Last week I was at the 2008 PSES Symposium in Austin Texas.
This was one of the most successful Symposia held by the PSES, with 180 in attendance and 15 exhibitors in the hall. Attendees came from as far as Argentina, the UK and Israel!
Dr. June Andersen gave a great keynote address on Monday morning, showing the group how IBM manages worldwide compliance in more than 180 different markets. Dr. Andersen’s background is impressive, and a bit intimidating. I found her to be a warm, friendly and interesting person when we shared breakfast together before the conferece opened. Dr. Andersen’s presentation will be made available through the PSES web site to members, so if you would like a copy and you’re not a member, now is a great time to join!
Keith Armstrong of Cherry Clough Consultants, along with his colleagues Jacques Delaballe and Bill Radasky presented an interesting one-day workshop on EMC and Functional Safety, discussing the effects of EMC on the safety related parts of control systems. On Wednesday, Keith completed the series with a short presentation on the shortcomings of conventional EMC testing in revealing safety-related design problems. Definitely a worthwhile series! Armstron, Delaballe and Radasky are planning a new workshop for next-year’s Symposium in Toronto that will carry on from this year, so if you are interested in this area, plan to attend!
There were several sessions on batteries and the on-going work that the battery companies and the main battery consumers are undertaking to resolve the design and manufacturing problems that led to the notebook and cell phone fires in the past year. These sessions were packed and well reviewed by everyone I spoke with.
There were lots of other presentations that I didn’t get a chance to attend – with 40 presentations and only one me, it was impossible to get to every one.
If you missed this year’s Symposium, start plannng for next year’s in Toronto – it’s going to be great!
