Emergent engineering: design of evolvable architectures for large scale enetworked systems

紧急工程：大规模网络系统的可演化架构设计

• 批准号: 217201-2009
• 负责人: Ulieru, Mihaela
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: Carleton University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=523723
• 关键词: Emergent; engineering; design; evolvable; architectures

How to craft the nervous system of our eNetworked world to enable seamless evolution through challenging times and adaptation not only to meet the unexpected and survive it, but thrive on it? Recognizing the fundamental limitations of engineering in dealing with highly complex systems, we frontally approach the radical shift of paradigm, brought by the ubiquity of computing and communication environments that link systems and people in unprecedented ways via eNetworks. One major characteristic of these new technological developments, termed here Cyber-Physical Ecosystems (CPE) - is that, given their very nature, they cannot be a-priori defined - but rather emerge from the interactions between individual components, interactions facilitated by the eNetworks. This challenges the traditional mainstream engineering school of thought in its very core in disruptive ways. In essence, the traditional active role of the designer in crafting the organizational, systems and software blueprint 'with the end in mind', namely by a-priory defining the system and its performance requirements following a hierarchical, 'top-down' linear thinking is being fundamentally challenged by the emergent behavior of eNetworked CPE which demand the designer to rather take the passive role of observer in the process of 'self-design' by which the system emerges its organizational structure resulted from the interactions between a myriad of elementary components. We aim to unravel an 'eNetwork DNA' and put it to work similarly to how DNA molds the fundamental cells in natural systems such that they can evolve to accommodate gradual or abrupt change in the environment or internal operating conditions. The aimed at new science of emergent engineering opens the perspective towards a wide range of applications critical today, including: disaster response through deployment of holistic security ecosystems, green electricity generation and distribution, pandemic mitigation, networked transportation and manufacturing, environmental monitoring and sustainability assessment.

如何打造我们的电子网络世界的神经系统，以实现在充满挑战的时代的无缝进化和适应，不仅能够应对意外情况并生存下来，而且能够在其中蓬勃发展？认识到工程在处理高度复杂的系统方面的基本局限性，我们正面应对范式的根本转变，这是由无处不在的计算和通信环境所带来的，这些环境通过电子网络以前所未有的方式将系统和人联系起来。这些新技术发展的一个主要特征，这里被称为网络物理生态系统（CPE）——是，鉴于它们的本质，它们不能被先验定义——而是从各个组件之间的交互中产生，这些交互是由电子网络促进的。这以颠覆性的方式挑战了传统主流工程思想的核心。从本质上讲，设计者在“以终为始”制定组织、系统和软件蓝图时的传统主动角色，即按照层次化、“自上而下”的线性思维预先定义系统及其性能要求，正在受到eNetworked CPE的新兴行为的根本挑战，这种行为要求设计者在系统的“自我设计”过程中宁可扮演观察者的被动角色。 其组织结构是由无数基本组成部分之间的相互作用产生的。我们的目标是解开“eNetwork DNA”，并使其像 DNA 塑造自然系统中的基本细胞一样发挥作用，以便它们能够进化以适应环境或内部操作条件的逐渐或突然变化。新兴工程的新科学为当今至关重要的广泛应用开辟了前景，包括：通过部署整体安全生态系统进行灾难响应、绿色发电和配电、缓解流行病、网络化运输和制造、环境监测和可持续性评估。