Failure analysis for turbine blades. lithium batteries. sinkholes. pipeline ruptures. corrosion damage. semiconductors. bearings. composite delamination.

Where the world's most specialized knowledge of technical failures converges.

13+industries
80+research areas
300+experts
How it works

Expert answers — in a fraction of the time.

The Institute brings together scientific literature, engineering knowledge, leading experts, and AI-assisted research to help organizations understand complex failures and identify the expertise required to solve them.

Traditional
Weeks of referrals, RFPs & vetting
With FAI
Minutes to answers

Explore Knowledge

Consult the Institute's AI Research Concierge, trained on a curated body of technical literature, Institute publications, standards summaries, and reference materials. Start for free.

Consult Experts

Access specialists from academia, industry, government laboratories, consulting practice, and engineering leadership. Find a match.

Assemble Expertise

Some questions require multiple disciplines. The Institute can identify, recruit, coordinate, and manage expert teams tailored to your project. Tell us more.

get started

What failed?

Start a conversation with our AI Research Concierge trained on thousands of hours of privately held research authored by the world's top experts. Select a category to prompt the Research Concierge.

AI Research ConciergeMine our knowledge base or find an expert
Start by exploring topics to the left, or tell me what you'd like to investigate. I'll ask you a few questions so I can direct you to the best possible research or expertise.
Find an expert

Expertise Unlocked

The Institute can conduct structured AI-assisted interviews with multiple specialists across relevant disciplines, allowing you to compare perspectives before deciding how to proceed.

Who we serve

Our Industries

We serve board members, executives, attorneys, officials, and researchers across more than a dozen industries.

research report no. 1 · by russ rosenzweig, executive director

Known in Advance

A structural analysis of the one hundred worst engineering failures of the modern era, and the expertise that was never assembled.

99 of 100
The knowledge needed to prevent the disaster existed before it happened.
67 of 100
The fatal mechanism was described in writing, before the event, and overruled.
1 of 100
Genuinely beyond the knowledge of its time. Nobody knew.
read the report
news & insights

What's failing — and why it matters.

Institute analysts track high-profile failure events as they develop.

See all insights

Something failed. Find out why.

Tell us what happened. We'll triage it and connect you with the right expert — usually within one business day.

talk to an expert
AI Research ConciergeMine our knowledge base or find an expert
Tell me what failed and I'll help scope it — the likely mechanisms, what's at stake, and which expert fits. I won't give the formal analysis here.