Reliability Society Newsletter

 

Vol. 60, No. 3, August 2014

Table of Contents

Front page:

President's Message

From the Editor

Society News:

Candidates Sought for Reliability Society Admin Committee (2015-2017)

Reliability Society Award Nominations

Special T-REL SW QA Edition

SW CERT Tutorial

PhD Thesis Offering

Report from the 2014 SERE Conference in San Francisco

Report from the IPFA Conference, Singapore

Members & Chapters

Italy Chapter

Nanjing Chapter

Outreach UK and Ireland Chapter

Dallas Chapter

Boston - New Hampshire - Providence

New Chapter in Arizona

Meetings & Conferences

2014 RSAMD

2015 IRPS Call for Papers

Letters in Reliability

PHM, Tucson Water System


Links:

Reliability Society Home


RS Newsletter Homepage

President's Message


Dear Reliability Society Member,

Summertime is my favorite time of the year! Not only is it the time where I am fortunate to be able to take time off to relax and travel with my family; it is also the time of the year where I, being a typical academic, get to hit the “reset button” and enjoy the advantages of starting a new fiscal year, having time to wrap up unfinished projects and opportunities to start new ones. Being privileged to have teaching college classes as part of my job nine month out of the year, the summertime offers a much needed break from the daily routine and time to reflect.

As an IEEE Society President, I am privileged to be invited to travel around the world to speak at conferences and participate in a variety of technical activities. Invitations easily exceed the time available in my calendar, especially considering that I have a full-time paid job outside of IEEE. During the summer while enjoying a break from teaching and working a reduced schedule as an administrator, I can be more relaxed when accepting opportunities to participate in meetings that require travel without worrying much about classes or committee meetings to be covered. Even better, summertime is about the only time of the year that I can bring my family with me when I travel for business, thus breaking down the usual barriers between business and pleasure.

Whether your time to hit the "reset button" is the summertime, the start of the calendar year or some other time of the year, I sincerely hope that your job or career includes some kind of season of renewal similar to what the summertime means to me. As reliability professionals, we all understand the importance of any engineering system being properly maintained and cared for in order to maximize its performance and reliability. We as humans require similar "scheduled maintenance" in order to perform at our best. In Stephen Covey's classical book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" (New York: Fireside 1989) the seventh habit which support all of the other six habits discussed in the book is referred to as "Sharpening the Saw" This represents the need for continued renewal and exercise of all aspects of our whole body. Furthermore, Covey describes our whole body as represented by four types of intelligences (physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual) that all need to be properly exercised. In a nutshell Covey's classical book may be viewed as the basic reliability engineering manual for humans.

If summertime is your season of renewal, be sure to use it wisely. Understand the importance of the "scheduled maintenance" that must be performed on your whole body. Some suggestions that you may consider this season to "sharpen the saw" and exercise your four intelligences include:

  1. Exercise your intellectual intelligence (IQ) by attending an IEEE conference or technical event, registering for an IEEE e-learning module, or reading from the millions of articles available from the IEEE digital library.

  2. Exercise your physical intelligence (PQ) through regular nutrition and exercise.

  3. Exercise your emotional intelligence (EQ) by spending quality time with the people that means the most to you, your significant other, your family and other loved ones.

  4. Exercise your spiritual intelligence (SQ) by practicing random acts of kindness. The concept of spiritual intelligence exists through all major religions (even if not referenced by such terminology) and even among people who do not consider themselves religious. The act of putting others' needs above your own helps build your personal integrity and a legacy that will last forever.

Have a fabulous rest of your summer. Prepare yourself to come back sharper than ever in the fall.

Christian K. Hansen, PhD
2014 Reliability Society President

 

 

From the Editor

Welcome to the third installment of our 2014 IEEE-RS Newsletter!

The song says, "SUMMERTIME, when the livin' is easy..." That is, it should be a slow time in IEEE in the Reliability Society. But you couldn't tell that from the articles in this edition of the Newsletter! There seems to be no end to the energy and activity in this dynamic group of engineers and leaders.

Past President, Dennis Hoffman, is still open for candidates interested joining the Society Administrative Committee (AdCom). Why not send in your resume? You need to do it soon, though.

There is an upcoming edition of the Society Technical Journal (T-REL), covering the all-important topic of software quality. Interested in participating? Read the Call for Papers.

Bruno Tuffin and Pierre Dersin have work for someone interested in working on their PhD thesis in the power and transportation industry. But there's a drawback -- Who would want to go to FRANCE? (Like... who wouldn't!)

We've had several successful conferences recently, SERE and IPFA. You can catch up or maybe see yourself in a picture here.

We definitely have some active RS chapters working to keep their members engaged... from all over the planet. Love that internet!

For those with a taste for the technical, we have a nice article on Prognostics and Health Management from two REs in our new Chapter -- Britt Klein and Lou Gullo. And an congratulations to that Chapter and the Nanjing Chapters as our two newest chapters.

I'm running out of breath just thinking about all these activities. Thanks for all those who contributed, and to all those who are reading here!

Joe Childs
2014 Newsletter Editor-in-Chief
joechilds@ieee.org

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