Top researchers in optimization and control from around the world gathered in Detroit for the 18th annual IFIP TC7 Conference on Systems Modelling and Optimization held in July 1997. The papers presented in this volume were carefully selected from among the 250 plenary, invited, and contributed works presented at the conference. The editors chose these papers to represent the myriad and diverse range of topics within the field and to disseminate important new results. It includes recent results on a broad variety of modelling and control applications, particularly automotive modelling and control, along with recent theoretical advances.