This book is the first in a new series entitled "Intelligent Systems Reference Library". It is a collection of chapters written by leading experts, covering a rich and diverse variety of computer-based techniques, all involving some aspect of computational intelligence (CI). Authors in this collection recognize the limitations of individual paradigms, and propose some practical and novel ways in which different CI techniques can be combined with each other, or with more traditional computational techniques, to produce powerful problem-solving environments.

Common themes to be found in the various chapters of this collection include the following:

* Fusion,

* Collaboration, and

* Emergence.

Fusion describes the hybridization of two or more techniques, at least one of which will involve CI. Collaboration ensures that the different techniques work effectively together. Finally, Emergence refers to the phenomenon that complex behaviour can arise as a result of collaboration between simple processing elements.