This special issue of Quality Engineering presents invited papers and discussions of the Third Stu Hunter Research Conference, which was held from March 9 to 11, 2015, in the Leuven Institute for Ireland in Europe, Belgium. The Stu Hunter Research Conference is a meeting that provides a platform for discussion and the free exchange of ideas at the frontiers of statistics and quality research. Leading statisticians and researchers in quality have been together for intense examination of the latest developments in their field.
The keynote addresses in 2015 were as follows:
Modern measurement, probability, and statistics: Some generalities and multivariate illustrations by Stephan B. Vardeman (United States). Principal discussants were Stefan H. Steiner (Canada) and Edwin R. van den Heuvel (The Netherlands).
Space-filling designs for computer experiments: A review by V. Roshan Joseph (United States). Principal discussants were Werner G. Müller (Austria) and Peter A. Parker (United States).
Industrial statistics: The challenges and the research by David M. Steinberg (Israel). Principal discussants were Jock MacKay (Canada) and R. L. J. Coetzer (South Africa).
Spatial statistics: Marks, maps, and shapes by Antonio Possolo (United States). Principal discussants were Denis Allard (France) and A. Stein (the Netherlands).
21st century screening experiments: What, why and how by Bradley Jones (United States). Principal discussants were Steven G. Gilmour (UK), Peter Goos (Belgium), and Geoff Vining (United States).
Statistical process monitoring of time-dependent data by Bart De Ketelaere, Tiago Rato, Eric Schmitt, and Mia Hubert (Belgium). Principal discussants were M. Schoonhoven (The Netherlands) and Giovanna Capizzi (Italy).
The contributions are highly relevant for a journal like Quality Engineering and we are very pleased that the editor Peter Parker invited us to serve as guest editors. This issue contains papers from all plenary conference talks and at least two discussants for each paper. Most of the keynote speakers have also written a rejoinder. We thank all participants of the Third Stu Hunter Research Conference for their valuable contributions.
This special issue of Quality Engineering also contains the last “Quality Quandary” edited by Ronald Does. Two new column editors will take over his editorship.
We hope that the Quality Engineering readers will enjoy this special issue.