The workshop was organized jointly by the Consorzio CREATE, Italy and. the Universita degli Studi di Reggio Calabria, in co-operation with the Japan Society of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics (JSAEM), Seconda Universita degli Studi di Napoli, and the Universita degli Studi di Cassino along with the scientific sponsorship of prominent research-institutions and industries.

The aim of E'NDE Workshops is to provide a forum to discuss recent developments and exchange up-to-date information in the field of the electromagnetic nondestructive evaluation (ENDE) and also to provide an opportunity for the proposal and discussion of benchmark problems. E'NDE methodologies, which are typically similar to those used in medical applications (e.g., MRI, tomographic reconstruction, etc.), involve the analysis and testing of components employed in the transportation, nuclear, and other industrial plants.

The papers cover several interesting aspects of the field including improved and novel methods of electromagnetic nondestructive testing, original solutions to forward and inverse problems with the objective of reconstructing the position and shape of defects, signal processing, neural network applications, advances in sensor design and optimization, detection of material degradation through magnetic measurements, proposals and solutions to benchmark problems, and relevant industrial applications.

The workshop was held at the new building that houses the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Reggio Calabria. Previous E'NDE Workshops were held at the University College London, UK (1995) and at the University of Tokyo (1996). The participation of 55 delegates from I I countries spanning three continents allowed very fruitful and effective discussions relating to the methods used and the results achieved. It was obvious from the deliberations that this field is growing very rapidly and that substantial progress is to be expected, especially in regard to the identification of the shapes of flaws.

The workshop was a success, judged on the basis of the quality of technical presentations and the interesting discussions stimulated by the prominent scientists who chaired the 7 technical sessions (S.S. Udpa, J. Bowler, J. Pavo, R. Zorgati, D. Ioan, G. Rubinacci and T. Takagi). Interest in the workshop was also evident from the fact that over 1000 contacts were established with the web site of E'NDE-Reggio Calabria. at the internet address: http://neurolab.ing.unirc.it/ende97.html.

The E'NDE Standing Committee established plans for future activities. In particular, it was agreed that the 1998 E'NDE Workshop will be held in France (in Paris or at Gif-sur-Yvette), organized by D. Lesselier from LSS (CNRS-SUPELEC) and A. Razek from LGEP (CNRS-SUPELEC-UPS-UPMQ in cooperation with R. Zorgati from EdF. It was also established that the 1999 Conference will be organized by S.S. Udpa at Iowa State University (USA).

All papers included in this volume passed through a rigorous reviewing procedure. Each paper was reviewed by at least two independent referees. Only 5 papers were accepted as they were, whereas 36 papers were accepted after required revision. The reviewing process was carried out with the help of more than 30 referees, to whom the editors are grateful.

R. Albanese, Univ. Reggio Calabria, Italy (Chairman of E'NDE - Reggio Calabria)
G. Rubinacci, Univ. Cassino, Italy
T. Takagi, Tohoku Univ., Japan
S.S. Udpa, Iowa State Univ., USA