Forty-seventh Annual Meeting of WDSI took place at the Kaua’i Marriott Resort on the beautiful island of Kaua’i in Hawaii during April 3-6, 2018. During the conference 244 papers presented in 65 sessions organized in 20 tracks. There were 258 registered participants, 32 of which were students, from 111 universities around the globe.

WDSI is a very special organization. As John Davies, a past-president, stated recently “... for nearly five decades ... the WDSI Annual Meetings [are] fonts of collegial interaction, inclusivity, life-long friendships, career enhancement and fun.” We continued this tradition with our meeting in Kaua’i.

There are very many people who made this meeting possible. In the Spring of 2016, John Bell, our current Past-President, Natasa Christodoulidou, our current President, and I had a site visit to Kaua’i. Thanks to the extra-ordinary skills of John and Natasa, we were able procure an excellent arrangement in one of the best venues for a conference on this beautiful island. I thank them for that and their continued support throughout the planning of this conference. All members of the WDSI Board have been fully supportive in putting this conference together, and they all deserve our appreciation; however, I have to single out three persons. The first is our Treasurer Sheldon Smith, who was not only an indispensable mentor to me on all money matters, but also invaluable guide to the WDSI past practices on many essential issues. Albert Huang, my predecessor as last year’s Program Chair, whose generous sharing of his experience in putting together the conference was indispensable. His most invaluable contribution, however, was his Introduction of Yuanjie He to me to assist in putting together the program. Yuanjie, with his colleague, Shuo Zeng, both of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, put together this program; while my colleague, Nupur Shah, assisted me in all technical matters. I can truly say that this program would not have been realized without their help. I am grateful to all three. And to my dear friend Khosrow Moshirvaziri, WDSI Director of Information Systems, who had gone beyond his responsibilities to assist and support me throughout this process, for which I am indebted.

In concluding my acknowledgments, I have to express my appreciation of our Track Chairs, who assumed the heavy lifting throughout this undertaking; and to the members of the Junior Faculty and Best Paper Awards committees, who have done such a great job under very tight time constraints. Among our regional contacts, Shin-Yuan and Yue, for China and Taiwan, did a great job publicizing our conference in their region. My thanks also go to the Vivian Landrum, Executive Director of DSI, our parent organization. Her dedicated and timely attention to our registration issues made the process less taxing to all of us. And finally, our thanks go to our financial sponsors.

I am truly grateful for all these persons, without their support, this meeting would not have been realized. Once again, I hope your participation at this meeting had been both enjoyable and professionally beneficial.