J.-E. Dubois and N. Gershon This book was inspired by the Symposium on "Communications and Computer Aided Systems" held at the 14th International CODATA Conference in September 1994 in Chambery, France. It was conceived and influenced by the discussions at the symposium and most of the contributions were written following the Conference. This is the first comprehensive book, published in one volume, of issues concerning the challenges and the vital impact of the information revolution (including the Internet and the World Wide Web) on science and technology. Topics concerning the impact of the information revolution on science and technology include: * Dramatic improvement in sharing of data and information among scientists and engineers around the world * Collaborations (on-line and off-line) of scientists and engineers separated by distance . * Availability of visual tools and methods to view, understand, search, and share information contained in data * Improvements in data and information browsing, search and access and * New ways of publishing scientific and technological data and information. These changes have dramatically modified the way research and development in science and technology are being carried out. However, to facilitate this information flow nationally and internationally, the science and technology communities need to develop and put in place new standards and policies and resolve some legal issues.

J. -E. DUBOIS and N. GERSHON The first volume of this series, "The Information Revolution: Impact on Science and Technology", emphasized the importance of data sharing and fast communication and the advantages l!)f current hypertext developments in creating new and flexible data access. Volume II, "Modeling Complex Data for Creating Information", dealt, in particular, with the specific constraints of science and technology data including imprecision and uncertainty. It also provided representation and handling tools and object oriented programming technology for developing data systems. The papers presented in this third volume are concerned with the very specific information problems of the technical and competitive industrial world. Here, production and selling rely on creative design, information processing, special up-to date data search, knowledge comprehension and fast action, all essential for decision making steps. The following topics are discussed in this volume: * Cognition and Recognition in Design * Knowledge Based Systems (KBS) Evaluation * Modeling Tools for Knowledge Discovery * Standards and CAD (Computer Aided Design) Aspects of Industrial Exchange and Specifications * Information Seeking Strategies of Selective Access to Intelligent Information * Special Information Resources: Complex Databases Most of these topics, inspired by the symposium on "Communication and Computer Aided Systems" held during the 14th International CODATA Conference, deal with systemic components used by various up-to-date industries in development strategies.

J.-E DUBOIS and N. GERSHON As with Volume 1 in this series, this book was inspired by the Symposium on "Communications and Computer Aided Systems" held at the 14th International CODATA Conference in September 1994 in Chambery, France. This book was conceived and influenced by the discussions at the Symposium and most of the contributions were written following the Conference. Whereas the first volume dealt with the numerous challenges facing the information revolution, especially its communication aspects, this one provides an insight into the recent tools provided by computer science for handling the complex aspects of scientific and technological data. This volume, "Modeling Complex Data for Creating Information," is concerned with real and virtual objects often involved with data handling processes encountered frequently in modeling physical phenomena and systems behavior. Topics concerning modeling complex data for creating information include: * Object oriented approach for structuring data and knowledge * Imprecision and uncertainty in information systems * Fractal modeling and shape and surface processing * Symmetry applications for molecular data The choice of these topics reflects recent developments in information systems technologies. One example is object oriented technology. Recently, research, development and applications have been using object-oriented modeling for computer handling of data and data management. Object oriented technology offers increasingly easy-to-use software applications and operating systems. As a result, science and technology research and applications can now provide more flexible and effective services.