Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, respected invited speakers, distinguished professors and students, and honored guests, welcome to Korea and welcome to Busan.

On behalf of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery (KSAM), we welcome all of you to the 12th ISMAB conference, 20th ~ 24th October 2026, here at BEXCO, Busan, Republic of Korea. AABEA (Asian Agricultural and Biological Engineering Association), is for members of CIAM (The Chinese Institute of Agricultural Machinery), JSAM (The Japanese Society of Agricultural Machinery), and KSAM. AABEA continues the tradition to hold the biennial ISMAB (International Symposium on Machinery and Mechatronics for Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering). We would like to express our deep appreciation to Dr. Je-Hoon Sung for congratulatory remarks, to invited speakers for valuable presentations, and AABEA members and all the participants for grateful contribution. Special thanks also should go to the ISMAB committee members and staffs for their tremendous efforts.

Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering field has made dramatic and meaningful achievement to provide necessary engineering technologies for food security. However, recent backgrounds of world population increase, climate change, agricultural labor reduction, global market competitiveness assign us various problems and
challenges. Quick mega trends of 4th revolution technologies such as AI and robot enable to overcome these issues and develop better opportunities.

This conference will bring together leading researchers, engineers, scientists from various disciplines of agriculture and biosystems engineering around the world. We have about 450 pre-registrations, and including on-site registration, we expect to have a total of about 550 attendants. Total 317 abstracts, including 166 for oral and 151 for poster presentations, were submitted. The symposium will provide a unified communication platform for researchers and engineers in the topics of Machinery and Mechatronics for Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering. During the conference, there will be substantial time for presentation and discussion. Attendants will find various activities useful in bringing together a diverse group of engineers and technologists across the disciplines for the generation of new ideas, collaboration potential, and business opportunities.

We also hope all attendees spend an enjoyable time in Busan, one of the beautiful cities in Korea. Welcome to the conference again and thank you very much.

 

Hyuck Joo Kim ISMAB Conference Chair, AABEA Professor at Sunchon National University		Jung, Sun Ok President, Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Professor at Chungnam National University