ForewordThe human eye offers the extraordinary possibility to visualize and monitor non-invasively, in vivo, in humans, many morphological and haemodynamical features. Therefore, a large amount of data on ocular structures and macro- and micro-circulation can be obtained in a clinical setting during a patient's visit. However, the interpretation of these data remains a very challenging task, since the understanding of the physiology, bio-mechanics and fluid-dynamics of the human eye remains scarce. This unmet gap between the availability of imaging data and their elusive clinical interpretation hinders the advancement of therapeutic strategies and clinical management for many ocular diseases, including glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macula degeneration. Mathematical models can aid the interpretation of clinical data by providing quantitative representations of the bio-mechanics and fluid-dynamics of the eye and their relationship with systemic conditions. Acting as a virtual lab, mathematical models can simulate the independent contributions of structural, vascular, metabolic, and systemic factors to the pathophysiology of ocular diseases, allowing for a low-cost and low time-consuming analysis of this multimodal complex system. Even though ocular mechanics has received considerable attention over the last decade, the development of mathematical models capable of unraveling the interplay between ocular mechanics, haemodynamics and metabolism is still at its early stages. This is due to the fact that the mechanic/haemodynamic/metabolic coupling is a very arduous, and very much needed, scientific endeavor, which requires sophisticated mathematical techniques, including multi-scale analysis, dynamics of coupled systems, and partial differential equations of mixed type, which are still open areas of research in mathematics. This

workshop has brought together in a fertile environment clinicians, engineers and applied mathematicians to promote the communication and cross-fertilization among these different disciplines and shape a new paradigm of scientific approach for the study of ocular diseases, based on the integration of clinical data and mathematical modeling predictions. The response of the scientific and medical community has been prompt and passionate. The spectrum of the talks has been wide and complementary, as it has included topics from the etiology and management of ocular diseases, nanotechnology for artificial retinas, and mathematics of blood flow and deformable structures. We envision a great future for integrated multidisciplinary approaches in the study and care of the human eye and we thank all the scientists and the sponsors who enthusiastically joined this ground-breaking adventure.P. Causin, G. Guidoboni, A. Harris and R. Sacco.