Seminar Instructors

The pool of instructors for ReliaSoft's reliability training seminars includes the creators of ReliaSoft software packages, invited experts, academics and industry practitioners. This list presents the regular instructors at ReliaSoft's seminars, as well as instructors that offer select specialized courses on-site. Given the high caliber of our instructors, you can be assured of receiving expert step-by-step instruction as well as the latest theoretical and practical knowledge.

Instructors are listed in alphabetical order.

Carl S. Carlson

Carl Carlson is a consultant and instructor in the areas of FMEA, reliability program planning and other reliability engineering and management disciplines. He has 20 years experience in reliability engineering and management positions at General Motors, most recently Senior Manager for the Advanced Reliability Group. His responsibilities included Design FMEAs for North American operations, developing and implementing advanced reliability methods to achieve/demonstrate reliability requirements and managing teams of reliability engineers. Previous to General Motors, he worked as a Research and Development Engineer for Litton Systems, Inertial Navigation Division. Mr. Carlson co-chaired the cross-industry team to develop the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J1739 for Design/Process/Machinery FMEA and participated in the development of the SAE JA 1000/1 Reliability Program Standard Implementation Guide. He has also chaired technical sessions for the Reliability Track of the Annual SAE Reliability, Maintainability, Supportability and Logistics (RMSL) Symposium, was a four-year member of the Reliability and Maintainability Symposium (RAMS) Advisory Board and served for five years as Vice Chair for the SAE's G-11 Reliability Division. Mr. Carlson holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and completed the Reliability Engineering sequence from the University of Maryland's Masters in Reliability Engineering program. He is an ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer.

Larry H. Crow

Dr. Larry H. Crow is an independent consultant as well as an instructor and consultant for ReliaSoft Corporation in the areas of reliability growth and repairable system data analysis. Previously, Dr. Crow served as Vice President, Reliability and Sustainment Programs at Alion Science and Technology in Huntsville, Alabama. He held this position at IIT Research Institute before Alion was established in 2002 by 1600 former IITRI employees. Prior to that, Dr. Crow was Director, Reliability at General Dynamics Advanced Technology Systems (formerly Bell Laboratories ATS). Before joining Bell Laboratories in 1985, Dr. Crow was chief of the Reliability Methodology Office at the US Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity (AMSAA). He developed the Crow (AMSAA) model and the Crow Projection model, which have been incorporated into US DoD military handbooks as well as national and international standards and service regulations on reliability. Dr. Crow chaired the Tri-Service Committee to develop US MIL-HDBK-189, Reliability Growth Management and is the principal author of that document. He is also the principal author of the IEC 61164, Reliability Growth-Statistical Tests and Estimation Methods. He developed the widely used N.H.P.P. Power Law model for analyzing repairable systems reliability, which is featured in the new IEC 61710, Goodness-of-Fit and Estimation Methods for the Power Law Model.

Duane L. Dietrich

Dr. Duane L. Dietrich is the Director of ReliaSoft Consulting Services. He is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Arizona. During his 30 years on the faculty, his teaching responsibilities were in the areas of statistical quality control, reliability and engineering statistics. He has served as a consultant to numerous companies and government agencies both nationally and internationally. Some of his more notable clients have been the US Army, the US Navy, IBM, Motorola and Xerox. He is currently an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Reliability and has served in this capacity for eight years. He was also a guest co-editor for a special issue of the IEEE Transaction devoted to reliability and quality.

Athanasios Gerokostopoulos

Athanasios Gerokostopoulos is a Reliability Engineer at ReliaSoft Corporation. He is involved in the development of ReliaSoft’s software products and the delivery of training seminars and consulting projects in the field of Reliability and Quality Engineering. His areas of interest include Reliability Program Plans, Design for Reliability, System Reliability and Reliability Growth Analysis. Mr. Gerokostopoulos holds an M.S. degree in Reliability Engineering from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. He is a Certified Reliability Professional (CRP) and an ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer and Certified Quality Engineer.

David J. Groebel

David Groebel serves as the Director of QA & Support at ReliaSoft. Since 1997, he has played a key role in the development of all of ReliaSoft's standard software products. In addition, he has been instrumental in formalizing the customer support and software quality assurance procedures at ReliaSoft. His areas of interest include life data analysis, accelerated life testing, reliability growth analysis and software quality assurance. He is currently the project lead for ReliaSoft's RGA software. Mr. Groebel holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona. He is a Certified Reliability Professional (CRP).

Harry Guo

Dr. Huairui (Harry) Guo is the Director of Theoretical Development at ReliaSoft Corporation. He received his Ph.D. in Systems and Industrial Engineering from the University of Arizona. He has published over 70 technical articles and research papers in the area of quality and reliability engineering, including SPC, ANOVA, DOE, repairable and non-repairable system reliability modeling, accelerated life and degradation testing, and warranty prediction. He has served as a referee for ten international reliability engineering related journals and five international conferences, and has been invited to give presentations and seminars for NASA, ASQ, NREL and commercial companies. He has conducted consulting projects for over 20 companies from various industries, including renewable energy, oil and gas, automobile, medical devices and semi-conductors. As the leader of the theory team, he is deeply involved in the development of Weibull++, ALTA, DOE++, RGA, BlockSim, Lambda Predict and other products from ReliaSoft. Dr. Guo was the recipient of the Stan Ofsthun Award from the Society of Reliability Engineers (SRE) in 2008 and 2010. He also received the best paper award at the Institute of Industrial Engineers annual research conference in 2007. He is a Certified Reliability Professional (CRP) and an ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE) and Certified Quality Engineer (CQE).

Sharon Honecker

Dr. Sharon Honecker is a Research Scientist at ReliaSoft Corporation. She is currently playing a key role in the development of future ReliaSoft software applications. In addition to teaching various ReliaSoft training courses, she has instructed engineering courses in several disciplines at the community college and university levels. Her research interests include low-cycle fatigue and mechanical testing, as well as fluid dynamics in biological systems. Dr. Honecker holds a B.S. in Engineering and Applied Science from the California Institute of Technology, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Tulsa and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a Certified Reliability Professional (CRP).

Mohamed Altaf Jaffer

Mohamed Altaf Jaffer is a Reliability Engineer with ReliaSoft India, a wholly owned subsidiary of ReliaSoft Corporation, headquartered in Chennai. He provides technical support, consultancy and training on Reliability Engineering in the manufacturing and process industries. He has trained engineers from companies like Reliance Industries, Essar Oil, Amaraja Batteries, KONE Elevators, Zuari Industries and L&T, and many others. He has executed RAM/RCM Projects for companies such as Gujarat National Fertilizers (GNFC), Indian Oil (IOCL), Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), Deepak Fertilisers (DFPCL), and others. He has been a part of product reliability engineering projects for TAFE, the Aviation Development Authority of India (ADA) and the Research & Development Establishment R&D (E) of DRDO. He holds a Bachelor degree in Engineering and he is a Certified Reliability Professional (CRP).

Bryan Liang

Bryan Liang is a Senior Reliability Engineer with ReliaSoft Asia, headquartered in Singapore. He is currently promoting Reliability Engineering and its principles throughout South East Asia and has been providing consultancy and training services to companies and organizations in both the manufacturing and the process industries. Before joining ReliaSoft, Mr. Liang worked at Panasonic Electronics Singapore. He holds a B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering, and an M.S. in Mechanics and Processing of Materials from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is a Certified Reliability Professional (CRP).

Hongan Lin

Hongan Lin currently serves as the Director of ReliaSoft Asia, headquartered in Singapore, where he has been championing and enabling the use of proper reliability practices in the Asia Pacific region. He has been involved in the development of ReliaSoft’s software and training courses and also provides consulting and training services for numerous organizations in India, the Middle East, Australia and other locations in the Asia Pacific region. Before joining ReliaSoft, Mr. Lin worked at the Defense Science Organization of Singapore as a Defense Engineer, and subsequently as a Lecturer at Temasek Polytechnics in Singapore. He holds a B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering. He is a Certified Reliability Professional (CRP).

Adamantios Mettas

Adamantios Mettas is the VP of Product Development at ReliaSoft Corporation, spearheading ReliaSoft’s innovative product development group. In his previous position as ReliaSoft’s Senior Scientist, he played a key role in the development of ReliaSoft's software including Weibull++, ALTA, RGA and BlockSim by deriving statistical formulations and models and developing numerical methods for solving them. Mr. Mettas has trained more than 2,000 engineers throughout the world on the subjects of Life Data Analysis, FMEA, Warranty Analysis, System Reliability, RCM, DOE and Design for Reliability, as well as advanced topics such as Accelerated Testing, Repairable Systems and Reliability Growth. He has published numerous papers on these topics. In addition to training, Mr. Mettas is part of ReliaSoft’s consulting arm and has been involved in various projects across different industries, including Oil & Gas, Power Generation, Automotive, Semiconductor, Defense and Aerospace. Mr. Mettas holds an M.S. in Reliability Engineering from the University of Arizona and he is a Certified Reliability Professional (CRP).

Joseph M. Michalek

Joe Michalek is a consultant and instructor in the areas of FMEA, manufacturing reliability engineering, Reliability Centered Maintenance, and manufacturing management disciplines. He has 20 years experience in the manufacturing quality disciplines and 13 years experience in reliability and manufacturing reliability engineering. He has done extensive work to streamline and improve the effectiveness of PFMEA and Machinery FMEA within General Motors. In addition, his work with the key characteristic designation system (KCDS) has resulted in a global common process for the development and implementation of key characteristics and process control plans for GM. His previous assignment with General Motors was Global Manufacturing Cost Center Manager who was responsible to define, develop, and manage a global activity to act as primary interface between Manufacturing Engineering and Finance. Mr. Michalek was a co-chair in the development of the (SAE) J1739 for Design/Process/Machinery FMEA and participated in the development of the SAE M-110.2 Reliability and Maintainability Guideline for Manufacturing Machinery and Equipment. Mr. Michalek holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from General Motors Institute (now Kettering University).

Udaiappan Muthukumar

Udaiappan Muthukumar serves as Director of ReliaSoft India, a wholly owned subsidiary of ReliaSoft Corporation, headquartered in Chennai. Over the past 10 years, Mr. Muthukumar has been involved in promoting Reliability Engineering and its principles in India and the surrounding areas. He has provided consultancy and training services to numerous companies and organizations in India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, including Honeywell, Mahindra and Mahindra, TATA Motors, Lucas TVS and the Defense Research and Development Organization Labs. Mr. Muthukumar holds a Bachelor (Technology) degree from Anna University, Chennai, India. He is a Certified Reliability Professional (CRP).

David H. Olwell

Dr. David Olwell is Associate Professor and Associate Chair at the Naval Postgraduate School. As a highly respected authority in the field of reliability, he has presented seminars to a wide range of agencies and was Director of Research as well as Director of Mathematical Sciences Center of Excellence at West Point. In addition, he consults to the DoD on matters of national defense. Dr. Olwell holds a Ph.D. in Statistics and an M.S. in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Minnesota.

Julio E. Pulido

Dr. Julio Pulido is a Senior Director, DFR Strategy and Planning and an instructor at ReliaSoft Corporation specializing in the areas of Structural Analysis and Vibration, Design for Reliability, Structural Reliability, Life Data Analysis and Accelerated Testing Techniques. His knowledge in the product development process utilizing Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and Design for Reliability (DFR) elements with new technology and Lean product development activities has led to millions of dollars in in product cost of quality savings and product reliability improvements for Fortune 500 Medical, Industrial and Energy companies worldwide. Dr. Pulido holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil; an MS in Structural Vibration from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; an MBA from Xavier University; an MS in Technology Management from the University of Chicago; and a PhD in Structural Reliability from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with PhD Research at Duke University. He is also a Certified Reliability Professional (CRP) and an ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer and Certified Quality Engineer.

David Rock

David Rock currently serves as the development team leader for ReliaSoft’s Enterprise Software group, which includes XFRACAS and Dashboard products along with some custom enterprise solutions. Enterprise software systems have been implemented, and are currently maintained, for several Fortune 100 companies worldwide. He was also the development team leader for ReliaSoft’s Weibull++ Version 5.0 and ReliaSoft’s RG Version 1.0. Mr. Rock holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Kent State University and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, with emphasis in Reliability Engineering, from the University of Arizona.

Jerry Roslund

Dr. Jerry Roslund is an instructor and consultant specializing in Design of Experiments (DOE) and Reliability Methods. Prior to retiring from GM, he provided leadership as a GM Technical Fellow for Statistical Methods and Reliability and as a Validation Technical Integration Engineer at GM North America Vehicle Engineering. In 1970 Dr. Roslund joined General Motors at Detroit Diesel Allison and retired from GM in 2007. During his years at General Motors, he developed numerous course textbooks and conducted over 200 seminars providing a wealth of experience and a vast number of case studies. Dr. Roslund is a member of SAE, ASQ and the Society of Reliability Engineers. He received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nebraska, M.S.M.E. from Cleveland State University and Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from Oakland University.

Srinivasan Saravanan

Dr. Srinivasan Saravanan serves as Reliability Consultant of ReliaSoft India, a wholly owned subsidiary of ReliaSoft Corporation, headquartered in Chennai, where he has been championing and enabling the use of proper reliability practices in India. He has provided consultancy and training services to numerous companies and organizations in India, including Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, JCB, TAFE, TMTL and Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) Labs. Before joining ReliaSoft, Dr. S. Saravanan worked as a Technology Manager in the Reliability Centre & Condition Monitoring and Diagnostics Research Centre (CMDRC) of the CG Global R&D Centre for Crompton Greaves Ltd. He was involved in condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of power transformers and HT Motors and the reliability assurance of consumer products. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Bharadhidhasan University, Tamil Nadu and received an M.Tech in Energy Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Trichy, Tamil Nadu. He was awarded a Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), New Delhi. He is a Certified Reliability Professional (CRP).

Pantelis Vassiliou

Pantelis Vassiliou founded ReliaSoft in 1992 while in the Ph.D. program in Reliability Engineering at the University of Arizona. Over the past two decades, he has overseen the research and development of new tools, theories and approaches for advancing reliability methodologies, and has personally taught, lectured and/or acted as a consultant for thousands of reliability engineers and hundreds of companies in over forty countries. Even though fully occupied as the chief executive of a multinational corporation, Mr. Vassiliou still sets aside a part of his schedule to teach selected courses and to participate in selected consulting projects, enabling him to share his experience and insight across different industries, while at the same time allowing him to keep his finger on the pulse of developments in the field to which he has devoted his entire professional life. Mr. Vassiliou holds a B.S. degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and an M.S. degree in Reliability from the University of Arizona.