The Systems Engineering Day (TdSE) 2025 in Salzburg impressively demonstrated that Systems Engineering (SE) is not just a set of methods or tools. It embodies future-shaping and only works as a collaborative effort within an active community. For Bertrandt, represented by Stefan Hahn, Bernhard Reisch, and Felix Klann, TdSE was more than a conference—it was a showcase of cross-location collaboration at the Salzburg Congress.
TdSE highlighted the fundamental transformation in Systems Engineering. The focus is shifting from pure method control to clear value contribution. The biggest challenge is not system complexity itself, but the cognitive resilience of people who must master and shape such systems.
The program was well-structured and showed how different industries tackle common core problems through SE and reach similar insights.
Day 1 Focused on:
Case studies from large projects in automotive, rail, defence, and aerospace
Key Takeaway: The future does not lie in more models, but in shared semantics and clear purpose.
Day 2 Delved Into:
Main Insight: Safety is considered holistically. The greatest hurdle is not the system, but the cognitive resilience of people who must master it.
Clear Pattern: Systems Engineering is not an isolated role or department, but a crucial competence for the future viability of companies.
In the interactive World Café, participants discussed current topics such as modularity for circular economy, large language models and SysML v2, traceability complexity, and pragmatic Systems Engineering. This fostered diverse exchanges and collaborative solution development following the “law of two feet” principle.
The Social Dinner at the Ferdinand Porsche Erlebniswelten – fahr(T)raum in Mattsee was not just relaxation, but a second stage for open discussions:
Stefan Hahn, Lead Expert and Head of CoC Systems Engineering, shared:
“The strongest insight was that the greatest barrier is not system complexity, but the cognitive limitation of people. Complexity is a feature of modern systems, not the problem itself. The real problem arises when people can no longer process this complexity, neither mentally nor in dialogue. We can only hold about 3–4 concepts simultaneously in our minds. We cannot visualize everything. We cannot model everything. Communication flattens as soon as overload occurs. The risk is not in the system, but in the limited human processing capacity. Therefore, we must design engineering to remain cognitively accessible.”
TdSE 2025 in Salzburg made it clear: Systems Engineering shapes the future and succeeds only as a collaborative corporate culture. Bertrandt has the opportunity to further scale this culture and competence, strengthening the “Bertrandt Way” as a driver of innovation
