The 16th Symposium on Piezoelectricity, Acoustic Waves, and Device Applications Held Successfully in Nanjing

The 16th Symposium on Piezoelectricity, Acoustic Waves, and Device Applications (SPAWDA 2022) was successfully held in the Nanjing Purple Palace Hotel on October 11-14, 2022. The conference was held in a hybrid form for both online and on-site presentations. This conference, as the past events, was sponsored by the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (CSTAM), the Chinese Society of Acoustics (CSA), the Chinese Society of Vibration Engineering (CSVE), and the IEEE-UFFC Society this year. This time the conference was organized by the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA) and State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures. The conference also received strong support from the Science and Technology Association of all levels in Jiangsu Province and other organizations. A number of prominent academicians including Prof. Bangchun Wen of Northeastern University, Prof. Liding Wang of Dalian University of Technology, and many others presented at the conference at the invitation of Prof. Chunsheng Zhao, the General Chair, and Professor and Academician of NUAA. Prof. and Academician Zhongde Shan, also the President of NUAA, presented at the opening ceremony of the conference with a number of senior officials from the Association of Science of Technology of Jiangsu Province.

Prof. Zhongde Shan welcomed the participants of this Spawda on behalf of NUAA. Mr. Sun Chunlei, Head of Jiangsu Association for Science and Technology, delivered a speech as the guest speaker. Prof. Qu Shaoxing from the CSTAM, Prof. Haiyan Hu of the CSVE, Prof. Dean Ta of the CSA, and Prof. Ji Wang of IEEE UFFC made remarks on behalf of the sponsoring organizations. The General Chair, Prof. Chunsheng Zhao made a personal effort to welcome all participants. The opening ceremony was presided over by Prof. Yang Ying of NUAA as the Executive Chairwoman of the conference. More than 300 participants including professors, engineers, and graduate students from leading universities, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and industrial laboratories were present at the conference.

For the first time, the conference awarded the Spawda Lifetime Achievement Award for piezoelectric and ultrasonic technology to Academician Chunsheng Zhao, the most Admired Scientist in China in 2021, in recognition of his pioneering contributions to piezoelectric devices and applications. After the opening ceremony, there were 10 plenary talks delivered by prominent researchers such as Prof. Bangchun Wen, Prof. Wanlin Guo, and others.

In summary, this year there were 10 plenary talks, 64 invited talks, 66 general presentations, and 42 student competition talks, and a total of 296 submissions were received. Eventually, there will be about 200 papers accepted for the conference proceedings. The participants had in-depth exchanges and discussions on the analysis, design, test, and applications of piezoelectric devices, piezoelectric and acoustic materials, ultrasonic nondestructive testing technology, multi-field couplings of piezoelectric/ferroelectric/magnetoelectric materials and structures, and other ongoing research projects and hotspots. This successful conference in the wake of the Covid-19 disruption was the great dedication and devotion by the NUAA Spawda Team with the support of other groups and participants. As part of the Spawda tradition, this conference not only promoted academic discussions among researchers in piezoelectric devices, materials, and mechanics but also enhanced the platform for exchanges and cooperation for industry and university partnerships in research and innovation. With the global control of the pandemic, it is hoped that international researchers can return to the Spawda events in the future with the 2023 conference planned in Chengdu in November.