This book of proceedings contains papers that have been peer-reviewed and accepted for the 28th ISTE International Conference on Transdisciplinary Engineering, organized by the University of Bath, United Kingdom, July 5–9, 2021. TE2021 has been the second conference in the series that was organized in a virtual manner due to the COVID-19 world-wide crisis. The papers published in this book of proceedings, as well as video presentations, were accessible from July 5 till July 9 in Teams, while questions and answers were being exchanged.

This is the tenth issue of the series “Advances in Transdisciplinary Engineering”, which publishes the proceedings of the TE (formerly: CE) conference series and accompanying events. The TE conference series is organized annually by the International Society of Transdisciplinary Engineering, in short ISTE (www.intsoctransde.org), formerly called International Society of Productivity Enhancement (ISPE, Inc.) and constitutes an important forum for international scientific exchange on transdisciplinary engineering. These international conferences attract a significant number of researchers, industry experts and students, as well as government representatives, who are interested in recent advances in transdisciplinary engineering research, advancements, and applications.

The concept of Transdisciplinary Engineering transcends Concurrent Engineering (CE). The concept of CE, developed in the 80’s, implies that different phases of a product life cycle are conducted concurrently and initiated as early as possible within the Product Creation Process (PCP), including the implications of this approach within the extended enterprise and networks. The main goal of CE is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the PCP and to reduce errors in the later phases, as well as to incorporate considerations for the full lifecycle, through-life operations, and environmental issues. In the past decades, CE has become the substantive basic methodology in many industries (e.g., automotive, aerospace, machinery, shipbuilding, consumer goods, process industry, environmental engineering) and is also adopted in the development of new services and service support. Collaboration between different disciplines is key to successful CE. The main focus, though, is an engineering focus.

While for several decades CE proved its value in many industries and still continues to do so, many current engineering problems require a more encompassing approach. Many engineering problems have a large impact on society. The context of these problems needs to be taken into account. For example, the development of self-driving cars requires taking into account changes in regulations for managing responsibilities, adaptation to road networks, political decisions, infrastructures for energy supply, etc. The impacted society may also be the business environment of networks of companies and supply chains. For example, the adoption and implementation of Industry 4.0 requires taking into account the changes to be expected in the business environment, the people, their jobs, the knowledge needed, technology, organizational rules and behaviours. These kind of engineering problems also require collaboration, but not only between technical disciplines. Disciplines from other scientific fields need to be incorporated in the engineering process, like disciplines from social sciences (governance, psychology, etc.), law, medicine, or other fields, relevant for the problem at hand.

The concept of transdisciplinary engineering transcends inter- and multi-disciplinary ways of working, like in CE. In particular, transdisciplinary processes are aimed at solving complex ill-defined problems or problems for which the solution is not obvious from the beginning. While such problems, including their solutions, have a large impact on society and the context in which the problems exist, it is important that people from society and practice collaborate with people from different relevant scientific communities. Neither one discipline nor one person can bring sufficient knowledge for solving such problems. Collaboration again is essential but has become even more demanding. Disciplines should be open to other disciplines to be able to share and exchange the knowledge necessary for solving the problem.

As indicated above any engineering problem can be put is a context in which the problem is to be solved or in which the solution for the problem is expected to be used. For researchers and engineers, it is important to take this context into account. This could be done, for example, by collaborating with researchers who can study user acceptance of the envisioned solution or with researchers who can apply suitable methods to acquire user preferences in the respective context and translate them into the necessary requirements for the solution to be developed. Validation of a proposed engineering solution will benefit also by incorporating people from other scientific fields.

The conference is entitled: ‘Transdisciplinary Engineering for Resilience: Responding to system disruptions’ indicating the dynamic and evolving nature of TE processes, requiring new knowledge, methods and tools to support the process. The TE2021 Organizing Committee has identified 36 thematic areas grouped into nine themes within TE and launched a Call for Papers accordingly. More than 80 papers have been submitted from all over the world. The submissions as well as invited talks have been collated into nine themes.

The Proceedings contains 58 peer-reviewed papers presented at the conference by authors from 24 countries. These papers range from the theoretical, conceptual to strongly pragmatic addressing industrial best practice. The involvement of industry in many of the presented papers gives additional importance to this conference.

This book on “Transdisciplinary Engineering for Resilience. Responding to System Disruption” is directed at three constituencies: researchers, design practitioners, and educators. Researchers will benefit from the latest research results and knowledge of product creation processes and related methodologies. Engineering professionals and practitioners will learn from the current state of the art in transdisciplinary engineering practice, new approaches, methods, tools, and their applications. The educators in the TE community gather the latest advances and methodologies for dissemination in engineering curricula, to prepare students for transdisciplinary collaboration in complex engineering processes, while the community also encourages educators to bring new ideas into the field. With the annual contributions of many researchers and practitioners the book series will contribute to the further development of the concept of Transdisciplinary Engineering.

The proceedings are subdivided into several parts, reflecting the themes addressed in the conference programme:

Part 1 is entitled Transdisciplinary Engineering Theory and contains five papers that address the concept of TE. Paper one presents a framework for assisting a TE approach to systemic risk detection. Paper two presents a comparison of a quality and a design approach in a TE context of setting up medical trials. Paper three presents findings of a preliminary exploration of the significance of TE in an industrial context. Paper four is an essay on the multi-dimensionality of TE. Paper five presents results of a workshop to develop an initial version of a disciplinary maturity grid to assess an industry’s engineering capability.

Part 2 contains three papers in the field of Transdisciplinary Engineering Education and Training, an important field in our conferences. In paper one, a framework is presented for the analysis of simulation effectiveness in training medical treatment procedures. A discussion of the need for a holistic curriculum design in digital manufacturing in presented in paper two. Design thinking is considered essential for people with different domain knowledge. In paper three, a framework developed by master students is proposed to facilitate design automation in different phases of design. Three SMEs have used variations of the framework.

Part 3, PD Methods and Digital TE, contains 11 papers. In paper one, a conceptual approach is presented to incrementally update a Digital Twin, especially suited for SMEs. In paper two, the basis for the method described in paper one, is presented with a use case. In paper three, a proposal for automated logo recognition and legal analysis for IP protection is presented. Activities to develop a tool to support the design of CPSs are described in paper four. In paper five, an NLP approach is presented for chatbots. The approach is applied to the management of patent trends. In paper six, a framework is proposed aimed at identifying, categorizing, prioritizing, and mitigating uncertainties in the process of digitization of life-cycle product models. In paper seven, IT tools are described for automating the generations of Digital Twins of machine tools. Paper eight contains a study into improving interoperability in the new manufacturing environment. In paper nine, also interoperability is addressed. An approach is presented for the automatic prediction of failure in the manufacturing process. The authors of paper 10 investigate issues in optimising end-to-end maintenance within manufacturing with DTs, IM, and Its. In paper 11, a five-dimensional DT framework has been proposed linking physical data and virtual data with an ERP for modelling the digital twin of electric vehicle batteries.

Part 4 contains 15 papers in the theme Industry and Society. In paper one, a method for implementing flex-time schedules in a service industry. An optimal production planning method for high-mix low-volume production is proposed in paper two. Paper three contains a literature study into the use of 4.0 technologies in Product Lifecycle Management with a focus on Sustainable Development. In paper four, an analysis is presented of different scenarios for resource planning in a multi-project environment. Based on a literature review the first of three artefacts is presented in paper five: a model to characterize Agriculture 4.0. In paper six, a proposal for a metro-car tracking system is proposed. A theoretical exploration into challenges and opportunities for the digitization of product development and manufacturing process is presented in paper seven. In paper eight, a study is presented into the existing gaps between reshoring drivers and critical operations capabilities. Paper nine contains a system dynamic modeling approach and an empirical study on innovation diffusion for subsystems in the automotive industry in the past decades. In paper 10, a cause-effect diagram is presented for analysing risks in the civil industry. Paper 11 contains a proposal for a framework of questions to identify risks in different phases of a civil engineering process. In paper 12, a model is proposed for the digitization of the railway industry, using the Balanced Score Card and Multi-Criteria Decision making. Paper 13 contains research that contributes to the reshoring literature by providing a multi-stage fuzzy-logic model that simultaneously handles different groups of criteria, and to practitioners by contemplating different key competencies within a company during the reshoring decision process. In paper 14, results of twenty-four multiple case studies in the construction sector are presented, which suggest new quality dimensions and ways to adapt to changed service-quality demands. Paper 15 contains a literature study and case studies into the level of alignment between product development and production. Several problems have been identified.

Part 5 is entitled Product Systems and contains 13 papers. Paper one contains a comparison between two tools for predicting human effort and ergonomic risk related to a series of tasks. In paper two, the TRIZ approach is applied to the non-trivial design of a Wire Electric Discharge Machining (WEDM). The work presented in paper three is an exploration of the possibility to analyse the performance of production lines through digital models. In paper four, a proposal is presented of an associative framework between processes and related data, which are following the recommendations of currently applied frameworks for Business Process Management and Big Data Analytics. In paper five, a literature study is described on APSs, as well as the impact of Industry 4.0 on the development of these systems. Paper six contains a simulation model developed for allowing the selection of appropriate parameters of a power supply system and a drive system for an electric go-kart to meet criteria assumed. In paper seven, research is presented into semantic and syntactic knowledge boundaries that play a role in introducing new products with its accompanying production processes. Paper eight contains a literature study into Advanced Manufacturing, the results of which have been applied to an experimental case. In paper nine, an exploration is presented of opportunities for Kazakhstan to recycle CFPR waste originating in this country and neighbouring countries. Paper 10 contains an exploration of the possibility to automate the design of a wing structure. In paper 11, the possibility of supporting the vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle electric power systems by means of photovoltaic cells. An approach for optimizing floor plans using data collected from workplaces and a physics-based planning algorithm utilizing GPU-acceleration is presented in paper 12. In paper 13, a research step is presented to develop a methodology for designing and analysing a propeller, which can be used in a calculation background for a CAD model.

Part 6 contains 11 contributions on Individual and Teams. In paper one, a demonstration Is presented of a virtual tour in a cheese factory. The multi-faceted nature of a virtual tour is highlighted. Paper two contains a design of a rescue helicopter that can approach mountain tops and dangerous terrains. In paper three, a new AR/VR methodology is presented that allows an operator to touch any object in a virtual cabin design of a medical helicopter. Feedback from medical professionals is included. A patent portfolio analysis for VR tools is presented in paper four. Promising areas for further development in the medical domain have been identified. Paper five contains a patent analysis to discover trends in HCPSs in manufacturing. In paper six, an approach is presented to enhance human perspectives by introducing a semiotic framework for representing different aspects of human and organizational meaning formation. The approach is illustrated in a translational medicine organization. Paper seven contains a demonstration of a technology to detect behavioural states of team members during a meeting. In paper eight, a numerical method is presented that is a good step towards systematic design of attractive product shapes. In paper nine, a first design iteration is demonstrated in which a framework is applied that provide disciplines guidelines for achieving health-related objectives. Paper 10 contains a specification of a generic user interface that makes computational systems models more accessible to non-technical decision makers. Finally, paper 11 is a research paper containing research into the generation of a functional structure of a product connected with a Multi-interfaces Entity Model that supports risk assessment.