Proceedings of the Artificial Neural Networks in Engineering Conference, November 9-12, 1997, St. Louis, Missouri. The papers compiled in this book focus on building smart components to engineering systems currently available. The term smart in this context indicates physical systems that can interact with their environment and adapt to changes in both space and time by their ability to manipulate the environment through self-awareness and perceived models of the world based on both quantitative and qualitative information. Recent technologies such as artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, evolutionary programming, data mining wavelets, complex systems, and virtual reality form the basis of Smart Engineering System Design. In 1997, the Department of Engineering Management at the University of Missouri-Rolla organized the ANNIE'97 conference, to advance the techniques of Smart Engineering Sustem Design in collaboration with the IEEE Neural Network Council. This was the seventh meeting held in St. Louis,Missouri,U.S.A, since the founding of the conference in 1991. The conference attracted over 162 papers from 20 countries, which, after being peer-reviewed and revised, have been included in this book.