From Robust Design to Evolvable Systems Engineering

Robustness is a system's property that has received increasing attention in the recent years both in engineering as well as in the life sciences. In the presentation, different measures and approaches to robustness will be discussed referring to both biological as well as engineering systems. Including robustness in the system design process can lead to topological changes of the quality landscape that can pose problems to optimization methods. In order to circumvent this problem a Robust Evolution Strategy will be suggested. In the second part of the presentation, principles of Systems Engineering will be discussed in particular in the context of problem decomposition and interoperability. Systems Engineering and Systems Biology share on an abstract level the philosophy to approach problems holistically. The term evolvability in evolutionary biology is often used to describe the system's ability to constructively react to environmental changes. Evolvability in the context of systems engineering will be proposed to reconcile the holistic view with the practical need of problem decomposition.

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