We are pleased to publish selected papers presented at the 21st ISPS conference held in Santa Clara, CA, USA on 13–14 June 2011. The conference was organized and sponsored by ASME ISPS Division. The conference covered broad topics on information storage and processing systems. Presenters were invited to submit full length journal papers for publication in MST. All submitted papers were refereed according to the rigorous journal standards. The review process was coordinated by Professor James Chang. Fifty-nine were accepted for publication. These papers are published in this issue.

We hope that readers find the paper in the issue to be informative.

Professor Bharat Bhushan

Co-Editor in Chief, MST

July 2012