The first IEEE International Symposium on Systems Engineering (ISSE) will be held in Rome, Italy on September 29-30, 2015. This symposium seeks to create an interactive forum for the practice of systems engineering across the multiple disciplines and specialty areas associated with the engineering of complex systems. The symposium will provide a venue for systems engineering practitioners, managers, researchers, and educators to exchange innovative concepts, ideas, applications and lessons learned addressing: Applications-oriented topics on large-scale systems and systems-of-systems in topics noted in the Call for Papers Systems engineering, education, standards, processes and methodologies for the system-of-systems environment Research opportunities and results relating to systems-of-systems The IEEE Systems Council facilitates interactions among communities of interest on system-level problems and applications. System-level thinking is essential in the world today, not only for technical systems but also for society at large. The Council addresses the discipline of systems engineering, including the issues of complexities of system-level and system-of-systems applications, focusing on the total systems effectiveness of complex integrated systems of national and global significance.