Foreword to the Special Issue on SMI 2016

17 the context of Computer Graphics conferences is its particular focus on methods and techniques to model, design and analyze shapes in all their aspects. Started in Japan by Prof. Tosyiasu L. Kunii, honorary chair of all the SMI events, SMI was initially characterized by tracks on topological methods for shape modeling, functional and implicit representations, as well as interactive shape manipulation techniques. Over the years, the travel of SMI conferences around the world has been cadenced by its alternations among Asia, Europe and America: Italy (2001), Canada (2002), South Korea (2003), Italy (2004), USA (2005), Japan (2006), France (2007), USA (2008), China (2009), France (2010), Israel (2011), USA (2012), United Kingdom (2013), Hong Kong (2014), France (2015). Also the topics of SMI evolved over time, with the introduction of topics related to shape semantics and reasoning on shape similarity. SMI has a tradition in seeking co-location with other conferences: in 2004, it was organized for first time with the ACM Symposium on Solid Modeling and Applications, now evolved in the Symposium on Solid & Physical Modeling, and the co-location has been sought every time it was compatible with the alternating geographical venues. 2016 is a special year for Shape Modeling International: the conference has been organized within the scope of the frst International Geometry Summit (IGS) whose role is to showcase the breadth and the impact of applied geometry. Three prominent international conferences dealing with shape and geometry have been asked to join forces and coordinate technical programs, invited speakers and related events in a coherent program. The Symposium on Geometry Processing (SGP), the Symposium on Solid & Physical Modeling (SPM) and Shape Modeling International will be held at the Freie Universität Berlin, in Germany, June 20–24, 2016. The individual technical papers track for SMI16 received a total of 57 submissions, from all over the world. Only 19 papers were retained as accepted papers for publication in the special issue of the journal Computers and Graphics (Elsevier) devoted to the proceedings of SMI. Each paper received from three to six reviews from members of the Program Committee and underwent a two stage review process. The papers will be presented in the conference grouped into themed sessions as follows: