An outstanding platform for ground-breaking cross-disciplinary research

Abstract

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “engineering” is the study of using scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other things, including bridges, roads, vehicles, and buildings. Some ingenious examples of early and yet advanced engineering solutions are the automatic sliding doors powered by steam engines designed by Heron of Alexandria in the first century AD or the qanat irrigation system in Persia in the eighth century BC at the time of the Assyrian king Sargon II. In a broad sense, engineering has been with us for millennia and is a distinctive trait of human nature. The design of engineering solutions for even relatively simple tasks very often requires the use/assistance of intermediate tools. As demonstrated in experiments on animal psychology and in particular on a famous chimpanzee called Sultan [1], while animals of other species can use tools to solve tasks they appear to be incapable to build tools to solve tasks. Thus, humans apparently are the only species able to apply a creative approach to problem solving which may involve multiple phases of planning and the construction of intermediate tools. In modern times, a very important and widely used tool in engineering is the computer. Since its theoretical definition by Alan Turing [2], computers have undergone major changes in their hardware, e.g. in power and size, and the ways they are used. Over the past decades, computers are considered multipurpose devices that can usefully assist an engineer in their work. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) is the integration of design and manufacturing into a system under the direct control of digital computers. Of course, the meaning of CAE and what a computer can do for an engineer changed over the past decades and continues to change. Founded by a visionary, impactful and highly influential scholar of modern times, “based on the premise that interdisciplinary thinking and synergistic collaboration of disciplines can solve complex problems, open new frontiers, and lead to true innovations and breakthroughs with a focus on the integration of leading edge and emerging computer technologies for innovative solution of engineering problems,” as noted in the introduction to the inaugural issue of the journal published in July 1993, Integrated Computer-Aided Engineering (ICAE) publishes the latest research about CAE. Professor Hojjat Adeli, as the founder and Editor-in-Chief of ICAE, led the evolution of CAE while shaping the subject and anticipating its coming trends. ICAE is a forum of outstanding quality that has the reputation of being a top journal in Computer Science and Engineering. For example, ICAE has been consistently for many years in the first Quartile according to the Web of Science in the categories of Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Computer Science Interdisciplinary Applications. Professor Adeli achieved this extraordinary result thanks to his meticulous and rigorous hard work. Every submission must be accompanied by the statement that “it is original unpublished work and the manuscript or any variation of it has not been submitted to another publication previously.” Also, the prospective authors are requested to submit the list of the most impactful researchers in the same field of the submitted manuscript to verify their awareness of the latest developments and leaders in the field. The review process of each manuscript is handled with impeccable rigor by Professor Adeli. Each paper is reviewed by at least five expert reviewers. Some of these reviewers are authors of other papers submitted to ICAE while the other reviewers are selected from the Society of ICAE created by Professor Adeli over the past three decades. This society