Andreas Öchsner is Professor for Lightweight Design / Structural Simulation at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences. Before joining Esslingen, he was a Full Professor at the School of Engineering, Griffith University, Australia and Leader of the Mechanical Engineering Program (Head of Discipline and Program Director). Having obtained a Dipl.-Ing. degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Stuttgart (1997), Germany, he served as a research and teaching assistant at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg from 1997 to 2003 while working to complete his Doctor of Engineering Sciences (Dr.-Ing.) degree. From 2003 to 2006, he was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Head of the Cellular Metals Group affiliated with the University of Aveiro, Portugal. He spent seven years (2007-2013) as a Full Professor at the Department of Applied Mechanics, Technical University of Malaysia, where he was also Head of the Advanced Materials and Structure Lab.

Holm Altenbach is Full Professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Germany. Having obtained a Diploma Degree (1980) and a Doctoral Degree (1983) at the Leningrad Polytechnic he received the Facultas docendi in Engineering Mechanics in Magdeburg. In 1987 he obtained the Doctor of Engineering Sciences (Dr.-Ing.habil.) at the Leningrad Polytechnic. From 1987 up to 1995 he worked as a lecturer in the Institute of Material Science at the Magdeburg University. During this period he was invited as a visiting professor to the National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute" (Kharkiv, Ukraine), the University of Technology Bratislava (Slovakia) and the Technical University Riga (Latvia). In 1996 he was appointed as a Full Professor in Engineering Mechanics at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg. His research activities were awarded by the Krupp fellowship (Ruhr-University Bochum), the Gold medal of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Politechnika Lubelska (Lublin, Poland) and Dr.h.c. of the National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute" (Kharkiv, Ukraine) of the Ovidius University (Constan¿a, Romania) and the Vekua Institut of the Ivane Javakhishvili State University (Tbilisi, Georgia). He has presented over 320 lectures on national and international confereces and published approximately 320 scientific publications including monographs, textbooks and proceedings. He organized 6 CISM courses in Udine, Italy and acts as Editor-in-chief of "Zeitschrift für Angewandte Mathematic und Mechanik" (ZAMM, founded 1921) ("Journal  on Applied Mathematics and Mechanics"), Advisory Editor of Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics and Associate Editor of Mechanics of Composite Materials. He is a Fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Sciences. In 2015 and 2016 he served as a professor at St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University Peter the Great. In 2016 he was a visiting professor at Griffith university (Australia).

This volume gives an overview on recent developments for various applications of modern engineering design. Different engineering disciplines such as mechanical, materials, computer and process engineering provide the foundation for the design and development of improved structures, materials and processes. The modern design cycle is characterized by an interaction of different disciplines and a strong shift to computer-based approaches where only a few experiments are performed for verification purposes. A major driver for this development is the increased demand for cost reduction, which is also connected to environmental demands. In the transportation industry (e.g. automotive or aerospace), this is connected with the demand for higher fuel efficiency, which is related to the operational costs and the lower harm for the environment. One way to fulfil such requirements are lighter structures and/or improved processes for energy conversion. Another emerging area is the interaction of classical engineering with the health and medical sector. In this book, many examples of the mentioned design applications are presented.