**About the Editors**

**Nikolaos Papakostas**, Associate Professor at University College Dublin. He is Research Director of the Laboratory for Advanced Manufacturing Simulation and Robotics (UCD-LAMS) at the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. His research areas include Robotics, Digital Manufacturing, and Optimization of Manufacturing Systems and Networks. He has cooperated with many leading companies in Ireland and Europe mainly from the bioprocessing, automotive, and aerospace industrial sectors as well as with top machine tool building and software firms. He has coordinated a significant number of European and national research projects, targeting the introduction of novel digital technologies in the manufacturing environment of the 21st century. He has authored over 100 scientific papers with more than 2500 citations. He has served as IT Manager of a large manufacturing company for several years. He is an Associate Member of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP).

**Carmen Constantinescu**, Prof. Dr-Ing., MBA, at Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO. She graduated as Mechanical Engineer at Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and completed her PhD degree in the area of Industrial Engineering at the same university. Since 2001, Professor Constantinescu has been working at Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering in Stuttgart. In 2008, she founded the research group and department "Digital Factory" and is currently leading the research area "Digital Manufacturing 4.0". Prof. Constantinescu is involved in academic activities at University of Stuttgart; Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden; and Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in the fields of Modeling, Simulation, and Digital/Virtual and Smart Factory. More than 30 of her research projects have been financed by the European Commission under FP6, FP7, Horizon2020, the German Ministry of Research and Education, the German National Science Foundation, and the German industry. She has co-authored more than 4 books and 30 scientific publications in the field of optimization of manufacturing processes through digitalization transformation technologies as part of her contribution to the academic and industrial communities.

**Dimitris Mourtzis**, Professor at University of Patras. He is Director of the Laboratory of Manufacturing Systems and Automation (LMS) at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics. His main research interests are focused on Manufacturing Systems, Robot Automation, and Virtual Reality in Manufacturing and Manufacturing Processes Modeling and Energy Efficiency. He is also actively involved in Digital Transformation and Implementation of Industry 4.0 in industry. He is an elected Fellow Member of the International Academy for Production Research (CIRP) and member of several International Federations, among others, IFAC, IFIP, and ASME. He is the coordinator of important projects of Manufacturing Innovation and Circular Economy in the framework of the European Factories of the Future Research Association—EFFRA, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology—EIT and, specifically, the project EIT Manufacturing—EIT M. He has served as Coordinator of the innovative educational activity for engineers "Teaching Factories—New training methods of the Engineer" regarding the education and training of future young engineers in collaboration with industry. Moreover, he is the Faculty Liaison representing University of Patras in the iPodia program. He is reviewer of more than eighty international scientific journals with a high Impact Factor and has published more than three hundred scientific papers with more than 6000 citations.
