This year, the SWISSED brings together practitioners and academics, by presenting three inspiring keynote lectures.

It is our great pleasure to introduce the keynote speakers for this year’s SWISSED:

Michael C. Jackson is Emeritus Professor at the University of Hull and MD of Systems Research Ltd. He graduated from Oxford University, gained an MA from Lancaster University and a PhD from Hull, and has worked in the civil service, in academia and as a consultant. Between 1999 and 2011, Mike was Dean of Hull University Business School, leading it to triple-crown accreditation. Mike has been President of the International Federation for Systems Research and the International Society for the Systems Sciences. In 2011 Mike was awarded an OBE for services to higher education and business. In 2017 he received the Beale Medal of the UK Operational Research Society for ‘a sustained contribution over many years to the theory, practice, and philosophy of Operational Research’. In 2022 he received the Pioneer Award of the International Council on Systems Engineering for ‘the development of the foundations of systems engineering as author, educator and intellectual leader in systems thinking’. Mike is known as the leading figure in the development of ‘Critical Systems Thinking’ - a topic on which he has published ten books and over 150 articles. His latest book Critical Systems Thinking: A Practitioner’s Guide was published by Wiley in July 2024. He is Co-Chair of the UK Government Office for Science/SCiO ‘Systems Thinking Working Group’. 

Keynote: Systems Engineering Vision 2035 – Turning Fiction into Fact

SE has set itself an ambitious vision for 2035. “Engineering solutions for a better world” will require it to work well outside its conventional domains to address major societal and environmental challenges. The same ambition has been stated in the past and has not been realized. The current failure to advance SE methodology beyond its mechanistic roots suggests things are unlikely to be much different this time. To prevent Vision 2025 becoming a fiction, a radical re-orientation in thinking and practice is necessary. SE needs to embrace what systems thinking is saying about the nature of complex problems. It needs to appreciate the value of alternative systems methodologies that can be employed alongside SE to make the world a better place. SE Vision 2025 might then become a reality.

Lucio Tirone is the Assembly, Integration and Verification Lead Engineer for the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, with responsibility over the integration and verification phases of the low frequency radio telescope SKA-Low. Starting from a background in software based electromagnetics, he grew a field expertise of over 25 years in Systems Engineering activities in large technological projects in the Defense, Aerospace and Transport sectors. He has been Head of the Systems Engineering department of Fincantieri, the largest Italian naval shipbuilder, co-founder and Technical Director of the engineering company Aster, Director of the EMEA Sector (Europe, Middle East and Africa) of INCOSE, the International Council on Systems Engineering, and co-founder and President of the Italian Association of Systems Engineering.

Lucio Tirone has been a lecturer in Systems Architecture / Design courses in the context of several Level II Master Degrees in Systems Engineering (with the University of Tor Vergata in Rome, the Distretto Ligure delle Tecnologie Marine in La Spezia/Genova, the Italian Joint Armed Forces Telecommunications School, in Chiavari) and holds the INCOSE ESEP Certification (Certified and Expert Systems Engineering Professional) and OCSMP Certification (OMG-Certified Systems Modeling Professional).

Keynote: MBSE assisted Integration and Verification of SKA-Low: building the world’s largest radio-telescope in Western Australia’s outback

In the heart of the Western Australia’s outback, where the characteristic red soil stretches up to the wide horizon, through the joint effort of many Australian and international suppliers and partners, coordinated by the SKA Observatory, the world’s largest radio telescope is taking shape. SKA-Low, designed to unlock the secrets of the Universe in partnership with its brother SKA-Mid, being built in South Africa, is a uniquely complex system, spanning across multiple technological domains, and a wide range of socio-cultural influences.

The keynote will present the current status of the build of Array Assembly 0.5, the first Milestone of the SKA-Low Telescope, and address the key challenges, success stories, and lessons learned, on the still long journey of the construction of the Square Kilometre Array.

Mike Lamont joined CERN as a fellow in 1989, working on SPS and LEP operations before becoming LEP Machine Coordinator. He then moved on to help get the LHC ready for first beam as LHC Machine Coordinator. From 2009 to 2016, he led the team running CERN’s accelerators, and in 2017 became deputy head of the Beams Department, also co-leading the Physics Beyond Colliders initiative. Since 2021, he’s been CERN’s Director for Accelerators and Technology.

Keynote: Beam Me Up—But Safely: Systems Engineering at the Energy Frontier

The accelerator complex at CERN represents an eclectic collection of sophisticated systems—an evolving network of machines and technologies operating at the limits of precision, power, and performance. From injecting protons into the LHC to cooling superconducting magnets and protecting equipment from the destructive power of high energy beams, delivering physics at the energy frontier is as much a systems challenge as it is a scientific one.

This keynote will explore systems engineering in the wild: how we manage complexity, risk, and integration across decades-long timelines, tight tolerances, and shifting requirements. Drawing on stories from upgrades, shutdowns, and large-scale R&D efforts—such as the High-Luminosity LHC and the Future Circular Collider feasibility study—we’ll examine what works, what breaks, and what we keep doing anyway.

The talk will offer a candid view from the accelerator trenches and reflect on the human and institutional systems that underpin success. While the scale may be unusual, many of the experiences could well resonate with systems engineers across industries.

This year, the SWISSED brings together practitioners and academics, by presenting two inspiring keynote lectures from celebrated industry and  scientific leaders.

It is our great pleasure to introduce the keynote speakers for this year’s SWISSED:

Udo Scheff (PhD) has been the Vice President Engineering for the Small and Mid Tractor series at John Deere since 2023. In this function, he has global overall responsibility for the vehicle engineering and program management of the tractor product families with development locations in India, China, USA, Mexico, Brazil, France and Germany.
Udo was born in Holstein, Northern Germany. After completing an apprenticeship and graduating from high school, he studied mechanical engineering with a focus on engineering design and machine dynamics at Leibnitz University in Hanover and Michigan Technological University. He received his doctorate degree in 2010 from the Technical University of Braunschweig.
In 1999, Udo began his professional career at the John Deere works in Mannheim as a development engineer in the field of chassis engineering. After various positions in product development, he was entrusted with overall technical responsibility for the new 6R series in 2006. From 2012 he held various management positions at John Deere in Waterloo (USA) before taking on the role of Engineering Manager for the Global Mid Tractor series at John Deere in Mannheim, Germany, in 2018.
Due to his many years of professional experience in the field of agricultural machinery, he has in-depth engineering experience at the component, module, system, vehicle and architecture level.
 

Tobias Luthe (PhD) is an academic transdisciplinary hybrid. He was originally trained as MSc forest scientist, with majors in environmental economics, wood technology and passive house design, and holds a 2nd Masters in education on sustainability. His PhD is in social-ecological resilience of mountain systems.
At ETH Zurich, Tobias is Program Director of the learning program “Designing Resilient Regenerative Systems”, containing a global free-access massive open online course series, and an executive Master of Advanced Studies in Regenerative Systems.
He leads the ETH Systemic Design Labs group who offers the DRRS program. Tobias is Associate Professor for Systemic Design at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway, and co-founding Director of the MonViso Institute in the Italian Alps, a living systems lab, a real-world mountain laboratory for sustainability transitions and regenerative design, and a bioregional weaving hub. At MVI, Tobias designed and built the passive net-positive “regenerator” house Il Doppio. He co-founded Grown, a design-as-nature lab and experience collective, winning industry awards for bio composites, such as inventing the first hemp bio-composite skis.
Tobias is a mountaineering guide and photographer and leads the Mountain Resilience Group at the Mountain Research Initiative, hosted at the University of Berne.