Preface
On behalf of the 4M Association and the I2M2 (International Institution for Micro Manufacturing), it is our pleasure to welcome you to Milano, Italy, for the 4M/ICOMM2015 Conference.
It is the first time that the joint 4M/ICOMM Conference is held in Italy, following the previous editions, which took place in 2009 at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany and 2010 at University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA. This also constitutes the 10th ICOMM - International Conference on Micro Manufacturing and 11th 4M - Multi-Material Micro Manufacture Conference.
Both 4M and I2M2 Associations have worked hard together to make the 3rd joint conference a real success and considering the number of accepted papers, 148, we have achieved this and have surpassed all previous 4M and ICOMM Conferences with a big margin.
In addition, there will be student best paper and poster competitions sponsored by the National Science Foundation for students studying at U.S. academic institutions, the Elena Ulieru Innovation Award for best paper by a young female scientist sponsored by SITEX and 4M, and a photo contest for the best picture in micro engineering sponsored by the AITeM Group of Interest on Micro Manufacturing Engineering.
The Conference is a major step forward in establishing the global community in micromanufacturing that is the aim of both 4M and ICOMM Associations.
As it is the tradition in 4M and ICOMM Conferences, each day starts with a keynote talk presented by recognized international researchers, followed by parallel theme sessions.
The conference features also: two project sessions to report the latest findings of the EC-funded FP7 programmes in the field of multi-material micro manufacturing, following the traditions of the 4M conference series, an NSF student poster session, an AITeM GdI MME photo contest.
We would like to thank all authors, speakers and the Conference Scientific Committee for their participation in the review process. Also we would like to thank those at CNR-ITIA and Politecnico di Milano who have taken the responsibility for the local organization and logistics, without whose help and support the Conference would not have been possible. We wish to acknowledge also the financial support of our industrial sponsors, and many projects and organizations without which the Conference would not have been possible. Their interest for the Conference demonstrates the large industrial impact of Micro Manufacturing Engineering, now and in the future. Live demos have been prepared at the Conference location to show advanced manufacturing and measuring machines in operations.
The 4M/ICOMM2015 Conference is held under the patronage of Regione Lombardia, AFIL (Associazione Fabbrica Intelligente Lombardia) and AITeM (Associazione Italiana di Tecnologia Meccanica).
Finally, we would not want to conclude without highlighting the attractiveness of the hosting city, Milano, and Italy.
We wish you a nice stay and a fruitful Conference.
Conference Co-Chairs
Prof. Massimiliano Annoni, Politecnico di Milano, ITA
Dr. Irene Fassi, CNR-ITIA, ITA
Prof. Gloria J. Wiens, University of Florida, USA
Prof. Stefan Dimov, University of Birmingham, GBR