This book contains papers presented at the International Symposium on Electromagnetic Fields in Electrical Engineering ISEF'07 which was held in Prague, the Czech Republic on September 13–15 2007. ISEF conferences have been organized since 1985 as a common initiative of Polish and European researchers who deal with electromagnetic field applied to electrical engineering. Until the present the conferences have been held every two years either in Poland or in one of European academic centres renowned for electromagnetic research. Technical University of Prague and the Chech Academy of Sciences make Prague be such a centre. Additionally, Prague is well-known in the world for its beauty and charm and it is called “Golden Prague”. The city of Prague is one of the six most frequently visited cities in Europe. Indeed, it is indisputable that Prague can attract every has the opportunity to visit it.

The long, more then 20-year-old, tradition of ISEF meetings is that they try to tangle quite a vast area of computational and applied electromagnetics. Moreover, ISEF symposia aim at joining theory and practice, thus the majority of papers are deeply rooted in engineering problems and simultaneously present high theoretical level. Bearing this tradition, we attempt to touch the core of electromagnetic phenomena.

After the selection process 237 papers were accepted for the presentation at the Symposium and almost all of them were presented at the conference, both orally and in the poster sessions. The papers have been divided into the following groups:

• Micro and Special Devices

• Electromagnetic Engineering

• Computational Electromagnetics

• Coupled Problems and Special Applications

• Measurement Monitoring and Testing Techniques

• Bioelectromagnetics

• Magnetic Material Modelling

The papers which were presented at the symposium had been reviewed and assessed by the sessions' chairmen and the Editorial Board assembled for the post-conference issue of ISEF'07. All the papers accepted for further publication were divided into three groups: 1) of more computational aspect, 2) of information technology aspect and 3) of more applicable nature. The latter ones are published in this volume while the first ones went to COMPEL journal (COMPEL: The International Journal for Computation and Mathematics in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, vol. 27, No. 3/2008) and the second group to Springer Verlag (series on Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol. 119, 2008).

The papers selected for this volume have been grouped in three chapters and seven sub-chapters. The division introduces some order in the pile of papers and the titles of chapters mirror the content of the papers to some extent. Names of chapters and subchapters are as follows:

Chapter A Fundamental Problems and Methods

 Fundamental Problems

 Methods

Chapter B Computer Methods in Applied Electromagnetism

 Computational Methods

 Numerical Modelling of Devices

Chapter C Applications

 Electrical Machines and Transformers

 Actuators and Special Devices

 Special Applications

The papers gathered in Chapter A are mainly devoted to physics of electromagnetic materials and mathematical approaches to electromagnetic problems. In the first sub-chapter papers concern physical phenomena, like magnetostriction, vibrations, anisotropy, occuring in the various electromagnetic materials from ferromagnetics to dielectromagnetics. And the second sub-chapter consists of papers concerning methods of analysis of electromagnetic phenomena in their methodological aspects.

Chapter B contains papers dealing with numerical (or computer) analysis of electromagnetic devices and phenomena. The first sub-chapter shows how mathematical methods are realised numerically, i.e. how to make real calculation, based on numbers. And the papers gathered in the second sub-chapter deal with numerical modelling of some groups of devices.

Chapter C, in turn, reveals the world of engineering problems, showing how theoretical and methodological considerations can be transferred to real engineering problems. Indeed, the chapter gives the image of real applied electromagnetics. The first sub-chapter is devoted to the very classical electrical devices, namely transformers and electrical machines. In spite of avery long tradition of numerical analysis of electromagnetic phenomena in such devices, the papers bring some new ideas and approaches. The second sub-chapter shows newer applications like sensors and actuators, and thus the area of engineering called mechatronics. Special approaches are needed inthe analysis of these devices as their size and operation features are quite different fromthe previous ones. And the last sub-chapter gathers a few papers dealing with very special applications based, for example, on superconductivity or ferroresonance. Needless to add that the electromagnetic analysis in such cases requires again new techniques and methods.

The division of the papers is far from clear distinction of the papers' topics and content. It is a very rough distinction which gives prospective readers some suggestion on how to find a paper of their personal interest.

Summarising this introductory remarks we, the Editors of the book, would like to express our hope that the book you have in your hands will help the world-wide electromagnetic community, both academic and engineering, in better understanding electromagnetism itself and its application to technical problems.

At the end of these remarks let us be allowed to express our thanks to our colleagues who have contributed to the book by submitting their papers or/and by peer-reviewing the papers at the conference as well as in the publishing process. We also convey our thanks to IOS Press Publisher for their effective collaboration in giving this very attractive shape of the book and its promoting. Let us also express our strong belief that ISEF conference will maintain strong links with IOS Press in the future.

Ivo Dolezel, Chairman of the Organising Committee

Andrzej Krawczyk, Scientific Secretary

Sławomir Wiak, Chairman of the ISEF Symposium