Systems Engineering has impact on VERY large markets, e.g., electronics embedded in products such as automobiles has a market size 100x the size of the desktop market. Improving its efficiency and competitiveness can be of fundamental importance for the European industry as the functional and non functional requirements on future generation products become gradually unmanageable due to their ever increasing complexity. Industries such as Telco service providers, Retail and Financial Services exploit the Internet in new and creative ways that dramatically increase efficiency and revenues. The system engineering industry has not been able to unleash this potential in the design and test of its products.
In this project we propose to leverage the concept of Internet of Things, establishing the foundation for the Internet of System Engineering. Based on an Internet-like service infrastructure the SPRINT Networked Environment will provide the virtual blending via Internet of all "things" pertaining to a complex system: sensors, actuators, processing elements, system design tools and models and design teams that are in general spread over different geographical locations. The platform will include novel early verification approaches that involve virtual integration of mathematical models of components to alleviate the problem of late error discovery while supporting the entire cycle of product development: design, integration, verification and deployment. This research will open a new vista on the use of Internet of Things that may change radically the way in which systems are designed and tested.
