The 61st Annual ISA International Instrumentation Symposium (IIS), jointly developed with the Machinery Failure Prevention Technology (MFPT) Society, was held last week at the Westin Hotel in Huntsville, Alabama, USA. The event is jointly sponsored by ISA’s Aerospace Industries, Test Measurement and Process Measurement and Controls Divisions, and is recognized globally as a forum for discussion of new and innovative instrumentation techniques, developments, and applications.
200 attendees, 90 industry experts and 18 exhibitor companies enjoyed more than 120 technical paper presentations, keynote addresses, panel discussions, networking receptions, a cutting-edge exhibit, technical tours, tutorials and an ISA training course on industrial wireless technology. The theme of the conference was “Technology Evolution: Sensors to Systems for Failure Prevention.
“The 61st IIS Symposium provided a remarkable opportunity for ISA Divisions and authors to expand their professional networks and learn about innovative instrumentation techniques. Few forums offer this level of variety of topics and focus on current and pressing problems in industrial instrumentation. This was the instrumentation, prognostics, health management and automation event to attend in 2015 as leaders from ISA joined forces with MFPT to bring attendees seven tracks on health management and engineering,” said IIS General Chair Kash Behdinan, PhD., PMP.
Technical sessions, developed by ISA and MFPT, focused on key instrumentation challenges and developments across multiple industries. Topics covered included diagnostics, health management practices, control system instrumentation, communications and networks, process measurement and control applications, cybersecurity, signal analysis, condition based maintenance, process safety, test and measurement, failure analysis and prevention, fault detection and more. Tutorials covered key challenges and hot topics such as systems engineering, envelope analysis, generating business case analyses for implementing health management capabilities and, on the softer side, maintaining balance while managing a successful career.
Keynote addresses were delivered on Thursday, 12 May, after a welcome from ISA and MFPT leadership. The first keynote, titled “Bringing Back the '70s: Simplifying IC Manufacturing Problem Resolutions with Machine Learning," was given by Ben Eynon, Senior Director of Engineering Development at Samsung Austin Semiconductor. Next, Joshua Kennedy, Associate Director of Sustainment Analysis for the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, presented a dynamic address focused on “Managing and Implementing the Biggest CBM Program in the World,” covering trials, tribulations, and lessons learned.
The keynote sessions continued with Professor Dale Carl Teeters, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The University of Tulsa. Professor Teeters’ keynote, titled "Nanotechnology for Improvement and Control of Power Systems," detailed the latest research and development work in this important area of study. Finally, Dr. William Kyle Simmons, Principal Investigator at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research, delivered a fascinating theory-based discussion on “Using Human Brain Imaging to Map the Neurocircuitry Underlying Food Motivation.”
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Join the OPC Foundation for OPC Day Europe 2015 on May 19-20, 2015 hosted by Microsoft Paris, France. This OPC Day conference will be held at the Microsoft Conference Center, Le Campus in Paris. Click the Location tab above for more information. The conference will feature OPC Unified Architecture experts and users from a number of industries. Catering will be included during the conference sessions.