CTAC2010 was the 15th biennial Computational Techniques and Applications Conference, and took place at the University of New South Wales from 28 November to 1 December, 2010. The ANZIAM Special Interest Group in Computational Techniques and Applications is responsible for the CTAC meetings, the first of which was held in 1981. Mike Osborne recorded some of the early history of CTAC in this online article [ANZIAM J(E), 42 (2000)]

This Special Section of the ANZIAM Journal (Electronic Supplement) contains the refereed conference papers.

Seven invited speakers participated in the conference:

• Tim Cornwell, CSIRO
  Large computational and algorithmic challenges of the square kilometer array
• Paul Durbin, Iowa State University
  Turbulent flow through a serpentine channel
• Bjorn Engquist, The University of Texas at Austin
  Multiscale methods for wave propagation
• Mark Knackstedt, ANU
  The digital materials laboratory
• Frances Kuo, UNSW
  Lifting the curse of dimensionality - quasi Monte Carlo methods for high dimensional integration
• Robert Scheichl, University of Bath
  Multilevel simulation under uncertainty
• Jamie Sethian
  In pursuit of interfaces - inkjet plotters, coating rollers, semiconductors, retinopathy, and chemical pathways

The presentation by Jamie Sethian was a public lecture.

The conference attracted a further 91 contributed talks. All articles appearing in the CTAC2010 proceedings have been peer reviewed by two referees, and in most cases undergone revision prior to acceptance.

The editors, William McLean and Tony Roberts, thank all of the referees whose efforts have contributed greatly to the quality of the conference proceedings.

CTAC2010 Organising Committee

• Adelle Coster
• Josef Dick
• Frances Kuo
• Quoc Thong Le Gia
• William McLean
• Kaye Sedgers
• Thanh Tran (Chair)
• Rob Womersley

CTAC2010 Scientific Committee

• Steve Armfield, University of Sydney
• Lindsay Botten, ANU
• Don Kelly, UNSW
• Steve Roberts, ANU
• Ian Sloan (chair), UNSW

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge support from the following organisations:

• School of Mathematics and Statistics, UNSW;
• Center of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems;
• Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute;
• Australian and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics;
• CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences.