Well Received 2011 IEEE International Conference on Prognostics and Health Management

Our Reliability Society sponsored 2011 IEEE International Conference on Prognostics and Health Management (PHM), Enhancing Safety, Efficiency. Availability, and Effectiveness of Systems through PHM Technology and Application went well, with loads of positive comments received, covering the technical aspects (tutorials, panels, papers, & keynotes), the provided meals (breakfasts and lunches) and socials (two evenings), and for encouraging questions and discussions. Very positive — very pleasing. Our PHM Conference was held at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center in Denver, Colorado, starting with tutorials on June 20 and final sessions on June 23, 2011.

The conference had 2 keynotes, 8 tutorials, 8 technical panels, and 50+ papers, which resulted in very well received keynoters, tutorial presenters, panelists, and paper presenters. Based on these well accepted technical presentations and discussions, and the beneficial aspects of the conference in general plus the conference hotel, our future attendance should expand based on positive statements made by attendee to their contacts.

The conference had a good mixture of University professors and PHM Researchers, industries (broad equipment variations), and government (services and research centers) covering presenters and attendees — very pleased with the mixture. There were also a number of non-US attendees — France, Ireland, Australia, Finland, Canada, China, Singapore, and Korea. Also had several US and non-US professors who attended themselves and brought some of their PHD students.

There were many outstanding papers presented at the 2011 IEEE Reliability Sponsored International PHM conference in Denver Colorado. Of those, three were recognized for their quality, importance, and impact on Prognostics and Health Management. Dr. Peter Sanborn of the University of Maryland, Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) was selected as the author of the Overall Best Paper from Academia. Dr. Sanborn's paper was titled 'Method for Valuating Options Arising in PHM'. The award for Overall Best Paper from Industry was awarded to Brian Kain of the Omnicon Group, Inc, NY. Brian's paper was titled 'Improving System Health Monitoring with Better Error Processing'. The final award was for Best Paper submitted by a member of the IEEE Reliability Society. That award went to Liam Moore of the Nimbus Centre For Embedded Systems Research, Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland. His paper was titled 'Miniature Embedded Prognostics Probe'. Congratulations to these three individuals and thanks to all of our authors, panelists, and attendees for adding to the available knowledge of the technology and application of Prognostics and Health Management.

Thanks very much to our AdCom members (Marsha Abramo, Scott Abrams, Joe Childs, Christian Hansen, Pradeep Lall, Alfred Stevens, Dennis Hoffman) who were active in the 2011 PHM Conf Mgt Com as Team Leaders, AdCom members who presented (Pradeep Lall, Sam Keene, Jeff Voas, Jia Zhang), plus Bill Tonti — they led to the conference success. The conference also resulted in new Reliability Society members who joined the RS and want to be active within the RS.

Our next IEEE International Conference on Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) will be held in June 2012 in Denver. Plan to attend.