Thank you for those who were able to attend the 2019 ISA Energy and Water Automation Conference (EWAC) – https://isaautomation.isa.org/ewac2019/. For those who couldn’t attend, we missed you!
Overall, I felt like we had a great program this year. Our attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, speakers, partners, program review committee, ISA staff, and Division volunteers certainly made it a successful event. I also extend my appreciation to staff at the Omni Orlando Resort at Championsgate, FL for hosting this event.
Our program for this year kicked off with a 2-day training program on Aug 5 and Aug 6. There were a total of four instructor-led 1-day training courses focusing on SCADA Systems Integration, Alarm Management, Project Management and Cyber-Physical Security. There were a total of 40 students, and each of them were provided with Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for each training course.
The conference had several networking opportunities throughout the day and during the end of each day. A speaker’s dinner along with transportation was arranged for the keynote and technical presentation speakers at Charley’s Steak House on Aug 6th.
Following the training, we had two full days of technical program. Each day started with one or two keynote presentations, which were plenary sessions. On day 1 of our technical program, Tom DeLaura provided his opening keynote on Asset Management, and Dean Ford provided his keynote presentation on Automation Maturity. The keynotes set the stage for our technical program, and there were several good questions and discussions between the attendees and speakers. The best part was towards the end of the keynote session when Tom and Dean got back on stage together to engage with the attendees and provided their big picture thoughts and views on the keynote topics. On day 2 of our technical program, Mark Delfunt provided his highly engaging keynote presentation on Digitization Strategy.
On each day, the keynotes were followed by technical presentations that were split into the following 3 major tracks:
• SCADA, Alarm Management and Optimization
• Instrumentation/Communications
• Industrial Cybersecurity and Safety
Thanks to the efforts by our authors, co-authors and program review committee. The presentations were of high quality and provoked several good discussions during each Q & A session.
On behalf of WWID, we provided best paper and best presentation awards from our 2018 ISA WWAC during this conference.
We are currently in the process of reviewing feedback from attendees regarding our 2019 ISA EWAC, and have already started planning our 2020 ISA EWAC! On behalf of our conference committee, I take this opportunity to thank everyone who were a part of our successful event. Looking forward to see you all next year!
Thanks,
Manoj Yegnaraman, PE
Chairman, 2019 ISA EWAC
Associate Vice President, Carollo Engineers, Inc.,
