Welcome to the USACM Thematic Conference on Meshfree and Particle Methods: Applications and Theory.

This conference seeks to build a stronger connection between the computational mechanics communities working on novel methods and the communities working on applications and experimentation. The exchange of ideas will enrich method development by cross-pollinating ideas between various computational methods and by keeping researchers informed on the current application needs.

The main focus is on application areas that are challenging or impossible for traditional finite element methods. It is of particular interest to researchers and developers of meshfree, particle, and other versatile methods, as well as practitioners and experimentalists with challenging application spaces including:
• Penetration and perforation
• Shock and blast
• Advanced manufacturing
• Rapid design-to-analysis
• Geoscience and natural disasters
• Fluids and fluid-structure interaction
• Multi-scale
• Multi-physics and multi-material interactions.
Additionally, topics that are not focused on applications include:
• Implementation and high-performance computing
• Mathematical theory
• Comparison of related methods
• Verification, validation, and uncertainty quantification.