The academic citation apparatus acknowledges the relevance of the works of others to the topic of discussion, which we have done throughout this textbook. However, this mechanism can fail to capture the influences of many of the research endeavors involved. With this in mind, the authors wish to acknowledge the different organizations and people instrumental in helping shape the present research.

First, the authors are appreciative of graduate students and young researchers in the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering (Old Dominion University, USA), Department of Informatics and Engineering Systems (University of South Carolina Upstate, USA), European Institute for Risk, Security and Communication Management (EURISC, Romania), and Faculty of Entrepreneurship, Business Engineering, and Management (POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest, Romania).

Also, beyond the authors’ hustling, this book is a measurable expression of their intense intellectual interaction and cross-fertilization of ideas with several distinguished colleagues and partners in mind from academia and industry. Most significantly, our gratitude goes to the following:

Adolf J. Dörig (Dörig + Partner AG, Salzburg, Austria), Cornel Vintila (AuraChain, Bucharest, Romania), Dr. Alexandru Georgescu (National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics, Bucharest, Romania), Dr. Clif Flynn (University of South Carolina Upstate, Spartanburg, SC, USA), Dr. Dan V. Vamanu (Horia Hulubei National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania), Dr. Frank Stumpe (KBC Group, Brussels, Belgium), Dr. Griffin Fernandez (Educe Group, Bethesda, MD, USA), Dr. Jeannie M. Chapman (University of South Carolina Upstate, Spartanburg, SC, USA), Dr. Liviu Muresan (EURISC, Bucharest, Romania), Dr. Paul Niculescu-Mizil Gheorghe (National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics, Bucharest, Romania), Dr. Ricardo S. Santos (University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal), Dr. Roland Pulfer (Action4Value, Kirchseelte, Germany), James J. Katina (Charlottesville City Schools, Charlottesville, VA, USA), Jürg Birchmeier (Zürich Insurance Company Ltd., Zürich, Switzerland), Laura Manciu (AuraChain, Bucharest, Romania), Marcelo Masera (Joint Research Centre, Petten, The Netherlands), Prof. Dr. Andreas Tolk (MITRE Corporation, Charlottesville, VA, USA), Prof. Dr. Cesar A. Pinto (Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA), Prof. Dr. Enrico Zio (CentraleSupélec, Paris, France), Prof. Dr. Len Troncale (Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona, CA, USA), Prof. Dr. Radu Cornel (University Politehnica of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania), Prof. Dr. Resit Unal (Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA), Prof. Dr. Unal Tatar (University at Albany -State University of New York, Albany, NY, USA), Prof. Dr. Winx Lawrence (University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA), Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kröger (ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland), and Prof. Olga Bucovetchi (Politehnica University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania).

Also, we wish to acknowledge several students, many of whom we proudly now call colleagues, in classes where we tested teaching/research materials: Anouar Hallioui, Farinaz Sabz AliPour, Jarutpong Vasuthanasub, Max Siangchokyoo, Nima Shahriari, Omer Keskin, Omer Poyraz, Sujatha Alla, Ulpia-Elena Botezatu, and Ying Thaviphoke.

For help with preparing the manuscript, we are thankful to our managing editor, Sarah Lemore, for working tirelessly to ensure we produced the highest quality textbook.

We want to thank our editor at Wiley, Brett Kurzman, for his encouragement throughout the project. We also want to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments that helped to improve the presentation of the material in the book.

Our sincere apologies to everyone else with whom we’ve had stimulating discussions and interchanges and that ought to have been remembered here. Thank you for helping shape this research and what will emerge from these thoughts.

Adrian V. Gheorghe
Norfolk, Virginia, USA

Polinpapilinho F. Katina
Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA