We need to talk about complex systems. But do we know how?

摘要

By Professor Brian Collins CB FREng, Chair of the case study selection panel for the RAE's Engineering X Safer Complex Systems mission. Understanding complex systems is vital to improving our understanding of risk; identifying critical points of failure, and optimising workflows and processes to bring greater safety and efficiency to all areas of society and industry. Complex systems are many and varied, growing in number and impacting our daily lives. Essential services such as health and social care, education, food and water supply, communications, finance, retail, transport and power supplies are all more interconnected and interdependent than ever before. As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, when one complex infrastructure system doesn't work as expected or fails, many other complex systems are also affected.