Early-Bird Registration Deadline Extended For 2017 ISA Water/Wastewater And Automatic Controls (WWAC) Symposium

The International Society of Automation (ISA) is pleased to announce that the deadline for early-bird registration for the 2017 ISA Water/Wastewater and Automatic Controls (WWAC) Symposium has been extended to 1 July 2017. The original deadline was 15 June 2017.

ISA members who register by Saturday, 1 July will pay only $350—a discount of $150 off the regular rate. Additional registration discounts are available for AWWA, WEF and ITA members.

The 2017 ISA WWAC Symposium, to be conducted 8-10 August 2017 at the Wyndham Lake Buena Vista Resort in Orlando, Florida, USA, is expected to draw between 200 and 250 attendees. The event is presented by the ISA Water/Wastewater Industries Division (WWID), in collaboration with the Florida Section of the AWWA (FSAWWA), the Florida Water Environment Association (FWEA), the WEF Automation and Info Tech Committee, and the Instrumentation Testing Association (ITA).

Some of the most highly regarded experts, including six distinguished speakers, will address the critical issues and challenges in automation facing the water/wastewater industry. Speakers and sessions will highlight the importance of instrumentation, SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) and automatic control applications to the safe, effective treatment and distribution of water, and the collection and treatment of wastewater.

Attendees will gain the latest news and trends in automation and control systems, instrumentation, cybersecurity, alarm management, and emerging technologies across the industry. Twenty-four technical presentations will be delivered on various aspects of automation and control.

In addition to an acclaimed keynote speaker and five notable guest speakers and the extensive technical program, the symposium will feature a hands-on instrumentation workshop (introduced for the first time), an exhibit showcase, a tour of a nearby water facility, high-value training opportunities and more.

The symposium also provides an excellent opportunity to gain valuable technical information, networking, professional development and continuing education credits (CEUs and PDHs).

“I continue to receive feedback that this event is truly one of the best of its kind due to the fact that the attendees and exhibitors are focused on solutions to real-world challenges and what’s actually experienced in on-the-job settings,” reports Kevin Patel, Director of the 2017 ISA Water/Wastewater Industry Division. “Adding to its value are the training opportunities, and the networking, professional development and continuing education credits.”

“Our secret is our focus,” says Patrick Gouhin, CEO and Executive Director at ISA. “Our annual ISA Water/Wastewater and Automatic Controls Symposium specifically caters to the needs of professionals involved with automation, instrumentation and SCADA in the municipal water and wastewater sectors. It is a unique niche event and we are proud of its increasing popularity. There is no other event like it in North America.”

Six outstanding presentations and speakers

Keynote Presenter
Steve Davis, a business development leader at GE Water & Process Technologies, will kick off the symposium by providing a keynote on “The Journey of Digital and its Ties to Automation.” He will focus on how automation will propel water and wastewater treatment into the digital future.

At GE, Davis provides strategic direction and program management for the digital water initiative, and the innovation and growth for its Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. His main role is to expand Water & Process Technologies’ leadership in the digital industrial space. Within GE, Davis has held numerous roles in product management, commercial operations, technical sales and engineering.

Five Guest Speakers
Below are the presentation titles and summary biographies of the other prominent speakers.

“Critical Considerations for Successfully Transitioning to a “Smart Utility”: Implementing Intelligent Water Systems”
Speakers: Corey Williams and Barry Liner

In their talk, Corey Williams and Barry Liner, Ph.D., will focus on the next generation of utility employees and customers. The coming years will bring a shifting workforce, advanced technologies and greater customer demands. For example, through Smart Utilities and Intelligent Water Systems (IWS), companies will provide more valuable services to their customers and enable them to more efficiently and effectively manage their infrastructure.

Williams currently serves as President and CEO of Optimatics, a metaheuristic optimization software provider for the water industry. Prior to his role at Optimatics, Corey served for 10 years as Vice President and General Manager of Inflection Point Solutions, a software development and management consulting firm serving the water industry.

Dr. Liner, P.E., BCEE, is the Director of WEF’s Water Science & Engineering Center. Since joining WEF in 2010, Liner has been responsible for leading WEF’s innovation initiative, including the Innovation Pavilion at WEFTEC, the world’s largest water quality conference. He also represents the water sector by assisting in the development of ISA’s Certified Mission Critical Professional (CMCP) certification program.

“Your machines are talking, are you listening?”
Speaker: Saadi Kermani

Saadi Kermani is the global business development manager for the Industrial Information Management business at Schneider Electric. In his talk, Kermani will highlight the importance of adapting to new challenges associated with higher demands for water with higher quality and availability. Water utilities are focused on improvement initiatives, starting with efforts to connect and collect related measurements from instrumented devices to baseline operations.

Kermani is a certified Professional Scrum Product Owner, certified Pragmatic Marketing Product Manager and a Grenadier Guardsmen for the Canadian National Department of Defense.

“Optimizing Water/Wastewater Operation via Industry Standards embracing IIoT”
Speaker: Thomas Burke

Thomas Burke, the OPC Foundation President & Executive Director, will center his attention on the influence of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the water and wastewater industries. Expectations are high that the IIoT can address a range of water and wastewater management challenges, whether they be aging infrastructure, declining revenues, increasing service-level demands and complex regulations. Burke will show what leading companies are doing today, how to get started, and what is coming next in the rapidly growing world of OPC UA/IOT information integration and interoperability.

Burke has spent the majority of his career developing hardware and software for industrial automation. He founded the OPC Foundation in 1995 to achieve his vision of multi-vendor, multi-platform, secure and reliable interoperability for data/information integration in industrial automation, building automation, home automation, and security into the cloud and the enterprise respectively.

“AWWA Current News and Trends”
Speaker: Michael Sweeney

Michael Sweeney, Ph.D., the Deputy Executive Director of Toho Water Authority in Kissimmee, Florida, will cover a variety of topics of regional and national importance, including water conservation monitoring and performance, and near-term and long-term water quality and supply concerns in Central Florida.

Dr. Sweeney possesses 30 years of experience with water and wastewater utilities serving Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Louisville. He also has provided consulting services in the areas of utility management and technology throughout the US and Canada. He is a registered professional engineer and is a member of ISA, AWWA, WEF and the AWWA Utility Benchmarking Steering Committee.

First-time-ever hands-on instrumentation workshop
For the first time, the ISA WWAC symposium will feature a hands-on instrumentation workshop, which will be led by industry experts. The workshop is designed to provide participants with an understanding of the on-line analyzers used in wastewater treatment for nutrient control. This includes measurement principles; limitations in performance of the various nutrient analyzer technologies; errors and interferences; and installation practices within the water resource recovery facilities.

The vendor-neutral fundamentals of analyzers will be presented and directions will be given on how they can be integrated into different strategies for process control in water and wastewater processes. Hands-on exercises will be used to demonstrate analyzer technology limitations, misapplications and trouble-shooting. Proper instrument placement for different process configurations will also be covered.

Directing the workshop will be the following industry experts:

• Charles Aycock, EIM Systems Coordinator for the city of Roseville, California
• Melody White, Application Development Manager at Hach Company
• Tracy Doane-Weideman, US Marketing Manager for Analysis Products at Endress + Hauser
• Bob Dabkowski, Application Development Manager at Hach Company
• Steve Smith, Product Marketing Manager at Endress + Hauser

Access to leading vendors and suppliers
The exhibit showcase will feature the latest products and services from leading vendors and suppliers. It will also include daily networking luncheons and an evening reception—the ideal venue for mingling, meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends.

Two valuable ISA training opportunities
Add value to your attendance at the symposium by taking an on-location ISA training course. Two courses will be offered during the week.

Introduction to the Management of Alarm Systems (IC39C) (https://www.isa.org/training-certifications/isa-training/instructor-led/course-descriptions/ic39c/)
7 August 2017 (one-day course)
Instructor: Nick Sands, PE, ISA Fellow
Credits: 0.7 CEUs /7 PDHs

IACS Cybersecurity Operations & Maintenance: Secure Your Control System (IC37) (https://www.isa.org/training-certifications/isa-training/instructor-led/course-descriptions/ic37/)
7-8 August 2017 (two-day course)
Instructor: Bryan Singer, CISM, CISSP
Credits: 1.6 CEUs /14 PDHs

Register for this remarkable event today
To register, and gain more information on the ISA’s 2017 WWAC Symposium, visit www.isawwsymposium.com.

For the full program schedule, including full presentation abstracts and speaker bios, visit www.isawwsymposium.com/program-schedule/.

About The ISA Water/Wastewater and Automatic Controls Symposium
Presented by the ISA Water and Wastewater Industries Division, the ISA Water/Wastewater and Automatic Controls (WWAC) Symposium helps professionals in the water and wastewater industries understand how instrumentation, SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) and automatic control applications are vital to the treatment and distribution of water, the collection and treatment of wastewater, and the management of storm water. As a three-day event, the symposium features technical speakers, invited speakers, an exhibit hall, plant tour, training and a general reception. The 2017 symposium will be taking place 8–10 August 2017 at the Wyndham Lake Buena Vista Resort in Orlando, Florida. For more information, visit www.isawwsymposium.com.

About ISA
The International Society of Automation is a nonprofit professional association that sets the standard for those who apply engineering and technology to improve the management, safety, and cybersecurity of modern automation and control systems used across industry and critical infrastructure. Founded in 1945, ISA develops widely used global standards; certifies industry professionals; provides education and training; publishes books and technical articles; hosts conferences and exhibits; and provides networking and career development programs for its 40,000 members and 350,000 customers around the world. For more information, visit www.isa.org.

ISA owns Automation.com, a leading online publisher of automation-related content, and is the founding sponsor of The Automation Federation (www.automationfederation.org), an association of non-profit organizations serving as “The Voice of Automation.” Through a wholly owned subsidiary, ISA bridges the gap between standards and their implementation with the ISA Security Compliance Institute (www.isasecure.org) and the ISA Wireless Compliance Institute (www.isa100wci.org).