Scientific publications

This report examines the challenge of strengthening and formalizing a Software Maintenance and Evolution (SMEvo) ecosystem for the Dutch high-tech industry. Maintenance and evolution of long-lived, software-intensive systems account for a large part, estimated between 75% and 90%, of software lifecycle costs.

In today’s digital landscape, organizations are increasingly seeking to introduce cybersecurity measures within their systems. The recent cyber-attacks fuelled by the geopolitical tensions indicated the true importance of being cyber-resilient. However, many organizations face significant challenges in starting this process.

The Dutch energy transition is entering an important next phase. Achieving a climate-neutral, resilient, and future -proof energy system by 2050 will require a significant acceleration in the development, integration, and operation of energy infrastructure. The sector is confronted with major challenges: rapidly increasing electricity demand, the electrification of industry and homes, the integration of renewable energy sources, limited public space, complex permitting processes, and a persistent shortage of skilled personnel.

The high-tech equipment industry is undergoing significant socio-technological transformations that will impact system engineering practices across the entire product lifecycle. This document outlines a vision for lifecycle excellence of high-tech equipment, focusing on quality assurance, diagnostics, sustainability, and supply chain management.

The energy transition in the Netherlands aims to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Over the next 10 years, network operators will be tasked with increasing the capacity of the electricity grid by a factor of roughly 5. The main challenges in this regard are as follows:1. Land acquisition: Finding and acquiring suitable land for infrastructure expansion is challenging due to limited space and competing interests.

When engineering complex cyber-physical systems, the interplay between Systems Engineering (SE) and Software Engineering (SWE) is often perceived as a practical challenge. Common symptoms include issues with emergent behavior and system qualities in (integrated) products, as well as errors, rework, and performance problems.

A broad spectrum of scientific software engineering research can benefit from the use of precise component descriptions. CommaSuite1 is an open-source research tool designed to support the specification and design of software interfaces and components (Kurtev et al., 2024). It utilizes DSLs (Domain Specific Languages) to model interface and component behavior in an implementation technology agnostic notation.

This report documents the second phase of the MBSE study conducted by TNO-ESI and its partners, focusing on the deployment and added value of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) in the Dutch high-tech equipment industry. MBSE is increasingly adopted as a means to improve systems engineering effectiveness.

Large Language Models (LLMs) have transformed code assistants by enabling personalization, interactivity, and higher abstraction. However, these assistants often struggle with a common limitation; they generate responses based on a limited set of relevant code snippets retrieved from the codebase using semantic similarity search.

This thesis addresses the Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem (FJSP) with three extensions: Sequence-Dependent Setup Times (SDST), Blocking tasks and Alternative Process Plans (APPs). The research evaluates the efficacy of two distinct optimization paradigms: Constraint Programming (CP) and Multivalued Decision Diagrams (MDDs).