Innovative ways to manipulate light and waves have a profound influence on science and future technologies. In recent years, there are two exciting developments that have the potential to revolutionize the way we control light and waves. One development is new advanced materials such as metamaterials and plasmonic structures. These artificial materials have optical properties that cannot be found in nature and can do amazing things such as imaging beyond diffraction-limit and confining light to the nanoscale. Another noteworthy development is advances in mathematical method (e.g. transformation optics) which enables the design of "science-fiction" type devices, such as invisibility cloaks, using metamaterials and plasmonic structures. These advances are the collective effort of mathematicians, physicists, engineers and material scientists. By bringing scientists with the highest international standing to present lectures and tutorials, the faculties in Hong Kong and near-by regions can get a better insight and a deeper understanding of the new breakthroughs.