Architectural Complexity of Systems Engineering

Dear Colleagues,

The discipline of systems engineering emerged in the 1950s in response to the development of large and complicated systems. These systems are composed of a large number of parts that interact in a non-simple way, with unpredictable properties or behaviors, and are often be characterized as “complex”. Complexity is studied across diverse disciplines including information theory, computer science, biology, social sciences, and engineered systems. The variety of disciplines and authors studying complexity highlights the potential for unifying lessons that might be discovered but also renders the study of complexity more difficult as the vast literature does not follow a standard set of terms or use formal semantics.

The focus of this Special Issue is the description of foundational characteristics of complexity that transcend application domains analogous to the seminal work of Von Bertalanffy on systems theory. The objective is to provide insights into the architecture of complexity in systems engineering and enable movement beyond heuristics and general strategies for understanding and dealing with complexity in systems engineering. Toward this end, this Special Issue invites articles presenting, among other things, the following:

• Complexity metrics and measures, both theoretical and applied;
• Comparative analyses of more vs. less complex systems;
• Case studies of complex systems and systems complexity;
• Literature review of complexity in systems engineering;
• Manifested characteristics of complexity in systems, both beneficial and detrimental;
• The necessity of complexity, or alternatives to complex systems with implications;
• Applications of AI/ML in the study of systems complexity.

Dr. Lawrence Dale Thomas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Systems is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• systems engineering
• systems architecture
• systems integration
• systems complexity
• systems design
• systems analysis