Adaptive Systems are featured by a multiple capability of a system to maintain or improve its performance as a response to internal or external changes, see for example uncertainties and variations during fabrication, faults and degradations, modifications in the operational environment, incidental or intentional interference, different users and preferences, modifications of standards and requirements, trade-offs between performance and resources. The system capabilities may be increased beyond what is possible with software-only solutions, and this is made by adaptation at hardware levels. Hardware implementation of a large range of algorithms and software techniques led to some spectacular applications as : adaptive communications (adapting to changing environment and interferences); reconfigurable systems on a chip ; portable wireless devices (adapting to power limitations); survivable spacecraft (adapting to extreme environments and mission unknowns).

Problems in Adaptive Systems and Hardware are using the increasingly sophisticated methods of Computational Intelligence (CI). Because of the high interdisciplinary requirements featuring most real-world applications, no bridge exists between the different stand alone Intelligent Technologies (IT). The concomitant increase in dialogue and interconnection between the IT has led to CI and its practical implementation - the Hybrid Intelligent Systems (HIS). The HIS progress and development was relied on IT interaction with some emergent technologies such as Artificial Immune Systems and the most spectacular emergent technology - Evolvable HardWare (EHW).

EHW has opened a revolutionary era in technology and in development of humans social life by a radical impact on engineering design and automation. A dream of humanity has become reality: EHW has transferred the adaptivity of a system from software to hardware. A significant time-saving path is used from a design to a real world application of intelligent hardware. Differences no longer exist between the design and adaptation involving EHW-based machines having behavioural computational intelligence. Electronics engineering has been fundamentally changed by using EHW custom-design technologies instead of solder-based manufacturing.

The aim of this invited session is to bring together researchers from the evolvable hardware community, representatives of the automated design and programmable/reconfigurable hardware communities, technology developers and end-users from industry.

This special invited session is thought as a forum of presenting, discussing and questioning all the above mentioned aspects that are essential to the activity of a practitioner who acts in the area of advanced hardware implementation of IT. This session will provide delegates (including delegates not delivering papers in this session) with the opportunity to network and exchange ideas and make important contacts in the academic and research/industry community of the Adaptive Hardware and Systems.