The International Symposium for Testing & Failure Analysis (ISTFA) 2015 took Portland, Ore., by storm last week with record attendance and fun new events. This year’s event attracted over 775 attendees and 101 exhibits worldwide. It included 18 tutorials, 14 technical sessions including 65 platform and poster presentations, four user groups, a new panel discussion, a fascinating plenary talk, and three pre-conference education short courses.
The technical program had a robust line up of talks including 93 oral and poster presentations as well as a panel discussion and four user groups. Kicking off the event, attendees heard this year’s keynote speaker, Dr. Albert Yu-Min Lin, talk about his search to find the tomb of Genghis Khan using non-invasive techniques.
The sold out, sought-after “Tools of the Trade” tour was held on November 2 for an intimate group of pre-qualified ISTFA attendees. As part of the tour, attendees received special demonstrations from 10 exhibitors and their equipment followed by a networking reception.
The social event at the Punch Bowl Social was a fun evening of old-school video games, karaoke, and more. Commenting on the social event, Rick Livengood of Intel Platform Engineering Group says, “This was truly a memorable event, one of the best I can remember. It’s no small thing, either—social events are where the real networking takes place.” With 74 exhibitors in over 100 exhibits and dedicated hours over two days, most exhibitors found that ISTFA was a great opportunity to meet face-to-face with existing customers and potential new leads.
ISTFA 2015 Contest Winners
The photo contest was open to all members of the failure analysis community and sponsored by the Membership Committee of the Electronic Device Failure Analysis Society (EDFAS). See the 2015 Photo winners now.
A video contest was held based on a 3-minute (or less) video about an exciting result or a scintillating artifact. The winner was determined by the failure analysis community as a celebration of their filmmaking skills and failure analysis prowess. The winning video was submitted by Kevin Sanchez of the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France.
The Best Poster winner is Valentina Korchnoy from Intel Israel Ltd.
ISTFA 2016 will be held November 4-8 in Fort Worth, Texas. Interested authors should visit the ISTFA event website for more information about abstract submissions due April 17, 2015.
2016 exhibit floor space is filling up fast and the Tools of the Trade tour spaces are almost sold out for a third year! Interested companies who want to reserve a booth space should contact Christina Sandoval, Global Exhibition Manager, at 440.338.5151 ext. 5625.
