Volume 5, Issue 1

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Highlights of the 2004 International Applied Reliability Symposium

The first annual International Applied Reliability Symposium was held recently in San Diego, California on June 16th to 18th. This event was organized by ReliaSoft Corporation and the Reliability Analysis Center (RAC) with sponsorship from Quantum Corporation, the U.S. Army and General Electric. As co-organizer of the Symposium, ReliaSoft would like to thank all participants once again for contributing to the success of this first annual event. This article provides a brief overview of Symposium highlights followed by selected photographs.

Symposium Attendees
With over 200 attendees from industry and government, the Symposium offered an excellent opportunity to establish networking relationships with other practitioners in the field. All branches of the U.S. military were represented along with automotive, electronics, aerospace and other industries in the U.S. and worldwide.

Welcome Address
In the Welcome Address on Wednesday morning, Pat Hetherington of the RAC and Pantelis Vassiliou of ReliaSoft spoke on behalf of the Symposium’s organizers about the vision for this new annual event: to provide a forum that encourages reliability practitioners to share experiences and lessons learned, thereby building a mutually beneficial community of professionals with the expertise to effectively apply reliability techniques to meet real-world challenges.

Keynote Address
On Thursday morning, Rear Admiral Michael C. Bachmann of the U.S. Navy delivered the Keynote Address. Currently the Assistant Commander for Aviation Logistics with the Naval Air Systems Command, Rear Admiral Bachmann spoke on the topic of “The Challenge of Sustaining Aging Naval Weapon Systems.” After his presentation, Rear Admiral Bachmann answered questions from the packed audience.

Presentations and Tutorials
In addition to the general addresses and the ample opportunity for discussion among attendees, the Symposium featured twenty presentations and four tutorials on a wide range of topics related to the practical application of reliability principles/theory.

Topics included FMEA and DOE, customer usage profiling, software reliability, analyzing warranty cost data, accelerated life testing, FRACAS, reliability demonstration tools, reliability growth analysis, and much more.

The Symposium Proceedings were distributed to attendees in both print and electronic media. If you missed the Symposium, these materials are also available for purchase via the Symposium Web site.

Accommodations and Reception
The Symposium took place at the Catamaran Resort in San Diego. Perfectly positioned near both Mission Bay and the Pacific Ocean, this venue provides comfortable guest quarters and bright, spacious conference facilities with spectacular views of the bay.

Thursday evening featured dinner and drinks aboard the Bahia Belle sternwheeler for a scenic cruise around Mission Bay.

2005 Symposium
Next year’s event will be held at the same San Diego location on May 18 - 20, 2005. Calls for presentations and sponsorship have already been announced and additional details will be published on the Symposium Web site as they become available.

For more information about sponsorship, presenting or attendance, please contact Info@ARSymposium.org or visit http://www.ARSymposium.org.

See additional photos.