CTAC2014 was the 17th biennial Computational Techniques and Applications Conference, and took place at the Australian National University from 1 - 3 December, 2014. 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.

Nine invited speakers participated in the conference:

• John Ormerod, Sydney University
  Variational Bayes for model selection
• Kerrie Mengerson, Queensland University of Technology
  Computational Bayesian analysis of big data
• Ian Turner, Queensland University of Technology
  Efficient two-scale computational models for simulating multiphase transport in heterogeneous porous media
• Jerome Droniou, Monash University
  Mathematical tools for the numerical analysis of partial differential equations under real-world constraints
• Cornelis Oosterlee, Delft University of Technology
  Fourier methods and second-order weak Taylor scheme for backward stochastic differential equations in computational finance
• Tim Gureyev, CSIRO
  Noise-resolution uncertainty principle and related problems
• Stuart Hawkins, Macquarie University
  Uncertainty quantification for wave propagation problems
• Linda Stals, Australian National University
  The parallel solution of discrete thin plate splines
• Wolfgang Hackbusch, University of Kiel
  Numerical tensor calculus

Jochen Garcke from the Institute for Numerical Simulation, Germany, presented a public lecture entitled Big Data Analytics for Simulation Repositories in Industry.

The conference attracted a further 73 contributed talks. All articles appearing in the CTAC2014 proceedings have been peer reviewed by at least two referees, and in most cases undergone revision prior to acceptance.

The editors, Jason Sharples, Markus Hegland, Barry Croke, Stephen Roberts and Judith Bunder, thank all of the referees whose efforts have contributed greatly to the quality of the conference proceedings.

CTAC2014 Organising Committee

• Markus Hegland, ANU (Co-chair)
• Jason Sharples, UNSW Canberra (Co-chair)
• Tony Jakeman, ANU
• Qinian Jin, ANU
• Jay Larson, ANU
• Barry Croke, ANU
• Stephen Roberts, ANU
• Linda Stals, ANU

CTAC2014 Scientific Committee

• Harvinder Sidhu, UNSW Canberra
• Thanh Tran, UNSW
• John Taylor, CSIRO
• Tony Jakeman, ANU
• Kate Smith-Miles, Monash
• Regina Burachik, Uni. SA
• Alan Welsh, ANU
• Alistair Rendell, ANU
• Song Ping Zhu, Uni. Wollongong
• Kevin Burrage, QUT
• Steve Armfield, Sydney
• Robert McLachlan, Massey Uni., NZ

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge support from the following organisations:

• Mathematical Sciences Insitute, ANU;
• Modelling & Simulation Scoiety of Australia and New Zealand;
• Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute;
• Australian and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics;
• CSIRO - Mathematical and Information Sciences.