Tutorial Workshops

ABSTRACT:

Instructors: 

Mr. Prasanth S Ramakrishnan is the Senior Manager working for International Accreditation Service (IAS). He is a Mechanical Engineer with Masters’ in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from Texas Tech University.  He is active member of technical organizations such as American Society of Quality (ASQ) and member of the Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC) proficiency testing committee. 

He has conducted numerous assessments and training sessions on conformity assessment standards for many testing and calibration laboratories to ISO/IEC 17025.  He also conducted many assessments across other conformity assessment standards. His expertise is focused on management systems, mechanical and geotechnical sectors. He has participated and presented in technical discussions, accreditation criteria meeting hearings, miscellaneous conferences and trade shows.  

Giulia Suriani is the Calibration (CL) Program Manager at IAS overseeing the Calibration Program. Giulia hold a degree in Telecommunication Engineering and has spent significant time in a calibration and conformity assessment activities. She has served as Technical Officer, Assistant Manager for the Management System, and Team Leader for the Calibration and Reference Material Producers Programs in ACCREDIA, the Italian Accreditation Body prior to coming to IAS. Also, qualified as an EA Peer Evaluator. 

ABSTRACT:

The modern understanding of mass metrology has matured. The traditional approach of treating weighing in the same way as less nuanced disciplines of metrology has changed.  

Authorities are recognizing that the roll-off of the components of electronic weighing sensors is such that many “Established” testing methods are inappropriate, and involve over-testing to achieve very little usable data, with a significant number of methods not actually achieving their metrological goal! 

National and International standards are being updated to reflect and recognize these facts. The US and Internationally recognized standards such as EURAMET cg-18 offers much insight into this, as does the current USP general Chapter 41 and others such as the new ASTM E.898.  

For example, many companies are not aware of basic tenets of bench weighing metrology. For example, balance or scale calibration is incomplete without a correctly calculated, corresponding statement of measurement uncertainty. Just as importantly, that weighing measurement uncertainty is almost wholly independent of loaded mass.  

A high majority of weighing inaccuracies occur outside of the balance, but can be attributed to a variety of influences within the control of the user or his/her organization.  

It is a fact that most calibration regimes are either almost completely dependent upon, or contain strong elements of, legacy calibration techniques that have been passed directly down from mechanical weighing instruments, even though the components of measurement uncertainty exhibit themselves differently, for an electronic weight sensor.  

The main concern is that many organizations or companies “Over-test” without actually generating much meaningful metrology. 

During this session, we will break down how measurement uncertainty exhibits itself across the capacity of an electronic balance or scale sensor. We will cover how to correctly assess and assign a Measurement Uncertainty budget for an electronic balance or scale, and discuss modern, robust, risk-based approaches to the assesment and estimation of significant, contributing uncertainty components, in order to build a thorough, yet scientifically-sound risk-based metrology program for bench or floor weighing instruments. 

We will also discuss phenomena that affect the accuracy of weighing, to illustrate how easy it is to create poor weight data!  To contrast this, you will learn how to overcome these potential sources of error, and optimize a balance metrology regime.

This course focuses on:  

• Factors influencing Measurement Uncertainty  
• Balance location and set up 
• User testing 
• Personal weighing technique
• Increasing productivity from your weighing equipment 

Instructor: 

Ian Ciesniewski – Having been with Mettler-Toledo for over 35 years, Ian is synonymous with the mass metrology business.  A familiar face on the US metrology scene, he came to the industry from a research background.  After British and European sales and management positions, Ian took over global technical and metrological training courses for sales professionals, service technicians and customers.  

In 2001, Ian joined the Mettler Toledo US organization. He is responsible for regulatory consulting, public seminars, technical development of the North American sales force, as well as the US customer training. 

As a passionate metrologist, Ian is responsible for the mass comparator business and the US mass metrology program. Previously involved in product development, Ian has spent much of the last 25 years developing and implementing compliance strategies for regulated industries. 

Ian holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry. 

ABSTRACT:

Instructor: 

Dr. Helena Stevens is an associate professor at Bethany Lutheran college in a counseling training program. She has worked in the field of education and counseling for nearly two decades and has expertise in the theories of teaching and learning, supervision, and program evaluation. She is the lead test developer for Since Calibration supporting the education program with certification, accreditation, and training developments for laboratories. 

ABSTRACT:

Instructors: 

Giulia Suriani is the Calibration (CL) Program Manager at IAS overseeing the Calibration Program. Giulia hold a degree in Telecommunication Engineering and has spent significant time in a calibration and conformity assessment activities. She has served as Technical Officer, Assistant Manager for the Management System, and Team Leader for the Calibration and Reference Material Producers Programs in ACCREDIA, the Italian Accreditation Body prior to coming to IAS. Also, qualified as an EA Peer Evaluator. 

Mr. Prasanth S Ramakrishnan is the Senior Manager working for International Accreditation Service (IAS). He is a Mechanical Engineer with Masters’ in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from Texas Tech University.  He is active member of technical organizations such as American Society of Quality (ASQ) and member of the Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC) proficiency testing committee. 

He has conducted numerous assessments and training sessions on conformity assessment standards for many testing and calibration laboratories to ISO/IEC 17025.  He also conducted many assessments across other conformity assessment standards. His expertise is focused on management systems, mechanical and geotechnical sectors. He has participated and presented in technical discussions, accreditation criteria meeting hearings, miscellaneous conferences and trade shows. 

ABSTRACT:

Instructor: 

Michael Rusnack came to AmericanPharma after twenty-two years of service to Hewlett-Packard and nine years in three start-up companies, including Convergent Digital, that became the basis for AmericanPharma. As a founder at AmericanPharma, his responsibilities substantially focused on Field Engineering and Product engineering. The customer touch has allowed him to bring several innovations to the AmericanPharma offerings. At Hewlett-Packard, he developed his engineering and technical skills, serving as a quality engineer, manufacturing engineer, development engineer, and program manager, where he led cross-functional teams in product development and delivery. Before joining Hewlett-Packard, he served in the United States Air Force, returning to Purdue to complete his studies, graduating with a bachelor’s in science – Interdisciplinary Engineering (EE / ME). Additionally, he has graduate studies in control systems.  

During his professional career, he has been granted twelve patents in computer electronics, pharmaceutical materials, wastewater treatment, ethanol plan improvement, and technology that covers virtual temperature buffering. Additional patents filings in the area of Liquid Nitrogen level measurement. He has published numerous articles, including the prestigious Hewlett-Packard Journal. Of the many awards and recognitions, he has earned the Distinguished Toastmaster award multiple times and has been inducted into the Toastmasters Hall of Fame. 

Michael Rusnack is an active member of various civic and cultural organizations, including the March of Dimes board, International Women’s Challenge Cycling Race, Ride Idaho Board, and Toastmasters International. Beyond his professional pursuits, he is passionate about martial arts, cycling, oil and watercolor painting, and woodworking. He currently resides in Meridian, Idaho, with his beloved golden retriever.  

ABSTRACT:

Instructor: 

Mark has over 35 years of experience in multiple industries developing QMS and implementing TQM, Six Sigma, and the Toyota Production System/Lean (TPS).  He has been serving in a variety of engineering roles internally and with customers and suppliers.  

During the last 20 years he has served on the Education Committee of the American Society of Quality (ASQ) Orange Empire Section where he is the instructor for many of the ASQ Certification Preparation Courses. 

Mark has been working for 20 years at Disneyland as a Principal Engineer supporting Safety, Quality Assurance, Manufacturing, Maintenance, and Supplier Management.  He is an adjunct Professor at CSUF teaching Quality and Project Management for the last 10 years and received the Part Time Instructor of the Year Award. He also serves on the MSC committee. 

ABSTRACT:

Instructor: 

Miguel Cerezo is currently the Facilities and Engineering Site Head at Kite Pharma’s flagship T-Cell therapy commercial manufacturing facility (TCF03) in El Segundo, California. He has responsibility for all engineering, maintenance, construction project management, calibration and EHS operations at the site.  He joined Kite in 2018 serving as Head of Facilities, Engineering and Operations for Kite’s network of Research, Development and clinical Manufacturing Centers located in Santa Monica and Emeryville, CA as well as in Gaithersburg, MD. 

Prior to this, Miguel was a founding Engineering Technical Director in Amgen’s Corporate Engineering Technical Authority.  As the recognized company subject matter expert in the fields of Instrumentation, Measurement, Reliability and Controls, he led a team of 4 engineers and 10 other technical staff and was responsible for company-wide ownership and establishment of Engineering Standards, Specifications and Maintenance Requirements for Instrumentation and Controls.  Miguel was Amgen’s Corporate Calibration and Maintenance Quality Process Owner, its Maintenance and Operations Global Network Leader and served in the capacity of its Chief Metrologist.    Also, he was the corporate business process owner of Amgen’s global instance Maximo engineering asset management system.   

Upon coming to Amgen in 1996, he proceeded to quickly advance in escalating levels of management responsibility within the Thousand Oaks Site Facilities and Engineering organization culminating in becoming Director of Facilities and Engineering, where he oversaw all aspects of F&E operations at Amgen’s Thousand Oaks (ATO) headquarters facility.  As the ATO Site F&E Head, Miguel led an organization of 130 staff members and was accountable for all organizational activities including safety, compliance, operations, budgeting ($55M expense and $40M capital annually) and staffing of multiple departments including Engineering, Site Project Management, Work Order Planning and Administration, Site Utilities and Operations, Maintenance, and Instrumentation.  

Prior to joining Amgen, Miguel spent 10 years at Cal Tech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) under contract with NASA where he began his technical career in the Earth Orbiting Systems Group focusing on the development and worldwide field operation of precision sub-centimeter accuracy GPS receivers and microwave water vapor radiometers used in tectonic geodesy and very long baseline interferometry. Subsequently, Miguel was a member of the technical staff in the JPL Instrumentation Section where he developed and implemented testing and calibration solutions for the Spacecraft Environmental Testing Laboratory and the Metrology Standards Laboratory.  During this time, he contributed to the mission success of many NASA space flight projects including Galileo, Cassini, Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field and Planetary Camera, Mars Pathfinder, Sojourner Mars Rover and TOPEX/Poseidon among many others. Additionally, Miguel had primary responsibility for the Active Cavity Radiometer Pyrheliometer system that was deployed to the World Radiation Center in Davos Switzerland to establish and maintain the World Radiometric Reference for solar irradiation measurements. 

A fixture in professional societies and industry forums with numerous published technical papers and presentations to his credit, including contributions to the ISPE GAMP Good Practice Guide: A Risk-Based Approach to Calibration Management, NCSLI RP-15: Inter-laboratory Comparisons and NASA Reference Publication RP 1342 Metrology, Calibration and Measurement Process Guidelines,  Miguel attributes much of his professional success to the teaching and mentoring that he received from senior colleagues while serving as a Program Manager for the NASA headquarters sponsored Metrology and Calibration Working Group and as the NCSLI Region 8 Los Angeles Section Coordinator during his formative years.   

Presently, Miguel is the committee treasurer and Board Chairman of Measurement Science Conference. Additionally, Miguel served as a Board Director for the Los Angeles Chapter of the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers.   

On a personal note, Miguel, a native of Madrid Spain, his wife and family live in Thousand Oaks, California.  Apart from enjoying epic family road trips, his past times include fishing and golfing (badly), rooting on his favorite hockey team (GO KINGS GO!) and sorting through the massive Bronze Age comic book collection he’s managed to assemble.  He holds an undergraduate degree in Physics from Occidental College and a Master of Science degree from CSU Dominguez Hills in Quality Assurance. 

ABSTRACT:

Instructor:

Walter Nowocin is the Life Sciences Product Manager for IndySoft Corporation. Walter works with development, marketing, and sales to ensure that IndySoft is optimized to support calibration quality systems in regulated industries while being compliant with FDA, GMP, and ISO requirements. Walter has over 40 years of calibration experience with Medtronic, the world’s largest medical device manufacturer, as a Calibration Department Senior Engineering Manager and with the United States Marine Corps as a Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory Master Sergeant. Walter is Co-Chair of the NCSL International Healthcare Metrology Committee and is the Coordinator of the NCSLI Minnesota Section. Walter is the recipient of the 2023 NCSLI Education and Training Award and is a Co-Author of the Third Edition of the ASQ Metrology Handbook. Walter has a Masters in Engineering Management degree from St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota and is a Fellow of the American Society of Engineering Management (ASEM). 

ABSTRACT:

Instructor: 

Michael Johnston is the Software Portfolio Product Manager at Fluke. His extensive experience in calibration, metrology, measurement uncertainty and mathematical analysis was honed at Fluke, Northrop Grumman, SIMCO Electronics and the US Army. He holds a BS in Applied Mathematics from SUNY Empire State College. 

ABSTRACT:

Instructor: 

Roberto Benitez: Experienced Mechanical and Electrical Engineer specializing in Metrology with over 44 years of expertise in calibration and testing. Proven track record in managing calibration laboratories and promoting measurement science education. ASQ Certified Calibration Technician and active member of various professional organizations. Adept at leading teams, developing training programs, and fostering partnerships. 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 

Owner/Manager
ETALONET Monterrey, Mexico 

1993 – Present  

• Founded and currently manage one of the largest independent commercial calibration laboratories in Mexico, providing high-quality calibration services across multiple industries. 

• Established an ISO-17025 accredited testing laboratory in 2010, offering comprehensive metrology training and consultation services. 

• Developed and implemented training courses for technical high school students, enhancing measurement science education in Mexico. 

• In collaboration with Roberto Benitez Jr., launched a specialized calibration laboratory for biomedical equipment in January 2012. 

• Signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Tecnologico de Monterrey to serve as a formative partner for biomedical engineering students. 

CERTIFICATIONS & MEMBERSHIPS 

• ASQ Certified Calibration Technician 

• ASQ Senior Member 

• Member, College Francais de Metrologie 

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Instructor: 

TBD 

ABSTRACT:

Instructor: 

TBD

ABSTRACT:

Starting a new laboratory involves several crucial steps beyond simply purchasing equipment. Here are some important considerations: 

1. Planning and Design: 
   • Define Scope: Clearly outline the purpose of the laboratory and the parameters you intend to measure. 
   • Regulatory Compliance: Familiarize yourself with relevant regulations and standards (e.g., ISO, GLP) that your laboratory must comply with. 
2. Equipment Selection: 
   • Research: Investigate the best equipment for your specific needs, considering accuracy, precision, and reliability. 
   • Budgeting: Ensure you have a budget that covers not just equipment but also setup, maintenance, and operational costs. 
3. Quality Assurance: 
   • Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Develop SOPs for all processes to ensure consistency and reliability in results. 
   • Calibration Protocols: Establish a calibration schedule and procedures for all equipment to ensure measurements remain accurate over time. 
4. Training: 
   • Staff Training: Ensure that all personnel are trained on the equipment and procedures to minimize errors and improve reproducibility. 
5. Preliminary Testing: 
   • Initial Readings: Before fully operationalizing the lab, conduct preliminary tests to gather data on reproducibility and accuracy. 
   • Uncertainty Analysis: Calculate uncertainties based on initial readings to understand the reliability of your measurements. 
6. Documentation: 
   • Record Keeping: Keep detailed records of all calibrations, tests, and results to facilitate traceability and accountability. 

Instructors: 

Yvette Volschenk – I have ± 32 years of experience working in a calibration laboratory in various fields of calibration. One of the specialist fields is temperature, where I calibrated equipment’s such as Nobel and base metal thermocouples. Platinum resistance thermometers, digital and liquid-in-glass thermometers, ovens, furnaces, incubators, autoclaves, dry well calibrators etc. 

I am a consultant using my expertise in various international standards. As a consultant in ISO/IEC 17025:2017 I assisted laboratories in obtaining accreditation for calibration laboratories in various fields, testing laboratories in various fields and stack emission sampling laboratories. As a consultant for ISO/IEC 17020:2012. I assisted inspection bodies in obtaining accreditation in the field of occupational hygiene, textile, clothing, leather, and footwear and in the field of electrical inspections. 

I present training in the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and ISO/IEC 17020:2012, Uncertainty of Measurement, Internal Auditing, and various technical fields. I have up to date presented these training courses customer specific. 

I used to be a SANAS contracted technical assessor in South Africa for temperature calibrations as well as force torque and harness, from 2005 until 2015, and was a member of the temperature special technical committee and the chairman of the force, torque, and hardness special technical committee. I was also in these fields part of work groups that compiles additional requirement documents for SANAS 

I am currently a contracted assessor for ANAB in various calibration fields and I am proud to be working as a contracted assessor for ANAB. 

Anna Escarcega – I have over 30 years of experience working in Aerospace related work to include calibration of equipment in support of ICBM’s (Titan, Peackeeper, Minuteman), Air Launched Cruise Missiles (ALCM, ACM) and F-16 Fighter Jets.  I served in the US Air Force where I was initially introduced to calibration while supporting F-16 aircraft.  I have experience in the calibration of various disciplines to include temperature. I have served as Laboratory and Quality Manager for small to large companies to include L3 Communications in Torrance, CA, forming the infrastructure of a strong understanding of metrology.  I have been involved in training personnel in various aspects of calibration that also include methods and techniques of the trade.  

I am currently a contracted assessor for ANAB in various calibration fields and I am proud to be working as a contracted assessor for ANAB. 

ABSTRACT:

Instructor: 

Tim Mason