Companies exhibit at ISA Expo 2009 event

ISA Expo 2009, held at the Reliant Center in Houston, Texas, on 6-8 October, included an exhibition area showcasing products from 364 companies.

The ISA Fall Training Institute ran 13 courses and trained 113 students at the event.

ISA Expo 2009 featured seven co-locating organisations, including the ARC Advisory Group, Industry2Grid (I2G), MCAA, OpenOandM, Microsoft and the Microsoft Manufacturing User Group (MSMUG), Houston Smartplant Instrumentation (LTUF) and WBF.

New technologies were a focus of both conference sessions and presentations on the exhibition floor, demonstrating the latest trends in the field.

The ISA Expo 2009 technical conference featured six Exchange Conference Tracks centred on key issues facing instrumentation, automation and control professionals, including safety, security, process automation and control, energy and the environment, wireless and networking and enterprise integration.

The conference programme also included several events open to all attendees, including keynote addresses.

John Hofmeister, chief executive officer and founder of Citizens for Affordable Energy and retired president of Shell Oil Company, presented the opening keynote address, entitled 'Energy Security and Affordability in the 21st Century', on 6 October.

The keynote address on 7 October, entitled 'Securing the Nation's Industrial Control Systems Infrastructure', was delivered by Marty Edwards, programme manager of the US Department of Homeland Security's Control Systems Security Program (CSSP).

Edwards' address discussed the current threat landscape, common vulnerabilities and security issues facing critical infrastructure control systems and mitigation strategies being developed to address these challenges.

Lisa Long, safety engineer with the US Department of Labor-OSHA, presented the final keynote address on 8 October, entitled 'Overview and Findings from OSHA's Refinery and Chemical National Emphasis Programs'.

Long's address described the Petroleum Refinery National Emphasis Program's inspection protocol and procedures and reviewed preliminary findings from the programme, including data on the most frequently cited paragraphs of the process safety management standards and example citation language.

The event also featured activities for young automation professionals and students.

Yapfest attracted automation professionals in the under-30s category to interact with sponsoring companies, learn more about careers in automation and discuss how they might make a difference in the automation world.

Students from several local colleges attended the event to learn about the real-world applications of the automation and engineering concepts that they are learning about in school, while young professionals already working in the field attended to network and build on their knowledge of the industry.

The second annual IAU2M8 event, designed for middle- and high-school students, attracted students from the Houston area.

Students had a chance to walk through the ISA Expo exhibit, see automation technology in action through an interactive demonstration area and learn about career opportunities from real-world automation professionals.

Sponsored by Shell, the event attracted several participating organisations and schools, including Citizens for Affordable Energy, First Robotics, Houston Community College, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Lee College, the Offshore Energy Center, Texas State Technical College and Houston University.

The students attended a keynote address entitled 'Deadliest Innovation', given by Greg Crouch, embedded systems business development director of National Instruments.

Crouch is active in National Instruments' academic Science Technology Engineering and Math (Stem) programme efforts, helping to expand interest in engineering among young people.

During ISA Expo 2009, the International Society of Automation (ISA) announced its plans for a new event in 2010.

ISA Automation Week 2010 will be held on 4-7 October 2010 at the Westin Galleria Complex in Houston, Texas.

ISA Automation Week is a knowledge-focused event that will feature educational and applications-based technical conference sessions delivered by subject-matter specialists.

Discrete and process automation professionals will have a chance to learn techniques and solutions for creating more efficient, productive and economical manufacturing processes.

ISA training courses and standards meetings will also be held concurrently, making ISA Automation Week a one-stop shop for automation and control knowledge and networking opportunities.

ISA Automation Week will be targeted at management, engineering, production, IT and research-and-development professionals responsible for automation, control systems, plant-wide communications/networks, plant operations and maintenance and systems integration in continuous and batch manufacturing environments.

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