“Increasing complexity? We often talk about increasing complexity, especially in the high-tech systems we work on. To deal with this growing complexity, we develop new methodologies and approaches. But do we really understand what this complexity entails? If we don't fully grasp what we are up against, it’s questionable whether our approaches will be effective. In this symposium, we reflect on this question. We will take a systems thinking approach: the keynote speaker will help us step back and discuss the intrinsic complexities in the engineering of distributed cyber-physical systems and how to cope with them. Following that, invited speakers will shed their light on the concept of complexity and how to deal with it from different (science and engineering) perspectives. We will conclude with a panel discussion to draw overall conclusions.

• Keynote: Prof Dr Edward Lee (UC Berkeley)
  Fundamental Challenges in the Engineering of Distributed Cyber-Physical Systems

• Daniel Lindenaar (Canon Production Printing)
  Dealing with complexity in high-tech print systems

• Prof Dr Johan Lukkien (TU Eindhoven/TNO-ESI)
  Under the water: uncovering hidden processes in the Systems- and Software Engineering Interplay

• Dr Pieter Gunter (ASML)
  Defining growing complexity of System Engineering within the ASML context.

• Dr. Pascal Etman (TU Eindhoven)
  Systems engineering in product development of high-tech equipment: about dependencies and synthesis

• Prof Dr Maarten Bonnema (Universiteit Twente)
  Getting to Grips with Complexity in the High-Tech Industry