Engineering is in the midst of an explosion of complexity.
New semiconductor chips contain a billion subcircuits. A new car contains 20 microprocessors. Home health care systems are being designed that monitor the heartbeat and temperature of a home's occupants. If a complex system can be defined as one that must process large amounts of information in order to function properly, engineered systems are growing more and more complex at a rapid rate. The explosion of engineering complexity has been accompanied by efforts from researchers in academia and industry to understand the design, control, manufacturing, and management of complex systems.