Block 1

Question 1

What’s a system?

Answer 1

A collection of connected, associated or interdependent parts forming a complex whole.

Question 2

What are the ways that a system’s purpose are decided?

Answer 2

1. An innate, naturally occuring purpose

2. A designed purpose

Question 3

Function vs purpose?

Answer 3

• Function is a system responding to inputted goals

- Teleological Purpose is an internal goal

Question 4

Autonomy?

Answer 4

in-built mechanism for adapting their actions to achieve their goals

Question 5

Feedback?

Answer 5

how a system adapts autonomously to achieve a desired goal.

• a measured aspect of the environment
• compared to the desired state
• corrective action is taken

Question 6

Homeostasis?

Answer 6

A stable state. When the system moves away from a desired value, it acts to return to this.

Question 7

Characteristics of systems?

Answer 7

• arranged in some way
• interactions between parts
• sub-systems show a degree of autonomy
• behaviour not always as expected or desired

Question 8

Specific characteristics of man-made systems?

Answer 8

• based on scientific principles
• significant technical and financial risk
• not self-sustaining

Question 9

Benefits of a system of systems?

Answer 9

• each system addresses a certain function.
• quicker to develop a new product by reusing systems
• any issues can be because of a certain system
• new systems can be integrated over a longer lifecycle as needs change
• systems can be recycled

Question 10

Complexity?

Answer 10

Where a system has a lot of interactions, leading to a collective behaviour that is hard to work out from them

Question 11

What’s hierarchy in a system?

Answer 11

Sub systems of stable intermediate forms.

Question 12

Ingredients of Complexity?

Answer 12

• Collection of many interacting objects (agents)
• Objects’ behaviour may be affected by feedback
• Objects can adapt
• The system is typically “open”
• The system exhibits emergent phenomena which are generally surprising
• There might not be an obvious controller
• There is a mix of order and disorder

Question 13

Types of hierarchies?

Answer 13

• Function (purpose of sub-systems)
• Control (linked by data interactions)
• Structural (physical arrangement)
• Taxonomic (based on classification)
• Organisational (manager/employee)
• Procurement (where parts are from)

Question 14

Can a system have more than one hierarchy?

Answer 14

Yes, they can have many. They’re just ways to arrange components.

Question 15

‘True’ hierarchy?

Answer 15

Each subsystem only communicates with those directly around it, ie. parent and child

Question 16

Example of hierarchy drawing software?

Answer 16

Microsoft Visio

Question 17

Why do systems naturally tend away from their desired state?

Answer 17

They tend towards their lowest energy state (entropy / 2nd law of thermo)

Question 18

Reduction?

Answer 18

The idea that the whole system can be understood by looking at the parts, with each behaviour coming from a component.

Question 19

Properties that a system can have?

Answer 19

Attributes (physical and others)
-Mass
-Volume
…
Functions (actions a thing can perform)
-Movement
-Display 
…
Behaviours (sequence of functions in response to a stimulus)

Question 20

Decomposition?

Answer 20

Breaking down a system into parts/subsystems (top down)

Can often be done by different hierarchies

Question 21

Composition? (synthesis)

Answer 21

Grouping components into subsystems (bottom up)

Question 22

Typical uses of composition and decomposition?

Answer 22

decomposition (top down) is used more for systems and composition (bottom up) methods are used to supplement this.

Question 23

Benefits of reductionism?

Answer 23

• simplifies complicated systems

- effective for mechanical systems

Question 24

Drawbacks of reductionism?

Answer 24

-some behaviours can’t be explained by particular parts

Question 25

Emergence?

Answer 25

Some properties aren’t designed into a system, but emerge.

Can’t be predicted by looking at the individual components