisciplinary knowledge, in order to reduce time and costs for engineering applications, through the automation of the repetitive design tasks. Relieving designers from non-adding value activities, more time is made available to exploit creativity and engineering skills.

For more information on KBE see this booklet of the research group design of aircraft and rotorcraft of the Delft University of Technology.

Systems engineering

Systems engineering developed to support engineers in comprehension and modelling of complex systems having many components and relations. Its methods aid in better comprehension of engineering systems as they grow more complex.

Systems engineering is the art and science of developing an operable system capable of meeting requirements within often opposed constraints. Systems engineering is a holistic, integrative discipline, wherein the contributions of structural engineers, electrical engineers, mechanism designers, power engineers, human factors engineers, and many more disciplines are evaluated and balanced, one against another, to produce a coherent whole that is not dominated by the perspective of a single discipline.

For an example application of Systems Engineering methods see for instance the NASA handbook.