2012

AVL List GmbH

AVL is a privately owned company for powertrain engineering. It offers advanced development work globally for the automotive industry, provides world-leading instrumentation, test equipment and simulation tools for powertrain R&D. The tour starts with an overview of AVLs activities, continues with a demonstration of in-use measurement system, acoustics measurement in vehicles and the GaPo crystal production for high temperature pressure transducers. Participants will see the advanced powertrain test lab with necessary emission and test equipment for legal emission tests. The tour ends looking at specialized labs for batteries as well as optical combustion diagnostics.

Company Tour AVL at 2012 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (Wednesday May 16th, 2012, 15:00–17:30, max. 100 participants)

The company tour starts with a plenum speech for all participants in the AVL Forum at 15:00 imparting an overview of the company. After that, the tour is split into up to 6 separate groups that are lead to the following stations:

Station 1:    In-use vehicle measurement systems
Station 2:    Powertrain testbeds, emission equipment, climatic chassis      dyno testbed
Station 3:    Vehicle acoustics measurement
Station 4:     Optical combustion diagnostics (North testbeds)
Station 5:     Battery testlab
Station 6:     GaPo crystal pressure transducers

The time schedule for the company tour is:
15:00 – 15:30 Plenum : AVL Overview (Forum)
15:30 – 17:30 Station tours in small groups:

Anton Paar GmbH

Anton Paar develops, produces, distributes and provides support for analytical instruments used in research, development and quality control worldwide. The company currently counts 1480 employees and is active in over 110 countries worldwide. Anton Paar is the world market leader in the field of density measurement, the determination of dissolved CO2 and the analysis of materials’ deformation and flow behaviour. Customers of Anton Paar include the biggest international soft drink producers and breweries, petroleum and food companies, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, Formula 1 racing teams and many more. Anton Paar invests about 20 % of the yearly turnover into R&D. Innovation builds on research and development, but goes beyond technology and involves all of Anton Paar’s employees. Innovation is the art to find answers before the question is asked. Therefor company Anton Paar is committed to long-term partnerships with customers and employees as well as responsibility towards society in general. Since 2004 Anton Paar is owned by the Santner Foundation, a non-profit organization exclusively and directly aimed at charitable work and serving the public good.

The following issues will be covered in the company tour (max. 100 persons):

•  Get an overview of the history and core purposes of the Austrian-based company Anton Paar.
•  Visit our presentation lab and have a look on our measurement instruments.
• Learn about our diversified product-portfolio and the extensive range of solutions we provide.
• Join the tour through our mechanical, electronic and industrial glass productions and find out about our long-standing tradition of high-precision manufacturing.

"Measure what is measurable and make measurable that which is not."
(Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642)

austriamicrosystems AG

austriamicrosystems AG is a global leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog ICs (integrated circuits). We develop and produce industry-leading analog semiconductors, including high performance standard products and customized solutions.
    austriamicrosystems AG focuses on the areas of power management, sensors & sensor interfaces and mobile infotainment in its markets Consumer & Communications, Industry & Medical and Automotive, complemented by its Full Service Foundry activities. We combine almost 30 years of analog design capabilities and system know-how with our own state-of-the-art manufacturing and test facilities, offering the benefits of a vertically integrated supplier.
   
(max. number of visitors: 30)

Details of the tour at the Unterpremstätten headquarters of austramicrosystems AG for attendees of the IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference 2012:

1.) Introduction austriamicrosystems (30min.)
Company overview on markets and applications austriamicrosytems is involved in
2.) Fab/Lab Tour (60min.)
Window Tour showing the cleanroom including background on semiconductor processing
3.) Campus Tour (15min.)
Brief tour on the company campus.

Student Competition at I2MTC 2012

 Undergraduate and graduate Students are kindly invited to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Instrumentation & Measurement Society (IMS) at the I2MTC 2012 conference in Graz, Austria by preparing birthday presents for the Society. Each birthday present should refer to the general I2MTC 2012 topic “Smart Measurements for a Sustainable Environment” or to the I2MTC 2012 Industrial Track topics

    Providing Sustainable Energy,

    Enabling Alternative Vehicles, and

    Protecting the Environment.

Students wanting to enroll in the competition must be or must become IEEE Student Members and will receive as gratitude, complimentary IMS membership for 2012.

The maximum number of Student enrollments for the competition is limited to 100. First come first serve principle will be used. To enroll send an email including your IEEE membership number to i2mtc_contest@emt.tugraz.at.

The submission of the student’s contributions is required until May 8th, 2012, to the Organizing Committee (i2mtc_contest@emt.tugraz.at) and should contain:

    Description of the idea using the submission form available here,

    Some photo(s) of the contribution (max. 5 MB).

The contributed object should represent an illustration/exposition of an idea related to the conference topics (may be artistic, visionary, contemporary, …). It must not be a functional prototype of a measurement system.

The Organizing Committee of I2MTC 2012 will award the 10 best     birthday presents for the 60th IMS anniversary celebration. Students receiving the award will get a complementary I2MTC 2012 registration, or if already registered, the fee will be refunded. Criteria for the rating of the submissions are:

    Relevance to the conference topic / industrial track topics,

    Originality/innovativeness of the contribution,

    Presentation of the underlying idea (submitted abstract),

    Relevance to instrumentation & measurement technology in general.

The award winners will hand over the birthday presents to the IMS President during the 60th IMS Anniversary Celebration at the Conference Banquet on Tuesday, May 15th, 2012.

The award winners will have the opportunity to publish a photo and describe the idea behind the birthday present in an abstract published in the IMS Magazine.

 *Membership fee for European IEEE Student Members is 27 US$ for 2012 (new members 13.50 US$)

Will you be attending MeMeA 2012 May 18-19 in Budapest, Hungary?  If yes, the MeMeA 2012 local organizers will be providing a bus transfer from Graz to Budapest on May 17.  The cost for this transfer is 65 EUR per person. The bus will pick up guests in front of the Palais-Hotel Erzherzog Johann at TBD. The exact departure time has not yet been scheduled but it will be before noon on May 17.

Registrations for transfers must be made via email.  Please send your reservation request to trivent@trivent.hu by May 10, 2012.

*Please note that the availability of this transportation is subject to a minimum of 10 requests.

I&M Society Distinguished Lecturer - Call for Nominations

The Instrumentation and Measurement (I&M) Society is currently accepting nominations for the Distinguished Lecturer Program (DLP).  The DLP provides Distinguished Lecturers to represent the I&M Society and to serve members by giving talks. They usually provide 45 minute to 1 hour long presentations to graduate engineers, practitioners in industry, and academics. More details on the DLP can be found at http://www.ieee-ims.org/education/distinguished-lecturers-program.

Evaluations this year for the DLP will take place at the I2MTC at the Graz Congress, meeting room 1, Monday, May 14th, from 14:00-16:00. 

Suggested topics for DL proposals include (but are not limited to):

•    Laser/Optics (including Fiber Optic Sensing),
•    Measurement Precision, Sensitivity, and Noise
•    DC Measurements
•    Biomedical Instrumentation and Measurements
•    Robotics/Automated Measurements
•    Nanotechnology in Instrumentation and Measurement
•    State-of-the-Art of Traditional Measurements and Instrumentation (Digitizers, Voltmeters, Spectrum Analyzers, etc.)

For questions or to submit your nomination/proposal package, contact the DLP Chair, Kristen Donnell.

The proposal package must include:

•    Proposal title
•    Presenter's name, affiliation, references
•    Abstract of the presentation topic (between 500 and 1000 words)
•    A biography from the presenter limited to 150 words

The Graduate Student Panel Discussion is an event organized for the student attendees of I2MTC that is intended to foster networking and broaden the attendees' perspective on job opportunities, research and education. The Panel Discussion consists of several talks given by relevant members of industry or academia.  Additionally, it is a great chance to meet new people and establish connections, which may become fruitful collaborations in the future.

Although the presentations will focus on topics most relevant to graduate students, undergraduate students are also encouraged to participate. For example, I have attended past editions of the Panel as an undergraduate myself and found the discussions really useful and informative relative to my graduate study plans.

Registration is recommended for the Panel. If you would like to attend, please go to the Registration Page and fill in your name and email and hit the register button. More details regarding the time and date of the Panel will be made available soon. If you register to attend the Panel, you will receive an email close to the conference date with more details regarding this year’s speakers and activities. The grad panel discussion will take place in the Graz Congress, session room S5, Tuesday, May 15th, 14:00-16:00.

Last year’s attendees:

Mr. Huang Dajun , a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Science and Technology of China, was the local speaker at the Panel. He spoke about the Chinese educational system, including similarities and differences to other education systems. Mr. Dajun also highlighted the upcoming educational reforms that are currently being implemented.

Mr. David Ingram , a Ph.D. candidate at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, has had thirteen years of electronics and electric power industry experience. Using his industry experience, he discussed constructive ways of promoting new ideas/technology to more conservative managers.

Dr. Sarah Seguin , an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States, talked about life as a tenure-track faculty member. She spoke in detail about funding applications, managing research projects, and leading a team of graduate students. She also discussed the importance of publishing and conference attendance.

Dr. Tao Wei , a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri, United States, talked about the initial difficulty that comes with changing educational systems, educational background, and society/culture all at once. He discussed his experience of adapting to these changes as a student while pursuing his graduate studies in the U.S.

If you wish to join the select list of this year’s Graduate Student Panel speakers, please contact Alexandru Nechifor.

--Alexandru Nechifor
Graduate Student Representative of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society

The Instrumentation and Measurement Society (IMS) strives to continually support the needs of our female members and conference attendees.  This year, at the 2012 International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC), in Graz, Austria, the IMS will be offering the “Women in Instrumentation and Measurement Panel Discussion”.

The Women in Instrumentation and Measurement Panel Discussion will provide an opportunity for conference attendees to address and discuss issues, concerns and professional topics that are not of a distinctly technical nature.  The Panel will consist of 4 female members who work in the field of instrumentation and measurement, encompassing different geographical, technical/career and age groups. It will take place in the Graz Congress, session room S5, Tuesday, May 15th, from 10:45-12:45.

If you would like more information about the Panel, please contact Kristen Donnell.   More information about this exciting event will be available soon, so check back often for details!

The twin challenges of climate change and energy independence and the associated government regulations to reduce vehicle emissions present the automotive industry with an unprecedented pressure to develop cleaner, more efficient vehicles without making any compromises on performance, price or quality. Although it is not clear which technologies will dominate in the coming years - it is clear that the dominance of the internal combustion engine is now being challenged by many hybrid and electric drivetrain developments and the use of new alternative fuels to petrol and diesel. This presents some particular questions to policymakers and manufacturers; how to enable the successful introduction of this diverse set of new types of vehicle in an effective manner? How can industry be encouraged to adopt cleaner alternative vehicle technology to produce cleaner more efficient vehicles and how can consumers be encouraged to buy them? The dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions required by international law present some formidable targets that need to be achieved over the coming two decades. How can we best achieve them? This keynote aims to introduce the subject and in particular examines the role of motorsport competition in driving clean vehicle technology innovation and helping to persuade the public that green vehicles can be cool and exciting - and not as dull and boring as they are often perceived.

The CV of Lord Drayson can be found here.

         The last 40 years were marked by the fear of exhaustion of resources. Today, this fear is replaced by the fear of climate change due to high CO2 level.

       In the past, people have always opened up new areas if a need for additional material or energy has occurred. Why should it be different this time? There are all together 9 billon hectares fertile ground on earth from which we use less then 2 billion hectares. While dis¬placing the species living there we open new habitats for other species as we did in the past. In the same time we close the carbon-circle.

The CV of Prof. Fiala can be found here.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. DDr. h.c. Dipl.-Ing. Ernst Fiala

He was born and educated in Vienna, Austria.
-1952-1954:     Assistant at the Institute for Combustion Engines and Automotive Engineering of TH-Vienna.
- 1954-1963:     Test engineer with Daimler Benz, Sindelfingen (body test, safety)
- 1963:     Full Professor at the TU Berlin's Institute for Automotive Engineering
- 1968:     Visiting Professor at MIT
- 1972:     Head of Research Volkswagen AG
- 1973-1988:     Board member of Volkswagen AG, Research and Development.

The abstract for the keynote at I2MTC 2012 can be found here.

Further information on Prof. Ernst Fiala is available at: http://opus.kobv.de/tuberlin/volltexte/2008/2012/html/festschrift/fiala_e.htm