The International Symposium on Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence 2011 (DCAI 2011) is a stimulating and productive forum where the scientific community can work towards future cooperation on Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence areas. This conference is the forum in which to present application of innovative techniques to complex problems. Artificial intelligence is changing our society. Its application in distributed environments, such as internet, electronic commerce, environment monitoring, mobile communications, wireless devices, distributed computing, to cite some,  is continuously increasing, becoming an element of high added value with social and economic potential, both industry, life quality and research. These technologies are changing constantly as a result of the large research and technical effort being undertaken in universities, companies. The exchange of ideas between scientists and technicians from both academic and industry is essential to facilitate the development of systems that meet the demands of today's society.
This edition of DCAI brings together past experience, current work and promising future trends associated with distributed computing, artificial intelligence and their application to provide efficient solutions to real problems. This symposium is organized by the Bioinformatics, Intelligent System and Educational Technology Research Group (http://bisite.usal.es/) of the University of Salamanca. The present edition has been held in Salamanca, Spain, from 6 to 8 April 2011.