The theme of the 56^th Annual Reliability & Maintainability Symposium (RAMS^®) to be held in San Jose, California in 2010 is Transcending Traditional Reliability Approaches — from Theory to Practice. Reliability, maintainability, and safety have never been more crucial in the design, the development and the operation of components systems, and networks. Customers expect that products and services be nearly 100% reliable. Products and services that do not reach beyond existing reliability standards will lose market share, particularly in the current economic climate. In order to attain this level of reliability, approaches that transcend existing approaches are needed. In communications, energy, space, defense, transportation, and medicine, reliability is becoming the paramount property. In communications, networks must be designed to minimize outages even during natural disasters like Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Gustav. In defense, reliability failures can lead to complete mission failures and the loss of lives. In energy, designing reliable renewable energy sources is the newest challenges. In the manufacturing environment, “reliability is king.” Collecting and using data on the reliability, performance and security of products and services is the scientific way to make improved reliability operational. Many of the new approaches will utilize different types of data and many more sources of data simultaneously. And finally, there are important new theoretical insights in all of these areas that can help others achieve advancements in the science and engineering of reliability, maintainability, and safety.

All of the activities above are currently happening. With this in mind, we invite you to share your research - theoretical or practical, success stories, lessons learned, R&M knowledge, and R&M discoveries at the 2010 RAMS in San Jose. Tell us how you are transcending mission demands and product requirements by applying reliability (and safety) as a competitive advantage. RAMS is the premier forum for sharing your experience, knowledge, and roadmaps to success. Make your contribution to the advancement of the R&M discipline and enjoy in the rich exchange of ideas and solutions. We want you to contribute your unique experience to our synergistic symposium sponsored by the ten professional societies. Plan to submit your paper or tutorial now.

Papers are the medium to advance the state-of-the-art and will be published in the Proceedings and have a 1/2 hour summary presentation (including a discussion period) at the Symposium. Tutorials provide fundamental exposure to topics ranging from introductory through intermediate to advanced. They are presented in two-hour in-depth sessions at the Symposium. Examples of the most recent written papers and tutorials are available in the 2009 Proceedings and the 2009 Tutorial Notes. Your submittal should address topics related to Reliability, Maintainability, Quality and System Safety and that are relevant to our theme, e.g.: