It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 58^th Annual Reliability & Maintainability Symposium.

Edward A. Pohl, Ph.D.

As the world wrestles with the continuing economic challenges, the highly competitive global marketplace will demand highly reliable, maintainable and secure systems.  I believe reliability and maintainability are the enablers for organizations that strive to make their products, processes, and services more competitive and secure. As a result, reliability and maintainability practitioners like you will be called upon to develop new ways to design secure, reliable, and maintainable systems, to collect and analyze data, to manage activities and processes, to plan and execute tests, and to formulate and evaluate mathematical models, all for the purpose of improving reliability, maintainability, and security.

For 57 years RAMS has provided a forum for reliability and maintainability practitioners to exchange best practices and learn about the latest advances in the area.  This year is no different,

RAMS is offering 28 tutorials as part of the technical program. As an attendee, whether you have many years of experience in R&M or you need to learn the fundamental concepts of R&M, I am confident you will find opportunities to enhance your skills.  Tutorial attendees have the option to participate in the RAMS Tutorial Certificate Program, and can use tutorials for Continuing Education Units from IEEE.

The RAMS technical program also includes 22 technical paper sessions, 6 panel discussions (including one involving the members of the RAMS Advisory Board where attendees will be able to ask industry leaders specific questions of interest), and presentations from some of our Exhibitors. The RAMS Exhibits give you the opportunity to interact with providers of R&M products and services.

I am excited to have Mr. Daniel Mellinger as our keynote speaker; Daniel will discuss some of the latest advances in quadroter helicopters including a discussion of using teams of quadrotors autonomously to build 3-d structures.  His talk links nicely with the panel session on robotics from a reliability and systems safety perspective.  We are also fortunate to have Mr. Lewis Von Thaer, President, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems as our banquet speaker.  Mr. Von Thaer will talk about the challenges of delivering new defense capabilities in these economically challenging times.

I am glad you have chosen to come to Reno and attend the 2012 RAMS. I encourage you to get out of the hotel enjoy this beautiful area and the many different attractions Reno has to offer.  Once again, thank you for attending RAMS 2012, I am confident that RAMS will exceed your expectations, and I look forward to meeting you this week!

Edward A. Pohl, Ph.D.

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EMA Design Automation
EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute)
EXIDA
Fulton FindingsTM
Instrumented Sensor Technology
Isograph, Inc.
Item Software (USA), Inc.
Minitab, Inc.
Ops A La Carte
PHM Technology, Pty. Ltd.
Relex Software Corporation
RELIASS
Reliability Information Analysis Center (RIAC)
ReliaSoft Corporation
SAGE
SAS Institute, JMP Division
SoHaR Incorporated/ALD Ltd.
The Omnicon Group, Inc.
University of MD
Valador, Inc.

If you are interested in exhibiting at our 2012 event please contact Dave Barber for more information.

Diamond Level:

Gold Level:

Gold Level:

Each sponsoring society is represented by a seat on the RAMS Board of Directors.

Our nine sponsoring societies guide and direct the RAMS organization; patrons provide the much-needed funding to put on and promote the symposium; and exhibitors bring their technology and expertise to our locations year after year.  We thank each and every one of them for their contribution to the continuing RAMS tradition.

ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE), Six Sigma Black Belt (SSBB), and Six Sigma Green Belt (SSGB) Exams will be offered at the 2012 Symposium in Reno, Nevada.

Special arrangements have been made with the American Society for Quality (ASQ) to offer the ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE), Six Sigma Black Belt (SSBB) and Six Sigma Green Belt (SSGB) Examinations at the RAMS. These 4-hour examinations are open book, and any silent, hand-held, battery-operated calculator without an alphabetic keyboard will be permitted.

Please note the advance registration deadline for the ASQ Certification Exam is December 22, 2011 and that a picture ID is required for admittance.  For full details about ASQ’s certifications, please visit ASQ’s Certification Website.  On line registration is available at RAMS ASQ Certification Application.  Walk in registration for the CRE and SSGB examinations will be permitted up to noon on Wednesday, 25 January 2012 during the Symposium on a space available basis.  The Exams will be held on Thursday, 26 January 2012 at the Symposium.

RAMS attendees will be able to enroll in this two-level certificate program at the Symposium Registration Area for a fee of $75. Completing the first level of the certificate program requires attendees to attend five core concept tutorials. The tutors for the core tutorials were solicited by the RAMS Management Committee based on their successful experience in preparing and presenting RAMS tutorials.

Completing the second level of the certificate program requires attendees to attend an additional ten tutorials across at least two Symposia. Attendees are free to choose these ten tutorials based on their own professional needs and interests. Upon completion of the program, attendees receive a RAMS certificate and a letter of completion including a list of tutorials attended. Due to the currency of the material, the Certificate Program must be completed within 4 years of the attendance of the first core tutorial.

See our program description for details of this year’s offerings.