The Society for Design and Process Science aims at being a catalyst for change, enabling the discovery of new approaches that lead to alternative solutions for the increasingly complex problems that face civilization. In particular the theme of the conference this year is The Technology of Complex Systems.

Overview

Systems created by mankind or in nature often assume the characteristic of Complex Systems such as systems characterized by macroscopic effects that cannot be identified by the behavior of microscopic system components; systems that have non-linear dynamics in the interactions of its components; and again systems characterized by components arranged in big and non-trivially connected network. Complex systems permeates our everyday life in particular Complex Networks are present in our social acquaintances, the Internet, facebook and Linkedin social networks, but also essential infrastructures in our everyday life and well being are in the form of a network. If one just think about auto route network, airline traffic map, telephone network and power grid just to give some examples. An emerging science has flourished in the last two decades specifically to study networks, especially the bigger ones whose name is Complex Network Analysis (CNA). CNA falls in a branch of graph theory taking its root in the early studies of Erdos and Renyi on random graphs and considering statistical structural properties of very large graphs. In the latest decades starting form the initial studies of Watts and Strogatz and Barabasi CNA has received attention in various fields of science such as biology, chemistry, computer science, virology, logistics, and economics. Various networked infrastructures have been analyzed under the lenses of Complex Networks: airline network, railways, roads, subway system, power grid. All studies have provided interesting insights to better understand network creation process, the dynamics underlying their evolutions and their robustness or fragility. With an increasing attention to energy and the disastrous consequences of blackouts and with the promises of a new Electric Smart Grid we call for contribution investigating the electrical Power Grid and more in general Power Systems as Complex Systems. We look for contributions regarding analysis of Power Systems and Power Grid networks as well as Power Systems and Power Grid evolution models or synthesis approach based on CNA techniques.