Since their re-popularisation in the mid-1980s, artificial neural networks have seen an explosion of research across a diverse spectrum of areas. While an immense amount of research has been undertaken in artificial neural networks themselves—in terms of training, topologies, types, etc.—a similar amount of work has examined their application to a whole host of real-world problems. Such problems are usually difficult to define and hard to solve using conventional techniques. Examples include computer vision, speech recognition, financial applications, medicine, meteorology, robotics, hydrology, etc.

This Special Issue focuses on the second of these two research themes, that of the application of neural networks to a diverse range of fields and problems. It collates contributions concerning neural network applications in areas such as engineering, hydrology and medicine.