From November 5 to 8, the World Conference on Acoustic Emission-2019 (WCAE-2019) was held in Guangzhou. The opening ceremony of the conference was presided by Shen Gongtian, president of the conference, honorary president of International Society of Acoustic Emission, president of the Nondestructive Testing Branch of Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society and vice president of CSEI. Professor Gary Qi, president of International Society of Acoustic Emission and former chairman of the United States Acoustic Emission Working Group (AEWG), Mr. Hartmut Vallen, former chairman of European Working Group of Acoustic Emission (EWGAE), professor Tomoki Shiotani, chairman of International Innovation Institute of Acoustic Emission (IIIAE) and executive member of Japanese Committee of Acoustic Emission (JCAE) made welcoming remarks. The 108 representatives from 13 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Austria and South Korea, attended the conference.

This conference is sponsored by International Society of Acoustic Emission (ISAE) and hosted by the Nondestructive Testing Branch of Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society and CSEI. The conference invited famous experts from the United States, the United Kingdom, Austria and other countries to give invited reports. The conference received 73 abstracts of academic papers, including 5 invited reports and 37 oral reports. During the conference, the acoustic emission instrument exhibition was held simultaneously. The proceedings and EI retrieval will be formally published by Springer after the full papers of WCAE-2019 conference is reviewed by experts.

WCAE-2019 is the 5th international academic conference sponsored by ISAE. The WCAE-2019 Guangzhou conference once again brought together experts from countries all over the world in the field of acoustic emission, providing an international exchange platform for research and application promotion of acoustic emission technology. The success of the conference further enhanced the international status and influence of China acoustic emission detection technology.