Tullahoma, TN – The 10^th Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) Training Summit sponsored by the Society of Reliability Engineers (SRE), Huntsville Chapter was held November 8^th and 9^th at Defense Acquisition University (DAU) South Region, Huntsville, AL. The two-day event brings together the best of RAM professionals from industry and government to review and discuss new technologies, modeling, testing, and assessment in order to ensure that Army keeps pace with user demands within the current fiscal constraints.

Brett Shields and Javad Seif Graduate Research Assistants at the University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI) received Outstanding and Most Outstanding Presentation Awards at the 2017 RAM X Training Summit. In addition to receiving certificates, both students received a Monetary Scholarship. The annual RAM Training Summit “allows reliability and maintainability professionals across industry and government to collaborate ideas by combining presentations, tutorials, and networking with the elite among the RAM community.”

Brett Shields, graduate research assistant in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, received Most Outstanding Presentation for his paper, “The Effects of Controls of Parameters on Properties of 3-D Printed Graphene-Polylactic Acid by Design of Experiments.”  His research interest are in stochastic mathematical optimization and additive manufacturing. Shields is currently pursuing his PhD degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering under the direction of Dr. Andrew Yu.  He would like to become a university professor in Industrial Engineering when he graduates.

Javad Seif, graduate research assistant in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, received the Outstanding Student Presentation Award for his paper entitled “Combined Maintenance Activities in Flow Shop Scheduling”.  “Prior to his graduate studies, he worked in industry as an Industrial Information Systems Analyst with a focus on maintenance information systems.”  His current research focuses encompasses maintenance planning and reliability analysis. Javad is currently pursuing a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering under the supervision of Associate Professor Andrew Yu.  He plans to stay in academia after he graduates.