The iNARTE Informer – May 2011

HEADQUARTERS NEWS

This month we have some great news to share with our members. On March 21, 2011, the iNARTE Board of Directors voted unanimously in favor of an Affiliation Agreement with RABQSA International. A similar motion to affiliate had been adopted a few days earlier by the Board of RABQSA.

It is possible that few of you will be familiar with the RABQSA organization, but it is one of the largest, internationally recognized, independent credentialing agencies in the world. RABQSA was created in 2004 by the merging of the personnel certification activities of the USA based Registrar Accreditation Board (RAB) and the Australian based Quality Society of Australasia (QSA). At the time of this merger, RAB activities were controlled by the American Society for Quality (ASQ). In 2005, RAB’s accreditation programs for management systems certification bodies became the responsibility of the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB), while the auditor certification and auditor training provider programs of RAB became the responsibility of RABQSA International.

ASQ is still the controlling and sole voting member of RABQSA, and in the same way, RABQSA will become the sole voting member of iNARTE as a result of this new affiliation. These terms are commonly used when non-profit organizations merge or affiliate, but what it means is that iNARTE will in the future be a part of a much larger and more influential organization, with ASQ at the head.

ASQ was established in 1946. Headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, ASQ is a global community of experts and the leading authority on quality in all fields, organizations, and industries with over 85,000 members worldwide. ASQ supports membership services and business operations through ASQ Global, ASQ China, and ASQ Mexico; with ASQ WorldPartners® around the globe; and through its work with ANAB and RABQSA.

The RABQSA organization has principal offices in Sydney, Australia, in Milwaukee, WI, and in Seoul, Korea. They design, develop, and deliver personnel and training certification services for various industries, and work through more than a dozen regional offices in Asia, Europe and South America.

The activities of iNARTE and RABQSA do not compete but are entirely complimentary, in that iNARTE has programs for certification of the hands on engineering communities,
whereas RABQSA schemes are directed at assessors, auditors and inspectors. iNARTE programs are almost entirely “Qualification Based,” RABQSA schemes are, for the most part, “Competency Based.”

This affiliation raises the profile of iNARTE in the global community. Becoming part of the ASQ, ANSI, ANAB, RABQSA family, exposes iNARTE to the upper echelon of international regulatory organizations and industry associations and will provide new opportunities for significant growth. Affiliation will be a seamless process for iNARTE members. Existing iNARTE certification programs will continue to be administered as before and the status of iNARTE members will not change.

GET READY FOR EMC DESIGN ENGINEER CERTIFICATION IN 2011

Negotiations with industry leaders are progressing as planned and the definitions and skill sets for this new certification are taking shape. Final decisions from the Certification Review Committees in the USA and in Japan are expected by mid June. This should permit our first certification examinations to be ready for the EMCS 2011 in August.

The latest proposals being discussed will reduce the examination question categories to just the following twelve:

Within the above categories there will be both basic knowledge questions and advanced level questions. The examination will consist of two parts, each to be completed within three hours. Part 1 will contain 30 basic knowledge level questions and all should be attempted. Part 2 will be a selection of 40 more advanced and selective questions, from which the candidate should choose to answer no more than 30. The passing grade will be an average of 70% correct.

Unlike the traditional EMC certification exam, this new exam will not be open book. Candidates may bring only a scientific calculator and a self made note book of approximately 1cm thickness. This exam is not a test of your problem solving skill using your normal day to day tools, but is instead a test of your knowledge related to EMC design principles.

Eventually there will be two certification grades offered; Certified Engineer and Certified Senior Engineer. However the 2011 examinations will be for the Engineer level only.

Those of you with a wealth of EMC Design experience should get prepared with your education and experience credentials to apply for Certification during the initial grandfather period. In June we will publicize the full list of requirements for acceptance under the grandfather program.

Unlike the traditional iNARTE EMC certification program that requires members to renew each year, the new Design Engineer certification will be for life. However, Engineers will be offered an opportunity to upgrade to Senior Engineer once they have held their certificate for three years or more.

Look for more details to be confirmed in June.

REGISTER FOR CERTIFICATION EXAMS

Don’t forget the following events that offer candidates a chance to take the iNARTE certification examinations without added proctoring fees.

• APEMC 2011 – Jeju, South Korea. iNARTE workshop on May 16, examinations on May 19
• IEEE EMCS 2011 – Long Beach, CA. iNARTE workshop on August 15, examinations on August 19
• EOS/ESD 2011 – Anaheim, CA. iNARTE examinations on September 16
• IEEE PSES 2011 – San Diego, CA. iNARTE examinations on October 13

Candidates can register in advance at the iNARTE web site to examine at any event for any of the programs that we offer. At the event, candidates can register until the day before the exam, but only for the discipline related to the event.

QUESTION OF THE MONTH

Last month we asked you the following ESD question:

A large piece of paper is left on top of an ESD control work surface. Someone sets a 15 cm x 15 cm tote directly on top of the paper. Given the following data, what is the capacitance between the tote and the work surface?

Data: ε of paper = 1.5, paper thickness = 0.05 cm.

A) 29.8 pF
B) 298 pF
C) 59.7 pF
D) 597 pF

The correct answer is D) 597 pF.

This month the question is:

If 10 V is applied across the ends of a 1mm diameter copper wire 100 m long, find the current and electrical field over the length of the wire.

The conductivity of the copper = 5.7×107 Siemens/m

A) 4.5 A, 0.1 V/m
B) 4.5 mA, 100 V/m
C) 9 A, 0.1 V/m
D) 9 mA, 100 V/m