Birmingham

To:  ISA Birmingham Section 

 Subject:  Honors and Awards for 2022

The ISA Birmingham Section Honors and Awards Team is pleased to report to the ISA Section Membership,  the  selections for our recognitions for 2022.  The H&A Team consisted of Skip Wells, Meg Moore, Catherine Andrews, Chris Sorensen, Stefanie funk, and Gerald Wilbanks.  The team  received several recommendations of worthy nominees and are excited to announce the results.

Great folks to recognize for 2022:

• Engineer of the Year:  Matt Blackmon - Southern Company Services
•  Young Engineer of the Year:  Logan Gibbs - Amerson Engineering
•  Gerney Mitchell Outstanding Service Award:  John Cover - BBP Company

 The individual selections will be presented at the Engineers Week Awards Dinner, conducted by the Engineering Council of Birmingham (ECOB) at the Harbert Center on Tuesday night, February 21, 2023..   

All of the honorees and selections will be recognized and presented plaques at the ISA Birmingham Section H&A Dinner on Tuesday evening, May 9, 2023.  This is our annual dinner meeting where we recognize our former presidents, the Honorees for the year, and thank the outgoing officers.

 Please join me in congratulating these outstanding members of the ISA Birmingham Section.

Topic:  "Unleashing the Power of Convergence in IT – OT – ET"

Date:  Tuesday,  January 10, 2023

Time:  4:00 PM

Location:  BBP Company Offices – 1994 McCain Parkway, Pelham, AL (Also Virtual on Zoom with connection link Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88409265374

Speaker:  Dean Ford, PE, CAP - Luminary ACE

Dean Ford currently serves as the Managing Principal Engineer at Luminary Automation, Cybersecurity, and Engineering, LLC, a firm he cofounded in 2021.  He develops and leads a dedicated and passionate staff of automation professionals.  He is a licensed Control Systems Engineer in 24 states and a Certified Automation Professional^® (CAP).  Dean is a Senior Member in the International Society of Automation (ISA) and participates in many industry standards committees.  He is an active member of many industry groups including AWWA, WEF, SWAN.  He passionate about educating the public and policy makers of the critical role automation plays in the future.  Dean is also serving as the Chair of the American Water Works Association Water Utility Technology and Automation Committee (WUTAC).
Abstract:

For decades, the automation, instrumentation, and controls departments at our processing and manufacturing plants have had a strained relationship with their IT and Engineering counterparts.  The requirements, standards, deliverables, and metrics don’t always seem to align and it seems that the team running the plant floor equipment ends up on short end most of the time.  What if that typical narrative were different?  What if all the groups worked together?  What synergies could the individuals and the business benefit from? 

With a current project at the Birmingham Water Works Board (BWWB) as the backdrop, this discussion provides a different vision of the future where these three groups are partners, leveraging each other’s skills and capabilities to make everyone’s job more effective and efficient.  The convergence of these groups drives costs out of the business, increases reliability, and improves the cybersecurity posture of the business. 

 How do we get there?  Where do we start?  Who needs to be involved?  We will address all of these questions and more.