Symposium on Counterfeit Electronic Parts and Electronic Supply Chain Engineers

Previously, I attended the very informative Symposium on Counterfeit Electronic Parts and Electronic Supply Chain in Baltimore, Maryland.  I haven’t decided if I’m attending this year but for those of you that might be interested I’ve posted the event details below.  My personal experience at the symposium included a room full of engineers working with keeping products up and running with authentic electronic products.  The highlight of the symposium was the training to raise awareness and stop the proliferation of substandard product.  I had the privilage of taking a bus tour over to the impressive Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE). The tour introduced state of the art equipment and processes designed to develop reliability and part selection standards.  Over the last 15 years, CALCE has invested over $75 million in developing methodologies, models, and tools that address the design, manufacture, analysis, and management of electronic systems.

Here is the announcement:

SMTA and CALCE @ University of Maryland are pleased to announce the east coast venue for the Symposium on Counterfeit Electronic Parts and Electronic Supply Chain. The program will be held June 26-28, 2012 at University of Maryland, College Park campus. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from and share your insights with government, industry and academia who are addressing the counterfeit problem.

Changes in electronic supply chain had been fast and deep in the last decades and the impact of those changes on the practices of the supply chain members is still evolving. It is well understood that the scourge of counterfeit electronic parts is related to the changes in supply chain but counterfeit electronics is only one of the many impacts. This symposium will provide a forum to cover all aspects of changes in the electronic parts supply chain on how an organization performs part selection and management through the whole life cycle of the parts.

Topics will include:

• Law enforcement tools for combating counterfeiters
• Impact of supply chain changes on the component management practices: quality, reliability, manufacturability
• Electronic parts distribution: current stage and evolution
• Authentication techniques for securing electronic part supply chain
• Inspections tools and techniques for detecting counterfeit parts
• New areas of counterfeit concerns: materials, energy storage
• Industry and international working groups and standards on electronic part supply chain and counterfeit electronic partsThis well attended and well regarded symposium attracts high level decision makers who are managing changes within their organizations, selecting tools and technologies to stay ahead of the competition, providing services to other organizations. We are particularly interested in business practice and technological success stories from the industry and innovative ideas from broad spectrum of supply chain members. We will give preference to abstracts that relate to areas beyond traditional electronic components and cover areas such as battery, circuit boards, electromechanical components, displays, complete products.

Registration details can be found here

SMTA past proceedings are available here