Engineering of Ontology and Multi-agent System Design -- Intelligent Multimedia Solution and the Security for the Next Generation Mobile Networks -- Operations Research Based on Soft Computing -- Web Mining and Personalization -- Learning and Soft Computing with Support Vector Machines (SVM) and RBF NNs -- Novel Methods in Evolutionary Computation -- Bioinformatics Using Intelligent and Machine Learning Techniques -- Practical Common Sense Reasoning -- Systems for Large-scale Metadata Extraction and Maintenance -- Soft Computing in Fault Detection and Diagnosis -- Intelligent Feature Recognition and Classification in Astrophysical and Medical Images -- Applications of Machine Learning Concepts -- Neuro-Fuzzy Hybrid Intelligent Industrial Control and Monitoring -- Intelligent Hybrid Systems for Robotics -- Techniques of Computational Intelligence for Affective Computing -- Information Agents on the Internet and Intelligent Web Mining -- Intelligent Information Systems Using Case-Based Reasoning or Search Engineering -- Applications of Computational Intelligence to Signal and Image Processing -- Emergent Global Behaviors of Distributed Intelligent Engineering and Information Systems -- Posters.

We were very pleased to once again extend to the delegates and, we are pleased to th say, our friends the warmest of welcomes to the 8 International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems at Wellington - stitute of Technology in Wellington, New Zealand. The KES conferences attract a wide range of interest. The broad focus of the c- ference series is the theory and applications of computational intelligence and em- gent technologies. Once purely a research field, intelligent systems have advanced to the point where their abilities have been incorporated into many conventional appli- tion areas. The quest to encapsulate human knowledge and capabilities in domains such as reasoning, problem solving, sensory analysis, and other complex areas has been avidly pursued. This is because it has been demonstrated that these abilities have definite practical applications. The techniques long ago reached the point where they are being exploited to provide commercial advantages for companies and real beneficial effects on profits. KES 2004 provided a valuable mechanism for delegates to obtain a profound view of the latest intelligent systems research into a range of - gorithms, tools and techniques. KES 2004 also gave delegates the chance to come into contact with those applying intelligent systems in diverse commercial areas. The combination of theory and practice represents a uniquely valuable opportunity for - preciating the full spectrum of intelligent-systems activity and the “state of the art”.