Deadlines for the ISA Communications Division two Spring Symposia are quickly approaching.
The first event this April in Troy (Detroit) Michigan is a joint offering with the ISA100 WG16 committee that will be two half-days focused on Wireless applications in the Factory environment. Key topics at this event include: Wireless for Factory Automation User Requirements, Secure Wireless Sensor Networks,
IEEE P1451.1.4 and Smart RFID use for Factory Automation, and Emerging Wireless Technologies for Factory Automation.

This just in: Research Triangle Park, N.C. -- The International Society of Automation (ISA) has recognized some of its outstanding authors at a ceremony and reception on October 18 at ISA Automation Week in Mobile, Ala. The awards are given by the ISA Publications Department and Standards and Practices Department. "Each year, ISA recognizes and thanks all authors/contributors who help review, develop and deliver technical resources to the automation profession," said Susan Colwell, manager, Publications Development.  
 

It is Fall here in Canada which can only mean one thing – time to get ready for the annual Conference & Exhibition and of course associated Fall Leader’s Meeting in the days prior to Automation Week.  I will be attending and participating in Automation Week as a speaker on multiple occasions. When making plans to attend the Fall Leader’s Meeting do not forget to mark the Communications Division meeting on Saturday October 15 at 16:00 on your calendar.

Hello from St Louis! Just wrapping up a week of ISA symposium and meetings before heading home for a month and my list of summer yard chores.

I was in Calgary most of this week for the ISA Calgary Exhibition (http://isacalgary.com/ ) more on that event next week) and one of the comments I heard many times while there and at SAIT (www.sait.ab.ca local trade college) was the shortage of people entering and even considering automation as a career choice. This is a common theme throughout the technical fields especially and even though I am an engineer, I firmly believe that it is the technicians that we need to encourage. The reason we need technicians should be fairly obvious.

The vast majority of field devices in use today have the capability to communicate the diagnostic information on their health and general condition. Unfortunately, it is estimated that 85 – 90% of this data is not being used as part of an integrated maintenance strategy. In many cases the communications capabilities of the device are used by the maintenance team with local communicators but the information goes no further than that.

I have just returned from an enjoyable two weeks in Kuwait where I was teaching SAIT’s Certified FF Professional course to a corporate client and what it did reinforce was that the most important network we can all join is the Human Network, so watch for more similar themed posts in the future – likely after trips to various parts of the world or meetings whose express purpose is to exchange information and I believe as importantly business cards.

I was in Brazil this past week to participate in the ISA District 4 Leadership Conference and was also able to attend the opening day of the ISA 2010 Conference and Exhibition. There were over 100 exhibitors on the show floor and 6 parallel programming tracks associated with the conference. This is an increase from last year and not only shows that the Brazilian economy is picking up but also that at least in Brazil, the horizontal show is not finished.

I have just returned from ISA Automation Week in Houston – a radical change in format for the traditional Fall Exhibition and Conference.  Automation Week changed to more closely follow the model of several of the successful Spring symposia run by ISA Divisions with an emphasis on the conference with a smaller tabletop like exhibit. There were approximately 120 booths for the 1500+ event attendees.

One sure sign that Fall is arriving, other than the return to school is all the conventions that are scheduled during September through November. The busy season always seems to be the Spring (April through mid-June) and then again this time of year. The following “big three” are the ones most people think of this time of year.