Transdisciplinary Perspectives On Complex Systems

This book presents an internationally comprehensive perspective into the field of complex systems. It explores the challenges of and approaches to complexity from a broad range of disciplines, including big data, health care, medicine, mathematics, mechanical and systems engineering, air traffic control and finance. The book’s interdisciplinary character allows readers to identify transferable and mutually exclusive lessons learned among these disciplines and beyond. As such, it is well suited to the transfer of applications and methodologies between ostensibly incompatible disciplines. This book provides fresh perspectives on comparable issues of complexity from the top minds on systems thinking.

This book expands the foundations of general systems theory to enable progress beyond the rich heuristic practices available today. It establishes a foundational framework for the development of scientific transdisciplinary systems principles and shows how these can amplify the potential of individuals and teams working in multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary contexts or striving to translate their progress across disciplinary boundaries. Three general scientific systems principles are presented, and their relevance to the design, analysis, management and transformation of systems is explored. Applying lessons from the history and philosophy science, this book disambiguates key concepts of general systemology, clarifies the role of general systemology within the field of systemology, and explains how general systemology supports other forms of transdisciplinarity. These insights are used to develop new perspectives, strategies and tools for addressing long-standing challenges to the advancement and transdisciplinary application of general insights into the nature of complex systems. The material presented in this book includes comprehensive models of the structure of systemology as a disciplinary field, the structure and significance of the general systems worldview, and the role of general systemology as the heart of systems science, systems engineering and systems practice. It explains what a fully-fledged general theory of systems would look like, what its potential is, what routes are available to us to develop it further, and how to leverage the knowledge we have attained so far. Many examples and analogies show how general systemology has the potential to enable scientific discovery, insightful theory building, and practical innovation in all the disciplines as they study, design, nurture or transform complex systems. This book is essential reading for anyone wishing to master the concepts, terminology, models and strategies needed to make effective use of current general systems knowledge and to engage in the further development of the philosophy, science, and practice of general systemology.

Concurrent Engineering is based on the concept that different phases of a product life cycle should be conducted concurrently and initiated as early as possible within the Product Creation Process (PCP). Its main goal is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the PCP and reduce errors in the later stages, and to incorporate considerations for the full lifecycle, through-life operations, and environmental issues of the product. It has become the substantive basic methodology in many industries, and the initial basic concepts have matured and become the foundation of many new ideas, methodologies, initiatives, approaches and tools. This book presents the proceedings of the 24th ISPE Inc. International Conference on Transdisciplinary (formerly: Concurrent) Engineering (TE 2017), held in Singapore, in July 2017. The 120 peer-reviewed papers in the book are divided into 16 sections: air transport and traffic operations and management; risk-aware supply chain intelligence; product innovation and marketing management; human factors in design; human engineering; design methods and tools; decision supporting tools and methods; concurrent engineering; knowledge-based engineering; collaborative engineering; engineering for sustainability; service design; digital manufacturing; design automation; artificial intelligence and data analytics; smart systems and the Internet of Things. The book provides a comprehensive overview of recent advances in transdisciplinary concurrent engineering research and applications, and will be of interest to researchers, design practitioners and educators working in the field.

"The authors in this book analyze resilience and sustainability in seven different complex adaptive systems (human beings, megaprojects, higher education, food systems, climate change, healthcare settings and cities) by highlighting transitions from complexity to transdisciplinarity as a strategy for knowledge integration. The book also provides insights about the nature of complex adaptive systems based on the cases studied, in particular the issue of second order cybernetics (associated to the mind-matter problematic), the role of entropy in complex systems and the importance of the notion of reflexivity in the current cognitive-reflexive stage in world capitalism. In this way, the book aims at contributing to current debates and objections about the validity of traditional ontological and epistemological positions in the face of radical and rapid transformations worldwide affecting some aspects of capitalist development. The Conclusions explore how complex sustainability needs to integrate several elements beyond the conventional view expressed in the standard, anthropocentric definition of sustainability. The Chapters explicitly criticize current perspectives on capitalism, resilience and sustainability, and the homogenizing aims of some global discourses regarding natures and ecologies. Each Chapter advances a new way forward within a common complexity paradigm. All chapters conceptualize socio-environmental issues by going beyond the nature-culture dichotomy, an effort akin to conjectures developed by contemporary ecological theorists as well as the new materialisms being developed within urban planning and other fields. The Chapters entice readers to relativize and question disciplinary approaches by suggesting new realms to be considered in any study of nature and ecologies, resilience and sustainability. The contributions in this book are important for anyone interested in meaningfully designing research on resilience and sustainability that uses complexity and transdisciplinary perspectives and frameworks"--

This book presents the proceedings of TE2022, the 29th ISTE International Conference on Transdisciplinary Engineering, held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, United States, from 5 – 8 July 2022. Transdisciplinary engineering is the exchange of knowledge in the context of an innovation, in product, process, organisation or social environment. ISTE aims to explore and promote the evolution of engineering to incorporate transdisciplinary practices in which the exchange of different types of knowledge from a diverse range of disciplines is fundamental. The theme for the TE2022 conference is the future of engineering, and the 75 papers included here, which have all undergone a rigorous peer-review process, cover a wide range of topics and are grouped under 10 headings: Requirements, Knowledge and Architecture in Engineering; Case Studies; Energy, Environment, and Sustainability; Engineering Teamwork; Digital Engineering; imulation, Optimization, and Analytics; Manufacturing; Policy, Decisions, and Innovation; Engineering Education; Research on TE. The book will be of interest to all those working in the field of engineering today.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, PAAMS 2022, held in L'Aquila, Italy in July 2022. The 37 full papers in this book were reviewed and selected from 67 submissions. Another 10 demonstrations papers were selected from 11 submissions are presented here as short papers. The papers deal with the application and validation of agent-based models, methods, and technologies in a number of key applications areas, including: advanced models and learning, agent-based programming, decision-making, education and social interactions, formal and theoretic models, health and safety, mobility and the city, swarms and task allocation.

Demonstrating how a university can, in a very practical and pragmatic way, be re-envisioned through a transdisciplinary informed frame, this book shows how through an open and collegiate spirit of inquiry the most pressing and multifaceted issue of contemporary societal (un)sustainability can be addressed and understood in a way that transcends narrow disciplinary work. It also provides a practical exemplar of how far more meaningful deliberation, understandings and options for action in relation to contemporary sustainability-related crises can emerge than could otherwise be achieved. Indeed it helps demonstrate how only through a transdisciplinary ethos and approach can real progress be achieved. The fact that this can be done in parallel to (or perhaps underneath) the day-to-day business of the university serves to highlight how even micro seed initiatives can further the process of breaking down silos and reuniting C.P. Snow’s ‘two cultures’ after some four centuries of the relentless project of modernity. While much has been written and talked about with respect to both sustainability and transdisciplinarity, this book offers a pragmatic example which hopefully will signpost the ways others can, will and indeed must follow in our common quest for real progress.