Over the past twenty years, the research community has made significant advances in methods for modelling CPSs and in engineering systems that include both discrete and continuous dimensions while permitting execution or simulation of involved CPS models. Researchers can now model, analyze, specify, and verify important properties of CPS with a broad array of tools, methodologies, and formalisms. Unfortunately, these valuable results of the research community are still not reaching their potential in industrial practice. Moreover, within academia, remaining challenges are not being exposed and framed in a way that catalyzes community research efforts.

An overarching theme of this Dagstuhl Seminar will be the potential use of integrated models and associated methodologies that support cross-technique information/results sharing and smooth workflow hand-offs between individual tools and methods. Rigorous systems analysis research is carried out in different communities that focus on specific aspects of analysis. Collaborations are more ad-hoc than strategic, although there is a continual need to combine different techniques and methods. We identify three large communities where the separation is more pronounced. (1) Verification techniques, (2) Simulation, visualization, and testing, and (3) Quantitative techniques and (intelligent) control. To overcome the separation a framework of concepts and workflows is needed. Here, systems engineering will serve as the basis for identifying potential information flow and synergies between different kinds of modelling and analysis. Systems engineering deals with the entire life-cycle of a system and moves the focus from specialized isolated tasks in system development to long-term considerations.

The strategy for engagement and work at the seminar should involve seeding the discussions with longer vision-oriented talks from key industry and academic leaders, followed by shorter talks and brain-storming sessions to collect material for a needs analysis. After aiming for breadth with these initial activities, the schedule will be oriented to explore in depth selected ideas related to challenge problems, community examples, and activities. Specific interest in particular areas will likely emerge based on the final list of participants and the dynamics of the meeting. Closer to the meeting time, we will identify exemplar resources and potential overview talks that will help seed discussions. To support the overarching theme of integrated models and methodologies, the seminar will seek to develop a better understanding of how the different techniques and methods can be better situated in the context of system engineering processes and how rigorous system analyses already understood by the participants can be better integrated and cross-leveraged.

The different rigorous analysis techniques differ in their objectives and their outcomes which are usually not connected. This Dagstuhl Seminar aims for bringing together academic and industrial experts from different fields and sectors to create discussions to encourage thinking across boundaries motivated by industrial needs. This continued awareness of the big picture is the main outcome of the seminar. Research work needs to be very focused to produce academically relevant new results but needs to be placed in a broad engineering context to permit application in industrial application. This is challenging and requires permanent attention considering strategic research objectives.

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Erika Abraham, Stefan Hallerstede, John Hatcliff, and Danielle Stewaart