Designing evolving cyber-physical-social systems: computational research opportunities

In the context of the theme for this special issue, namely, challenges and opportunities in computing research to enable next generation engineering applications, our intent in writing this paper is to seed the dialog on furthering computing research associated with the design of cyber-physical-social systems. Cyber-Physical-Social Systems (CPSS's) are natural extensions of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS's) that add the consideration of human interactions and cooperation with cyber systems and physical systems. CPSS's are becoming increasingly important as we face challenges such as regulating our impact on the environment, eradicating disease, transitioning to digital and sustainable manufacturing, and improving healthcare. Human stakeholders in these systems are integral to the effectiveness of these systems. One of the key features of CPSS is that the form, structure, and interactions constantly evolve to meet changes in the environment. Design of evolving CPSS include making tradeoffs amongst the cyber, the physical, and the social systems. Advances in computing and information science have given us opportunities to ask difficult, and important questions, especially those related to cyber-physical-social systems. In this paper we identify research opportunities worth investigating. We start with theoretical and mathematical frameworks for identifying and framing the problem – specifically, problem identification and formulation, data management, CPSS modeling and CPSS in action. Then we discuss issues related to the design of CPSS including decision making, computational platform support, and verification and validation. Building on this foundation, we suggest a way forward.