Reliability Society Newsletter
Vol. 63, No. 1, February 2017
Front page:
In Memory:
Society Announcements:
Members & Chapters:
Dallas Chapter Activities:
Boston Chapter Activity:
RS Events & News:
Links:
President’s Message
Dear IEEE Reliability Society Members,
Happy 2017! I hope this message finds you well.
To begin, I would like to thank the Society ADCOM for their vote of confidence in my ability to be your President for a third time. I have served as the IEEE Reliability Society President twice (2003-2005, 2009-2010), and served on the IEEE Board of Directors (2011-2012) as Division VI Director.
Secondly, I would like to thank President Christian Hansen for leaving the Society in great financial and technical shape at the end of 2016. He did a superb job as our President for the last three years.
This January, we held a joint ADCOM/EXCOM meeting immediately after RAMS 2017 in Orlando. At this meeting, we focused most of our time on strategic thinking for the Society’s technology future. The result is that we opted to move forward on three strategic publication and technical areas: (1) Creating our own Reliability Magazine that has the approval of the IEEE TAB Periodicals Committee, (2) Building a technical community (or some other presence) on resilience, and (3) Building a technical community (or some other presence) on data integrity. Why are we doing this now? Because 2017 is a unique year for us. We are not doing 5-year Society and publication reviews. We are not on the IEEE financial watch list. We are not rewriting by-laws and ops manuals. So this January’s meeting was a perfect opportunity to give everyone a voice and opportunity to explore and write down new ideas. Luckily, these three areas fit in well with our new Internet of Things (IoT) Initiative (that we share with 20+ other societies and councils) and they are “natural” additions to our Field of Interest (FOI) and what we should be working towards.
In addition to those three new areas, here is a short list of other activities we are working on:
- Finalizing several new chapters in China.
- Preparing for two conferences in which the RS has a major financial and technical stake: QRS 2017 (Prague, Czech Republic) and PHM 2017 (Dallas, TX).
- Building closer relationships with our Sister Societies and Councils in Division VI when we deem it appropriate for our members and strategic goals.
- Preparing for Reliability Society representation at the Sections Congress this summer (Australia).
- Preparing for our next ADCOM/EXCOM meeting in Anchorage, AK on May 19-20.
We also have a few volunteer updates that I should mention. Dr. Sam Keene resigned from his third ADCOM year (2017), and Dr. Phil Laplante was approved by the ADCOM to finish out Sam’s term. Phil will also serve as our Fellow’s Chair in 2017. Dr. Shiuhpyng Shieh has stepped down as our EIC of our current “in-house edited” Reliability Magazine, and Dr. Pierre Dersin is now fulfilling that role. Dr. Shieh was the founder of the current offering, and for that we owe him many thanks. Our hope is to turn this current offering into our own Reliability Magazine that has the approval of the IEEE TAB Periodicals Committee.
In closing, I have sad news. Our esteemed former Treasurer, Richard “Dick” Kowalski passed away on February 21, 2017. His obituary is available at http://www.myersdurborawfh.com/notices/Richard-Kowalski. Dick was the perfect treasurer he approached the job with a serious and perfectionist side, but also with a humorous side. He will be missed by all of us who had the opportunity to work and laugh with him for many years.
As always feel free to send me comments and suggestions.
Sincerely,
Jeff
j.voas@ieee.org
From the Editor
This is the first Reliability Society newsletter for 2017. Each year is a new volume of the newsletter and I was amazed to note that this starts the 63rd volume. That makes the newsletter older than many of us. Despite it’s age, the RS Newsletter remains the primary medium for conveying general information to the society members. Over the years, the newsletter has morphed from a mailed hardcopy into the current electronic newsletter. Regardless of it’s form, the continued longevity of the RS Newsletter is dependant on valuable input for communication to the membership.
The society chapters are active and some of their activities are reported in this newsletter. Chapters are a good way to be active in society topics of interest. Reports of Chapter activities are of interest to society members and a good way to spread knowledge of events and activities to other chapters. If not already active, look for a local chapter in the website list. There are new chapters being opened each year. You can also get involved organizing chapter activities. Now is the time to get active.
Inputs for future newsletter issues are due in the following dates for input. Technical bulletins in our field of interest, committee announcements, Chapter activities, conference call for papers, etc. are needed for the newsletter.
- Issue #1, inputs due Feb 1
- Issue #2, inputs due May 1
- Issue #3, inputs due Aug 1
- Issue #4, inputs due Nov 1
I look forward to communicating society information in our topics of interest with our membership. The Newsletter is only as good as the inputs provided, so please help bring our members an outstanding Newsletter. As always, feedback and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Have a great, reliable and safe year,
Lon Chase
2017 Newsletter Editor-in-Chief
l.chase@ieee.org
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