The Reliability Society's Executive Committee (ExCom) meeting on March 25, 2023 reminded me of the old Chinese saying of 'A year's plan lies in Spring', indicating that the whole year's work depends on good planning in spring. In the March meeting, each of the ExCom members have spearheaded on their own initiatives for 2023 and even beyond. I am very excited to see all the new activities and events that will take place in 2023 and 2024, especially our society's 75th anniversary which will be held in Mid-June 2024 in Spokane, Washington. Here are some highlights I would like to share with all RS members.

1. To celebrate RS's 75th anniversary, RS will invite all RS members to participate and attend this event. Our VP membership Prof. Janet Lin is closely working with our society Secretary and chapter coordinator Loretta Arellano to plan the logistics to have a socially enjoyable and fun celebration. Please be reminded of incoming emails and invitations for our 75th anniversary celebration event


2. One tradition when we celebrate our major anniversaries is to organize a special issue on our flagship journal of IEEE Transactions on Reliability. The VP for publications Prof. Phil Laplante and society treasurer Dr. Jason Rupe are working together with the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Shiuhpyng Shieh to plan this special issue by collecting articles to reflect the practical and theoretical advancements over the past few decades in the field of Reliability. The articles will not be technical-focused instead to present a perspective and/or overview in one reliability topic/theme. You are welcome to contribute an article in your expertise area and please feel free to contact Drs. Laplante and Rupe. I am also attaching a copy of the Table of Content of articles of the 50th anniversary special issue for your reference.


3. I would especially thank Drs. Jeff Voas and Phil Laplante to take the lead of launching our first IEEE Reliability Magazine. This is a very exciting but also challenging task and I am very confident on the successful launch of Reliability Magazine in early 2024 with the extensive editorial leadership and professional experiences brought by both Jeff and Phil.


4. RS has also been actively seeking collaborative opportunities with other IEEE societies and councils and has signed multiple MOUs on topics such as future network, blockchain, and IoT, etc.


5. Last year, RS saw two new RS student branches established in India and a few other regions are also working on establishing new RS student chapters. Our membership retention rate has seen strong growth and we expect to see growing membership in the coming years.


6. Thanks to the joint efforts from Dr. Christian Hansen our VP Meeting and Conference and Mr. Lou Gullo VP Technical Activities, our RS flagship conference on Prognostics and Health Management will have two patrons, i.e., Siemens and PHM Technology for ICPHM conference 2023 in Montreal, Canada. We also see a growing trend in registration and attendance.


7. Last but not least, I know most of you are observing that AI is the media 'frenzy of the day' with ChatGPT out front. And this focus on AI is unlikely to dissipate. It is probably the new normal. In fact, this new AI emphasis may break the Gartner Hype curve that we are all very familiar with, and that is rarely broken. Having said that, I want to let you know that as the President of the RS I am monitoring this closely, and am working with our VPs to make sure we keep you informed on the intersections between what we know is classical reliability theory and this new AI/ML horizon. For example, what would a chatbot do if injected into an automated control system? Of course it is a function of how the bot was educated. But what does that mean in terms of reliability? It is all TBD and too early to say, but I want you to know we are following this new paradigm.