VP Technical Activity Report


Annual Technical Report - The Reliability Society 2010 Annual Technical Report (ATR) is now available on the society website. The annual technology report of the Reliability Society is based on material submitted by the technical activity segments of the Society, statements from experts in the field, industry reviews, and current special interest groups working in the field. This year's 2010 ATR contains a variety of articles with a focus on infrastructure reliability and Smart Grid considerations. There is also a healthy amount of information on traditional reliability, software reliability, and specialty topics. You are invited to navigate to the ATR from the Reliability Society website menu list and read the ATR articles on these broad and interesting topics.


Current Activities - The Society Technical Activities is developing initiatives in two major directions.


First, technology focus areas have been identified for 2011. These include the following focus areas and directors that lead them:

  • Prognostics and Health Monitoring (PHM) — Pradeep Lall
  • Smart Grid - TBD
  • Cloud Computing — Jai Zhang
  • Cyber Security — Pravir Chandra
  • Semiconductor/NanoTech — Carole Graas
  • Photovoltaics — Prasad Chaparala
    •


These focus areas will be worked to develop activities which further reliability and related functions in the technology. Some of the current activity in these areas is contained below.


Prognostics and Health Monitoring (PHM) - The Reliability Society is sponsoring the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Prognostics and Health Management, June 20-23, 2011 Denver, Colorado. For more information, visit http://www.phmconf.org/. Also, PHM now has ongoing section in this newsletter edited by Dr. Lall. See the newsletter main menu.


Cloud Computing - The 2nd Annual IEEE Cloud Forum for Practitioners (ICFP'11) is being held in Washington, DC as part of the 4th IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing (CLOUD 2011). ICFP serves as a prime international forum to bring researchers, practitioners, vendors, and others together to exchange the latest practical advances and thought-leadership related to the numerous reliability and security issues facing the large scale migration to cloud computing. For more information on ICFP'11 and link to material presented in ICFP'10, visit http://www.ieeereliability.com/cloudforum/.


Cyber Security - Advanced planning is being conducted to organize a Hacker conference in 2013. The focus and format of this conference is in development. Contact me if you would like to become involved in this conference development and I will connect you to Pravir Chandra.


Photovoltaics - The Reliability Society is partnering with the Electron Device Society and other societies to co-sponsor the Journal of Photovoltaics. The journal will be available electronically to RS members. For more information on this publication, visit http://eds.ieee.org/jpv.html.


Please contact me if you would like to become involved in any of these or the other focus areas.


Second, the Reliability Society is soliciting the formation of new technical networks within the society fields of interest. The Society is concerned with attaining, assessing, and assuring system reliability, in the broadest sense, and maintaining it throughout its life cycle. Its areas of interest encompass service and process at all product levels, technologies and technical groups who are designing, analyzing, producing and assessing some portion or level of a system, be it hardware, software, devices, processes, or materials. Therefore, areas for possible technical networks are very broad including the associated technical areas of Availability, Maintainability, Testability, Diagnostics, Prognostics and Health Management, Integrity, Security, Quality, Supportability, Human Engineering, and System Safety.


Technical networks are intended to:


1. Monitor the technical state-of-the-art in their field, detect the need for new technical developments, and take action to stimulate interest in such development,
2. Foster closer relationships between this Society and other Societies, Groups and organizations with common interests,
3. Generate or coordinate technical material to spread sphere of knowledge and influence in their field of interest, such as:
a. Arrange, through appropriate editors, for publishing pertinent papers in IEEE publications (i.e. Transactions, newsletter, ATR, etc.),
b. Organize and operate sessions at meetings of IEEE at all levels and at meetings of other organizations, and
c. Generate and develop appropriate standards in its field for processing by or through the IEEE Standards Committee.


Society officers can assist the technical network in any of these activities. The Society webpage will also advertise each network and provide an address for other potential members in this field to contact the network. In the near future, we will be expanding the website Technical Activities area to allow each network to post information and products they wish to communicate to others.


The Society's technical networks form a cornerstone of our technical activity and influence. Many of the prior committees are no longer active and are in need of regeneration. Anyone currently involved in, or interested in creating, a group of like interested individuals in a particular field, is requested to contact me (l.chase@ieee.org) for more information on how to become involved.



Respectfully,

Lon Chase
 VP Technical Activities