On behalf of the Organizing Committee, we are pleased to invite you to the 9th International Symposium on Impact Engineering (ISIE 2016). The conference will take place from September 5th to September 9th, 2016, at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan, and will be jointly organized by the Department of Mechanical Engineering at NCKU and the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineers. The ISIE is a well-known international symposium in the field of impact engineering. Previous symposia in this series have been held in Sendai (1992), Beijing (1996), Singapore (1998), Kumamoto (2001), Cambridge (2004), Daejeon (2007), Warsaw (2010) and Osaka (2013). The primary objective of the ISIE series is to provide a forum for the presentation of recent progress in Impact Engineering and its related fields, both in terms of fundamental research and industrial applications.

ISIE 2016 is the 9th event in the series and will focus on latest developments in the experimental, theoretical and computational aspects of the dynamic impact response of materials and structures. This is the first time that the ISIE conference has been held in Tainan, the fourth-largest city in Taiwan, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to welcome our colleagues from all around the world. Taiwan, given the name “Formosa” (meaning “Beautiful Island”) by the Portuguese in the 16th century, is an island full of natural beauty and cultural diversity. Moreover, Tainan, the ancient capital of Taiwan, is a beautiful city with a rich historical past and a well-deserved reputation for its splendid cuisine. NCKU, established in 1931, is located within a stone’s throw of the city center, and is a leading university in Taiwan with 9 colleges and more than 60 departments. NCKU has previously been nominated as a Prominent Research University and Industry's Most Favorable University in Taiwan. As such, it guarantees that the ISIE 2016 Conference will be one of the most fruitful and enjoyable ever. We extend a very warm welcome to you all to ISIE 2016 and look forward to sharing with you the many wonderful things which make NCKU, Tainan and Taiwan so special.