On the design of systems-oriented university curricula

This paper proposes a tool called the Systems Education Matrix (SEM) for use in informing the work of developers of systems-oriented curricula at colleges and universities around the world. The SEM was developed by Team 1 at the 2008 IFSR Fuschl Conversation held at Fuschl am See in Austria. In order to manage the complex problems we are dealing with today, systems thinking is essential. It is clear that systems education should be acknowledged as an important 'scientific method' that can help today's society to deal with the complexities of contemporary issues. To serve this role effectively, systems education needs to be focused towards the various needs that exist. The members of Team 1 have focused on the nature of systems education that will be required to not only train systems specialists, but to make systems thinking and analysis an integral part of discipline focused research and management

A technomorphic conceptualisation of biological ‘constructions’ and their evolution

Here, we build on earlier work concerning notions of engineering design and investigate their conceptual connection to evolutionary biology. The basis for this work is an engineering design schema covering the central concepts of function, working principle and construction. Its relevance for evolutionary biology is explored by connecting these concepts to the so-called design space that is used in engineering optimisation. This tool makes it possible to distinguish various optima of performance and to visualise their robustness with respect to disturbances or changes in parameters. The robustness of morphological ‘constructions’ with regard to changes of shape is shown by means of examples from engineering and biology. The characteristics of various ‘landscapes’ in the design space is then related to the concept of evolvability, whereby we explore analogies between systems biology and morphology. A general property of phenotypes from the molecular to the organismal level seems to be that their ‘construction’ facilitates both their robustness and their exploration of the design space while maintaining the performance of the relevant functions at a high level

LUDWIG VON BERTALANFFY’S EARLY SYSTEM APPROACH

Most of what Bertalanffy published in the field of “organismic” biology was written in German and is thus not widely known. In order to understand the development and meaning of his “general system theory” – which might more accurately be called “general systemology” – those early works are essential. In this talk I will therefore focus on key aspects of his “system theory” of life, both on the level of scientific concepts and philosophical considerations. This will also include a note on works that influenced Bertalanffy and motivated him to later establish a new transdisciplinary field. He was influenced by several philosophers as well as by results from experimental research. As a trained philosopher, Bertalanffy was clearly aware that the notion of systems has a long history going back at least to ancient Greek thinkers. As for the influences from science, the focus here will be on Paul A. Weiss and his experiments performed at the Biologische Versuchsanstalt in Vienna. Those two roots will be used to clarify Bertalanffy’s unique contributions towards a system approach in biology and beyond, in which the aim was to free the term system from vague or even obscure metaphysical connotations and arrive at a framework that is useful for science

Is Paul Weiss' and Ludwig von Bertalanffy's System Thinking still valid today?

The roots of what is today called general system theory (GST) can be traced back to the Vienna of the early 20th century. In the 1920s Paul Weiss performed experiments in the Viennese Prater Vivarium (a privately founded research institution in the area of experimental biology) and found that his results were totally incompatible with the prevailing mechanistic concepts dominating the biologists way of thinking. Therefore he proposed a system view. At about the same time Ludwig von Bertalanffy, coming from philosophical grounds, tried to overcome the dispute in biology of vitalism versus mechanism by developing an organismic concept. They met each other and discussed the biological concepts when von Bertalanffy was still a student. Rupert Riedl knew both scholars personally and thought that their ideas are of paramount importance not only for the biologists world view. Thus he initiated a research project called "System Theory Today", in which the developments in system theory in the last three decades should be investigated. The focus of the project here described lies in the reception of system theory after von Bertalanffy's dead. Further developments as well as reductionistic tendencies are to be tackled. As our pre-studies have shown, a whole lot of disciplines have adopted system theory for their needs, but some of the modified theories sheer away from the original context. On the one side the development in the different disciplines is positive, on the other side it leads to contradictory positions followed by misunderstandings and building up new boarders that are weakening the prime intention of system theory. System theory was always meant to be an integrative tool for all sciences and was aiming for a dialog between scientific disciplines. Based on the theory arising from biology the developments in different disciplines (from mathematics to engineering, from medicine to economics, but especially life sciences) will be investigated. The key question is, whether von Bertalanffy's and Weiss' system thinking still plays a role in science today and especially if there are contributions that broaden or reduce the concept. To complete the picture the just recently found Bertalanffy estate, which is now hosted by the University of Vienna, will play an important role. The working hypothesis is that what was made out of GST is a considerable reduction of the original concept. In this paper an overview of the research work in the project will be given. It starts with the system concepts in 1920s biology and the thoughts of Weiss and Bertalanffy. Therefrom the basic concepts are extracted to be compared with the contemporary developments of GST

3D-Printed Facet Optics: Novel Adjustable Technical Optics Inspired by Compound Eyes

Bio-inspired by compound eyes in insects, the authors identify advantages of such an optical system and propose a novel optics that combines basic principles from compound eyes with an additional technical zooming feature. The 3D-printed, bio-inspired fiber optic set-up is based on ommatidia, the small single components of compound eyes. The advantageous aspects that are transferred from the inspiring organisms are that no focusing on objects is needed and a maximum depth of focus is always achieved. Two adjustable technical features are an adjustable field of view per pixel and a zooming possibility, not found in animals. Prototypes were produced as a proof of concept. One of them was manufactured using a stereolithography 3D printer. They were positively tested with regard to the implemented features. Optional further functionalities and developments are discussed. Possible applications of the 3D-printed, bio-inspired designs are optical devices that benefit from adjusting the field of view per pixel to zooming. Suggested are novel microscopes and screens with built-in cameras enabling online eye-to-eye communication without having to concentrate on the location of a camera.11212Austrian Science Fund (FWF)German Research Foundation (DFG