Emerging cyberinfrastructure: Challenges for the chemical process control community

This paper considers a broad, high-level overview of two key trends in “emerging cyberinfrastructure”: how it is nearing a tipping point of “information flow reversal” of data flowing from the periphery of the internet to the core (instead of the historic “download” model of data flow from the core to the periphery) and the coupling of all traditional infrastructures such as roads and power grids to cyberhubs with the incorporation of smart features such as sensors and actuators. In the language of the CPC community, the cyberinfrastructure for data flow is evolving from an isolated and simple open-loop system to a closed-loop system of complex inter-dependencies with all other infrastructures. This pathway will undoubtedly lead to one of the grand challenges of modern systems engineering, namely a system with a rich set of dynamics that presents a formidable challenge amenable only to those most skilled in the art and science of process control. The dramatic ramp up in societal investments in radio frequency identification (RFID), the emergence of a community investigating dynamic data-drive application systems (DDDAS) and mitigation of security risks engendered by cyberhubs linking critical infrastructures can all be reconsidered in this framework as part of a greater pattern.