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4 A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8 ASM International 9639 Kinsman Road, Materials Park, OH 44073 Tel: 440.338.5151 • Fax: 440.338.4634 Frances Richards, Editor-in-Chief frances.richards@asminternational.org Joanne Miller, Editor joanne.miller@asminternational.org Ed Kubel and Corinne Richards, Contributing Editors Jim Pallotta, Creative Director jim.pallotta@asminternational.org Jan Nejedlik, Layout and Design Kelly Sukol, Production Manager kelly.sukol @asminternational.org Press Release Editor magazines@asminternational.org EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Adam Farrow, Chair, Los Alamos National Lab John Shingledecker, Vice Chair, EPRI Somuri Prasad, Past Chair, Sandia National Lab Jason Sebastian, Board Liaison, QuesTek Innovations LLC Tomasz Chojnacki, Caterpillar Inc. Surojit Gupta, University of North Dakota Nia Harrison, Ford Motor Company Hideyuki Kanematsu, Suzuka National College of Technology Ibrahim Karaman, Texas A&M University Scott Olig, U.S. Naval Research Lab Amit Pandy, LG Fuel Cell Systems Inc. Satyam Sahay, John Deere Technology Center India Anand Somasekharan, Los Alamos National Lab Kumar Sridharan, University of Wisconsin Jaimie Tiley, U.S. Air Force Research Lab Jean-Paul Vega, Siemens Energy ASMBOARDOF TRUSTEES David U. Furrer, President and Chair of the Board Zi-Kui Liu, Vice President Frederick E. Schmidt, Jr., Immediate Past President Raymond V. Fryan, Treasurer Prem K. Aurora Larry D. Hanke Roger A. Jones Diana Lados Thomas M. Moore Jason Sebastian Larry Somrack Judith A. Todd John D. Wolodko William T. Mahoney, Secretary and Chief Executive Officer STUDENT BOARDMEMBERS Aadithya Jeyaranjan, Kenna Ritter, Eli Vandersluis Individual readers of Advanced Materials & Processes may, without charge, make single copies of pages therefrom for per- sonal or archival use, or may freely make such copies in such numbers as are deemed useful for educational or research purposes and are not for sale or resale. Permission is granted to cite or quote fromarticles herein, provided customary acknowledgment of the authors and source is made. The acceptance and publication of manuscripts in Advanced Materials & Processes does not imply that the reviewers, editors, or publisher accept, approve, or endorse the data, opinions, and conclusions of the authors. M idterm elections are now a thing of the past and we can turn our attention away fromthe relentless road signs, junkmail/email, robocalls, and abrasive radio and TV messages. As I write this column, a much more significant vote is about to occur, at least in the eyes of the scientific community. On November 16, measurement experts from 57 countries are meeting in Versailles, France, where they will vote to make changes to the International System of Units (SI), the very foundation of global science and industry. This vote is the culmination of the scien- tific world’s 150-year journey to develop a measurement system related to the fun- damental properties of nature. The updated systemwill be completely based on the speed of light and other constants of physical science. SI base units express measurements of time, distance, mass, electric cur- rent, temperature, the amount of a substance, and luminous intensity. Rather than defining some of these units with physical objects such as Le Grand K (the nickname for the International Prototype Kilogram), the revised system will use exact values for the constants (e.g., Planck and Boltzmann) to describe the SI base units. The overall goal is to make measurement science more accurate and precise. According to our friends at the National Institute of Standards and Tech- nology, the biggest change will likely be for manufacturers of scientific instru- ments who may need to modify their products to accommodate the new defini- tions. The revamped SI will be officially rolled out on May 20, 2019. Speaking of measurement, last month I attended the 27th annual Zwick Roell testXpo International Forum for Materials Testing in Ulm, Germany—Ein- stein’s birth city. As part of this grand display of state-of-the-art testing ma- chines, several of the company’s build- ings are scrubbed, polished, and turned into gleaming showrooms that highlight both destructive and nondestructive ap- proaches to characterizing different ma- terials. Applications range from delicate equipment that measures the amount of pressure on blood vessels as medical catheters pass through to enormous drop weight testers that evaluate the fracture surfaces of ferritic steels. Visiting this lively forum offers a comprehensive and fascinating glimpse into the future of testing technology. As part of the immersive experience, I had the chance to sit down with Jan Stefan Roell, CEO of Zwick Roell AG. During our conversation over coffee and fresh pretzels, Roell emphasized four key aspects of reliable test results: They must be accurate (precise and true), repeatable (same every time), reproducible (different operators in different locations get the same results), and traceable (software records testing details and protects data integrity). Perhaps most enlightening was Roell’s take on artificial intelligence as it applies to testing. His company and others are experimenting with AI, smart soft- ware, and deep learning in which the testing algorithm improves over time, on its own. The question is, can the software be turned off to stop bettering itself? And, what does this do to the concept of repeatability if the software is constant- ly making tweaks to its code? It may sound like science fiction, but these ques- tions will soon become regular considerations. On a final note, as 2018 draws to a close, we wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season. f rances.richards@asminternational.org THE VOTE THAT REALLY MATTERS BMW i8 at the Zwick Roell testXpo.