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 5th International Multi-Conference on Engineering and Technological Innovation: IMETI 2012, 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.

IMETI 2012 was organized and sponsored by the International Institute of Informatics and Systemics (IIIS, www.iiis.org), member of the International Federation of Systems Research (IFSR). The IIIS is a multi-disciplinary organization for inter-disciplinary communication and integration, which includes about 4500 members. Consequently, a main purpose of the IIIS is to foster knowledge integration processes, interdisciplinary communication, and integration of academic activities. Based on 1) the transdisciplinartity of the systemic approach and its emphasis on relationships and integrating processes, and 2) the multi-disciplinary support of cybernetics’ and informatics’ concepts, notions, theories, technologies, and tools, the IIIS has been organizing multi-disciplinary conferences as a platform for fostering inter-disciplinary communication and knowledge integration processes.

Multi-disciplinary conferences are organized by the IIIS as support for both intra- and inter-disciplinary communication. Processes of intra-disciplinary communication are mainly achieved via traditional paper presentations in corresponding disciplines, while conversational sessions, regarding trans- and inter-disciplinary topics, are among the means used for inter-disciplinary communication. Intra- and inter-disciplinary communications might generate co-regulative cybernetic loops, via negative feedback, and synergic relationships, via positive feedback loops, in which both kinds of communications could increase their respective effectiveness. Figure 1 shows at least two cybernetic loops if intra- and inter-disciplinary are adequately related. A necessary condition for the effectiveness of Inter-disciplinary communication is an adequate level of variety regarding the participating disciplines. Analogical thinking and learning processes of disciplinarians depend on it; which in turn are potential sources of the creative tension required for cross-fertilization among disciplines and the generations of new hypothesis. An extended presentation regarding this issue can be found at www.iiis.org/MainPupose.

IMETI 2012 was organized jointly with other multi-disciplinary events 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 IMETI 2012, and its collocated events, is to promote and encourage interdisciplinary cross-fertilization and knowledge communication. This might foster 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.

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

1. the 199 members of the three Program Committees from 62 countries;
2. the 283 additional reviewers, from 46 countries, for their double-blind peer reviews; and
3. the 105 reviewers, from 38 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 705 reviews made by 388 reviewers (who made at least one review) contributed to the quality achieved in IMETI 2012. This means an average of 8.01 reviews per submission (88 submissions were received). Each registered author had access, via the conference web site, to the reviews that recommended the acceptance of their respective submissions. Each registered author could also 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 the 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 2012 (including the events organized in its context) about 88 papers/abstracts were submitted. These pre-conference proceedings include about 35 papers, from 17 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 2012 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 2012	258	822	1348	1.64	5.22	98	37.98%
IMSCI 2012	79	341	573	1.68	7.25	45	56.96%
IMETI 2012	88	388	705	1.82	8.01	35	39.77%
CISCI 2012	188	629	1283	2.04	6.82	61	32.45%
TOTAL	613	2180	3909	1.79	6.38	153	38.99%

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 2012 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 Sánchez, who brilliantly managed the organizing process. Special thanks to Dr. C. Dale Zinn, Professors Hsing-Wei Chu, Andrés Tremante, Michael Savoie, and Belkis Sánchez for chairing, or co-chairing the Program and/or the Organizing Committees of IMETI 2012 and/or the events organized in its context.

We also extend our sincere gratefulness to Drs. Ranulph Glanville, Thomas Marlowe, Ruth Bergman, Karl H. Müller, Shigehiro Hashimoto, T. Grandon Gill, Marta White Szabo, Jeremy Horne, Mario Norbis, Susu Nousala, Richard Segall, Kathy Kovacs Burns, Rahul Bedi, Darshan Deseai, and Heidi Hahn for accepting to address the audience of the General Joint Plenary Sessions with keynote conferences.

We extend our gratitude as well to María Sánchez, Juan Manuel Pineda, Leonisol Callaos, Dalia Sánchez, Keyla Guédez, Nidimar Díaz, Bebzabeth García, Marcela Briceño, Cindi Padilla, Louis Barnes, Sean Barnes, José Aponte, Abrahan Marín, Yulaime Padilla, 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 2012 General Chair