Professor Whyte is looking forward to attending the EPSRC workshop on ‘Systems Engineering’ later this week. Our infrastructure systems are under stress, and systems approaches are appropriate to understanding their behaviour as complex systems and their interdependencies, within and across systems. There are new opportunities for data driven approaches, with the rise of new forms of cyber-physical systems, and new kinds production systems. Different research communities are taking different approaches to understanding their resilience, safety, security and socio-technical nature. It will be interesting to see which topics the interdisciplinary engineering research community prioritise, and what lessons can be learnt across disciplines.