This Special Section of the ANZIAM Journal (Electronic Supplement) contains the refereed papers from the 12th Biennial Engineering Mathematics and Applications Conference (EMAC2015) held in Adelaide at the University of South Australia in December 2015. The EMAC series of conferences is held under the auspices of the Engineering Mathematics Group (EMG)---a special interest group of the Australian and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics division of the Australian Mathematics Society. The meeting provides a forum for researchers interested in the development and use of mathematical methods in engineering and applied mathematics. A further theme of the conference is the mathematical education of applied mathematicians and engineers.

The EMAC meetings take place biennially since 1994. EMAC 2003 marked a change to holding the meeting in odd numbered years. Participants at EMAC 2015 came from Japan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan,as well as Australia and New Zealand. We are very pleased to see such international support for EMAC.

Five keynote papers were presented at the conference:

• The bright future of solar energy
  Dr Kylie Catchpole, Australian National University
• Lessons learned in teaching engineering mathematics
  Dr Christine Mangelsdorf, University of Melbourne
• Multi-scale modelling of cardiac electro-mechanics, arrhythmias and heart failure
  Professor Martyn Nash, University of Auckland (New Zealand)
• The imperative of mathematical uncertainty
  Dr Darryn Reid, Defence Science and Technology Group
• Data integration through the lens of statistical learning
  Dr Ben Rubinstein, University of Melbourne

In addition to the invited presentations, 65 contributed papers, including 25 by students, were presented at the conference. All of the articles included in the EMAC 2015 Proceedings have been peer reviewed by at least two referees, and revised (when required) to satisfy the referees comments.

The editors, Mark Nelson, Brandon Pincombe, Dann Mallet and Judy Bunder, thank all of the referees who gave generously of time and effort.

EMAC 2015 Organising Committee

• Bronwyn Hajek (Chair, USA)
• Amie Albrecht (Secretary, USA)
• Eric Charrault (Treasurer, USA)
• Bill Blyth (retired)
• Charrise Farr (QUT)
• Romeo Marian (USA)
• Elyse Perin (USA)
• Brandon Pincombe (DSTO)
• Sarthok Sircar (UAD)

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge support from the following organisations:

• Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (for supporting students to attend the conference through the The CSIRO-ANZIAM Student Support Scheme).
• Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute.
• Australian Mathematical Society.
• Australian and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
• Australian Scientific & Engineering Solutions.
• Maplesoft
• University of South Australia.