As discussed in a recent report for which I was a co-author, "as computers and communication bandwidth become faster and cheaper, computing and communication capabilities will be embedded in all types of objects and structures in the physical environment. Applications with enormous societal impact and economic benefit will be created by harnessing these capabilities in time and across space. We refer to systems that bridge the cyber-world of computing and communications with the physical world as cyber-physical systems (CPS). The internet transformed how humans interact and communicate with one another, revolutionized how and where information is accessed, and even changed how people buy and sell in the marketplace. Similarly, CPS will transform how humans interact with and control the physical world around us. Examples of CPS include medical devices and systems, aerospace systems, transportation vehicles and intelligent highways, defense systems, robotic systems, process control, factory automation, building and environmental control and smart spaces. However, the confluence of recent key technologies is fundamentally altering how these types of systems will operate. For example, the level of uncertainty in which these systems operate is growing (hence the need for greater robustness), and pervasive wireless access is opening these systems to unprecedented dynamic and non-deterministic influences." This talk will describe this new and emerging field called CPS. The talk will focus on what is new and why we need fundamentally new approaches to face robustness and openness challenges. Aspect oriented programming will be proposed as a possible basis for key work in CPS.