Foreword

Engineering activities are based on the development of new Knowledge (Scientia), new 'made things' (Techné), and/or new ways of working and doing (Praxis). Scientia, Techné, and Praxis are three important dimensions of a comprehensive conception of Engineering as a whole. Engineering, as Scientia, is mostly developed in academia; as Techné, is practiced in industry generating technological innovations; and as Praxis, is carried out in technical and non-technical organizations, supporting managerial activities and technical procedures, via methodical and methodological design and implementation. This is why Engineering provides one of the most solid academic and professional substrata for bridging among universities, industries and governments.

Publications and conferences related to Engineering are usually oriented to one of its three dimensions. While this is an adequate thing to do when disciplinary focus is sought, it does not represent Engineering as a whole and it misses the very important synergic relationships among the three kinds of engineering activities mentioned above. This is why a group of scholars, professionals, and consultants, in the field of engineering, considered the possibility of organizing a conference where presentations would not be reduced to one specific Engineering dimension, but would foster the participation of academics, practitioners, and managers in the three dimensions of Engineering, in the same conference, so they can synergistically interact with each other. A consequence of this purpose is the organization of The 4th International Multi-Conference on Engineering and Technological Innovation: IMETI 2011, where submissions were accepted for the presentation of:

• New knowledge (Engineering as scientia);
• New products and services, i.e. technological innovations (Engineering as techné);
• New technical and managerial methods and methodologies (Engineering as praxis);
• New meta-engineering (Engineering of Engineering activities) knowledge, innovations, and methodologies.

The 8^th International Conference on Cybernetics and Information Technologies, Systems and Applications (CITSA 2011) and The 9^th International Conference on Computing, Communications and Control Technologies (CCCT 2011) have been organized in the context of IMETI 2011, because both are mainly oriented to Engineering and Technology. Both of them are International Multi-Conferences organized with the purpose of providing a communicational forum to researchers, engineers, practitioners, developers, consultants, and end-users of computerized, communications, and/or control systems and technologies in the private and the public sectors. This multi-disciplinary forum provides the opportunity to share experience and knowledge by facilitating discussions on current and future research and innovation. Participants can explore the implications of relationships between new developments and their applications to organizations and society at-large.

One of the primary objectives of CITSA 2011, CCCT 2011 and, in general, IMETI 2011 is to promote and encourage interdisciplinary cross-fertilization and knowledge communication. They encourage systemic thinking and practice, including the analogical thinking that characterizes the Systems Approach, which is, in most cases, the required path to logical thinking, scientific hypothesis formulation, and new design and innovation in engineering.

CITSA 2011 and CCCT 2011 are spin-offs from the International Conference on Information Systems, Analysis and Synthesis (ISAS), and the World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI) which are yearly events that have been held in the last 17 years as a forum for Information Systems researchers, practitioners, consultants, and users who have been interchanging ideas, research results, and innovations in the area of Information Systems. Analytical as well as synthetical thinking represent the conceptual and methodological infrastructures that support the papers presented in ISAS conferences. Synthetical thinking supported papers in the Information Systems area, as well as in its relationships (analogies, "epistemic things", "technical synthetical objects", hybrid systems, cross-fertilization, etc.) with other areas. The Organizing Committees of IMETI/CITSA/CCCT 2011 invited authors to submit original works, analogy-based hypothesis, innovations, experience-based reflections and concepts, specific problems requiring solutions, case studies, and position papers that explore the relationships among the disciplines of computers, communications and control, and the social and industrial applications within these fields.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, I extend our heartfelt thanks to:

1. the 636 members of the three Program Committees from 63 countries;
2. 2. the 402 additional reviewers, from 62 countries, for their double-blind peer reviews;
3. 3. the 277 reviewers, from 51 countries, for their efforts in making the non-blind peer reviews. (Some reviewers supported both: non-blind and double-blind reviewing for different submissions)

A total of 1431 reviews made by 679 reviewers (who made at least one review) contributed to the quality achieved in IMETI 2011. This means an average of 6.75 reviews per submission (212 submissions were received). Each registered author could get information about: 1) the average of the reviewers’ evaluations according to 8 criteria, and the average of a global evaluation of his/her submission; and 2) the comments and constructive feedback made by the reviewers, who recommended the acceptance of his/her submission, so the author would be able to improve the final version of the paper.

In the organizational process of IMETI 2011 (including CITSA 2011 and CCCT 2011, EEEP 2011, EEET 2011, and OEPT 2011) about 212 papers/abstracts were submitted. These pre-conference proceedings include about 88 papers, from 28 countries, that were accepted for presentation. We extend our thanks to the invited sessions organizers for collecting, reviewing, and selecting the papers that will be presented in their respective sessions. The submissions were reviewed as carefully as time permitted; it is expected that most of them will probably appear in a more polished and complete form in scientific journals.

This information about IMETI 2011 is summarized in the following table, along with the other collocated conferences:

Conference	# of submissions received	# of reviewers that made at least one review	# of reviews made	Average of reviews per reviewer	Average of reviews per submission	# of papers included in the proceedings	% of submissions included in the proceedings
WMSCI 2011	391	1350	2461	1.82	6.29	193	49.36%
IMETI 2011	212	679	1431	2.11	6.75	88	41.51%
IMSCI 2011	276	856	2104	2.46	7.62	124	44.93%
CISCI 2011	388	973	2359	2.42	6.08	173	44.59%
TOTAL	1267	3858	8355	2.17	6.59	578	45.62%

We are also grateful to the co-editors of these proceedings for the hard work, energy, and eagerness they displayed preparing their respective sessions. We express our intense gratitude to Professor William Lesso for his wise and opportune tutoring, for his eternal energy, integrity, and continuous support and advice as Honorary President of WMSCI 2011 and its collocated conferences, as well as for being a very caring old friend and intellectual father to many of us. We also extend our gratitude to Professor Belkis Sanchez, who brilliantly managed the organizing process. Special thanks to Dr. C. Dale Zinn for chairing CCCT 2011 Program Committee (PC) and for co-chairing IMETI 2011 PC, to Professor Hsing-Wei Chu for co-chairing the IMETI 2011 PC and being General Co-Chair of CCCT 2011; to Professor Michael Savoie for being Co-General Chair of CCCT 2011 and CITSA 2011; to Professor José Ferrer for chairing th CITSA 2011 Organizing Committee; to professors Andrés Tremante and Belkis Sánchez for co-chairing the IMETI 2011 Organizing committee.

We also extend our gratitude to Drs., Louis H. Kauffman, Leonid Perlovsky, Stuart A. Umpleby, Thomas Marlowe, Ranulph Glanville, Karl H. Müller, Shigehiro Hashimoto, T. Grandon Gill, Alec Yasinsac, Marta White Szabo, Jeremy Horne, Mario Norbis, Ham Chan, Felix Soto-Toro, Susu Nousala, and Dipl.-Math Norbert Jastroch, for accepting to address the audience of the General Joint Plenary Sessions with keynote conferences.

Many thanks to Professors Friedrich Welsch, Thierry Lefevre, José Vicente Carrasquero, Angel Oropeza, and Freddy Malpica for chairing and supporting the organization of the focus symposia and conferences in the context of, or collocated with, IMETI 2011. We also wish to thank all the authors for the quality of their papers.

We extend our gratitude as well to Maria Sanchez, Juan Manuel Pineda, Leonisol Callaos, Dalia Sánchez, Keyla Guédez, Nidimar Díaz, Marcela Briceño, Cindi Padilla Louis Barnes, Sean Barnes, Marisela Jiménez, Noraima Castellano, Abrahan Marin, and Freddy Callaos for their knowledgeable effort in supporting the organizational process producing the hard copy and CD versions of the proceedings, developing and maintaining the software supporting the interactions of the authors with the reviewing process and the Organizing Committee, as well as for their support in the help desk and in the promotional process.

 

Professor Nagib C. Callaos,
IMETI 2011 General Chair