The 23rd International Workshop on Electromagnetic Nondestructive Evaluation (ENDE2018) took place on September 9 to 13, 2018 at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, USA. The workshop was organized by the Nondestructive Evaluation Laboratory (NDEL) at Michigan State University (MSU) and co-sponsored by the Japanese Society of Maintenology, American Chemistry Council, HMT Robot Limited Liability Partnership in Japan, and the College of Engineering at MSU. About 70 experts from more than 10 countries worldwide in nondestructive evaluation gathered at the workshop.

Electromagnetic nondestructive evaluation has grown considerably in recent years. This year’s technical sessions, student posters competition and special ENDE events provided a comprehensive and well-balanced program in theoretical and applied research of electromagnetic NDE (eNDE) methods. This workshop is intended to provide an international forum for the exchange of information on state-of-the-art technologies and development in NDE sensors, modeling, signal processing, inverse problems, materials state awareness and characterization, damage diagnosis and prognosis, biomedical applications, and innovative industrial applications of eNDE. Through a range of technical and social activities, ENDE2018 provided all the attendees a unique opportunity to interact with the world’s leading experts in electromagnetic NDE from academia, industry and government. Members of the organizing committee included MSU Executive Vice President for Administrative Services Satish Udpa and the following from the MSU Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering – Associate Professor Yiming Deng, Professor Lalita Udpa, Associate Professor Ming Han, Assistant Professor Sunil Chakrapani, and Professor Antonello Tamburrino of the Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, Italy, and MSU.

Yiming Deng, the general chair of workshop, Satish S. Udpa and Engineering Dean Leo Kempel welcomed all the attendees to the conference and provided introductory remarks to open the workshop. The technical program commenced with three plenary talks: “Electromagnetic NDE and the US Air Force: an Overview” by Dr. Eric Lindgren, Nondestructive Evaluation Technology Lead in the Materials State Awareness Branch of the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL); “U.S. Army TARDEC NDE Efforts” by Dr. David J. Gorsich, Chief Scientist, U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center; and “The Potential of Voluntary Information Sharing and Nondestructive Evaluation for Pipeline Safety” by Dr. Sherry Borener, Chief Data Officer and Senior Research Advisor at U.S. Department of Transportation. Three distinguished speakers from the aerospace, vehicle and gas pipeline industries were invited to discuss challenges confronting them and the ways in which NDE can assist in addressing these issues. An invited talk entitled “Innovation in a Regulated Space” was given by Joshua Arnold, R&D Program Manager, PHMSA, U.S. Department of Transportation, discussing the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) process, successes, lessons learned, and future opportunities for partnerships with NDE community. About 70 contributed technical presentations were organized into eight oral sessions covering topics on: (i) Advanced eNDE sensors and sensing systems, (ii) Electromagnetics for aerospace materials, (iii) Inverse problems, data processing and big data applications, (iv) Analytical and numerical modeling of eNDE, (v) Methodology in damage diagnosis and prognosis, (vi) Advanced composite NDE, (vii) Materials state awareness and characterization, (viii) Hybrid NDE, plus two poster sessions. Several experts in the field, S.S. Udpa, H. Zhang, J. Arnold, T. Takagi, G.Y. Tian, L. Udpa, S. Mukherjee, C. Reboud, N. Yusa, T. Uchimoto, M. Cherry, Z. Chen, S. Chakrapani, O. Karpenko, A. Tamburrino, R. Miorelli and V.T. Rathod chaired the sessions. Every presentation was followed by stimulating discussions. The conference concluded with closing remarks by Satish S. Udpa and scientific program committee chair Antonello Tamburrino. Gui Yun Tian, the general chair of ENDE2019 announced the venue for the next workshop, which will be held in Chengdu, China.

Seventy participants registered for the conference. Short versions of all contributed papers were published in the Workshop digest electronically, and nineteen full papers were accepted after peer-reviews and are published in this processing book.

The organizers gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the sponsors. Thanks are due to the members of the Standing Committee, particularly Professors Yusa and Ramos and Dr. Reboud, Chair of the International Standing Committee, who provided much guidance and support through their successful ENDE experiences in recent past years. The Editors are also indebted to the referees, listed below, for their timely reviews of the paper. Lastly, we acknowledged the hard work of NDEL student volunteers, whose dedication and interactions with all ENDE participants ensured the smooth and successful operation of the ENDE2018 Workshop and administrative arrangements.

Antonello Tamburrino, Yiming Deng and Sunil Chakrapani

Editors, ENDE2018