Why Systems Science and Cybernetics?

This issue of these Transactions represents the first publication of a new IEEE group, Systems Science and Cybernetics (G-SSC). The areas of systems science and cybernetics are difficult to describe since descriptors mean different things to different people. The present terms were chosen because they come closer to the connotation of the things that members of the group are working on than many other new, coined words. New terms were not chosen as they would only tend to confuse an already diffuse area. The scope of the G-SSC encompasses the treatment of the science that is common to all large collections of interacting functional units that together achieve a defined purpose. This includes analysis, simulation, synthesis, implementation, evaluation, and the consideration of the uncertainties of system parameters. Also included are matters pertaining to the theory and design of communication and control in natural and synthetic systems, including biologicaland behaviorial systems. Areas of interest include such interdisciplinary subjects as bionics, artificial intelligence, and self-organizing systems, and such aspects as modeling, optimization, and general theory.