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In the context of multidisciplinary complex systems design, modelling and simulation are key components in decision making. It allow engineers to validate design alternatives at early development stages. Consequently, it is possible to reduce uncertainty on requirements compliance and secure better decisions for downstream stages of product development. This article describes the analysis of a virtual prototype of an automated greenhouse irrigation system. It is modelled and compared with the real system implementation, finding some differences and similarities between both system testing approaches. The intrinsic dependence of experimentation and modelling is also discussed as both, experimental and random data, are important to be used as inputs to validate virtual models.

This article will present the experience in the development of an intercontinental collaborative project named "Global Factory", being the first massive academic exploration of this new way of engineering work. The main goal of the project, was to collaboratively design a virtual factory to produce vehicle combustion engines, by using the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software CATIA V6. It was developed collaboratively by students from different universities around the world with distributed work and a centralized database. Therefore, interdisciplinary work was encouraged, leading students to collaborate with colleagues from different disciplines and countries. Students were subject to real conditions of international work and the implied working conditions (e.g. cultural aspects, time-frames, communication limitations, use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), etc.). Furthermore, they had to deal with the natural complexity of the technical work as well as the global interaction aspects, being a complicated task to be developed in a novel tool. Finally, the paper will describe the analysis of the project and the educational aspects that students had to face. This project sets the basis for preparing engineers of the future, who will work in a global environment.