This year’s symposium will feature three prominent speakers who will present on pertinent industry topics, including cyber security, the benefits of high-performance HMI design, and effective SCADA project management techniques.
Cyber Security
John Cusimano, CFSE, CISSP of exida, who also is the instructor for the symposium’s two-day in-depth cyber security course, will deliver a talk about the current state of cyber security at municipal water plants- view abstract
High Performance HMIs: Study Results
Bill Hollifield of PAS, who spoke at last year’s symposium, will return to provide an overview of a recent EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) study about the benefits of high-performance HMIs and how these HMI techniques can be applied to water/wastewater SCADA systems – view abstract
Planning Successful SCADA Retrofit Projects
P. Hunter Vegas of Avid Solutions, who recently co-authored the book 101 Tips for a Successful Automation Career, will present a talk on how to successfully plan and manage SCADA retrofit projects –view abstract
About the Speakers:
John Cusimano, WWAC2013 Invited Speaker
John Cusimano, CFSE, CISSP is director of exida’s security services division. A process automation safety, security and reliability expert with more than twenty years of experience, John leads a team devoted to improving the security of control systems for companies worldwide. He has conducted or supervised numerous cyber security assessments of industrial control and SCADA systems in a variety of industries including chemical, water/wastewater, oil & gas, and electric power. John is chairman of ISA 99 WG4 TG2 Zones & Conduits committee and co-chair of ISA 99 WG4 TG6 Product Development committee.
John is avoting member on the ISA-99 standards committee on control system security and the ISA Security Compliance Institute’s Technical Steering Committee. John is also active in a variety of other ISA99, ISA84, and ICSJWG working groups. John is also a qualified Achilles™ communication robustness test engineer. Prior to joining exida, John led market development for Siemens’ process automation and safety products and held various product management positions at Moore Products Co. John started his career at Eastman Kodak Company, where he implemented and managed automation projects. John has a B.S. degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Clarkson University and holds a CFSE and CISSP certification.
Bill Hollifield, WWAC2013 Invited Speaker
Bill Hollifield is the Principal Consultant at PAS responsible for Alarm Management and High Performance HMI. He is a member of the ISA-18 Alarm Management committee, the ISA-101 HMI committee, the API-1167 Alarm Management committee, and is a co-author of the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) Alarm Management Guidelines. Bill is also co-author of The High Performance HMI Handbook and the Alarm Management Handbook, along with many articles on these topics. Bill has international, multi-company experience in all aspects of Alarm Management and effective HMI design, with 38 years of industry experience focusing in project management, chemical production, and control systems.
Bill holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University and an MBA from the University of Houston. He’s a pilot and has built his own plane (with a High Performance HMI), along with building furniture and his log home in the Ozarks.
P. Hunter Vegas, WWAC2013 Invited Speaker
P. Hunter Vegas, PE was born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and received his BSEE degree from Tulane University in 1986. Upon graduating, he joined Babcock and Wilcox, Naval Nuclear Fuel Division in Lynchburg, Virginia, where his primary job responsibilities included robotic design and construction and advanced computer control. In 1987, he began working for American Cyanamid (now Cytec Industries) as an instrument engineer. In the ensuing 12 years his job titles included Instrument Engineer, Production Engineer, Instrumentation Group Leader, Principal Automation Engineer, and Unit Production Manager. In 1999, he joined a specially-formed group to develop next generation manufacturing equipment for a division of Bristol-Myers Squibb. In 2001, he joined Avid Solutions, Inc. as an engineering manager and lead project engineer, where he works today. He lives in Kernersville, North Carolina.
Hunter holds Louisiana and North Carolina Professional Engineering licenses in Electrical and Controls System Engineering, a North Carolina Unlimited Electrical Contractor’s License, and an MBA from Wake Forest University. He has executed nearly 2000 instrumentation and control projects over his career, with budgets ranging from a few thousand to millions of dollars. He is proficient in field instrumentation sizing and selection, safety interlock design, electrical design, advanced control strategy, and numerous control system hardware and software platforms. He has also recently co-authored a book, “101 Tips to a Successful Automation Career”.