From the early days, when security was the driving force behind biometric research, today's challenges go far beyond security. Machine learning, Image understanding, Signal analysis, Neuroscience, Robotics, Forensic science, Digital forensics and other disciplines, converged in a truly multidisciplinary effort to devise and build advanced systems to facilitate the interpretation of signals recorded from individuals acting in a given environment. This is what we simply call today "Biometrics". For the last seventeen years, the International Summer School on Biometrics has been closely following the developments in science and technology to offer a cutting edge, intensive training course, always up to date with the current state-of-the-art.