Prepare for Next-level Professional Development at IPC APEX EXPO 2023

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

IPC APEX EXPO 2023 will offer a refreshed Professional Development Course program. This year’s conference includes something for everyone, including informative courses catering to technical managers ready to level up their careers. Thirty-six courses will be offered on Sunday, Jan. 22 and Monday, Jan. 23.

Attendees will find both updated content from veteran instructors and innovative courses from new instructors. The diversity of educational content includes courses that focus on understanding and applying IPC standards; Factory of the Future technologies; quality and reliability; and a legal boot camp. Participants in these courses will gain new knowledge and real-world skills that will equip them to rapidly respond to changing demands for new technologies, materials, and processes.

As engineers progress in their careers and become the next generation of leaders in their companies, business and legal skills will likely become part of their job descriptions. IPC approached Allen Anderson and his colleague, Patrick Sebesta from F&B Law Firm P.C., with a request for a course designed for engineers who have worked in the technical career track and now find themselves in management overseeing contracts and risk management issues. “Customer Contract and Legal Boot Camp for Engineering Professionals” is a brand-new course, custom-designed for IPC’s audience.

“Whether you are a technical professional in an OEM, an EMS provider, a PCB, a cable or wire harness manufacturer, or any other electronics industry supplier, understanding key contractual provisions and associated legal ramifications is critical to every team member’s role in negotiating and executing effective customer contracts,” Anderson says. “This added dimension to a technical background helps enhance a manager’s—and thereby the company's—ability to obtain and execute equitable agreements with commensurate risk for return, avoid significant compliance and risk pitfalls, and protect company assets and intellectual property.”

Dr. Mo Abuali, CEO of IoTco, will be teaching another course meant to fill a gap in professional knowledge and help leaders prepare for the factory of the future. “Leveraging Industry 4.0 Toward Zero-Downtime, Zero-Defects Manufacturing,” another brand-new course, will benefit not only executives leading operations of manufacturing companies, but also directors, managers, and advanced data science professionals.

Abuali says of the course, “Although some have already begun their journey, many manufacturers are still talking about digitizing their manufacturing floor and wondering if it’s a worthwhile investment. Industry 4.0 describes the evolution of industry toward interconnectivity, automation, advanced analytics, and basing decisions on real-time data capture from the shop floor.” 

This course will provide attendees with a broad understanding of key Industry 4.0 solutions that marry physical production and operations with Smart digital technology, plant connectivity, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics—all to create a connected ecosystem for organizations to level up their uptime, quality, and overall productivity.

Dr. Nahid Majd, associate professor in computer science at California State University San Marcos, will demystify the topics of “Blockchain, NFT, Cryptocurrency and Metaverse,” and discuss how these applications might be used in supply chain management for electronics manufacturing. 

To read this entire article, which appeared in the December 2022 issue of SMT007 Magazine, click here.