Resumen
The column focuses on collaborative designs as one of the promising approaches to meet the challenge posed by the distribution and heterogeneity obstacles in systems' design. These environments should not only automate individual tasks in the manner of traditional computer-aided engineering applications, but enable team members to share information and coordinate their activities within the context of a design project. Articles in this special section are devoted to new developments occurring in the collaborative design field. Multiple aspects are discussed, ranging from the importance of the definition of interdependencies between collaborators to the role of software platforms as a support to the work of these collaborators. The future of the collaborative design is full of challenges. With the globalization trend extending across the world, new approaches and tools are needed. Intelligent components are among those technologies that will play an important role in supporting collaborative teams.