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The Best and Brightest
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 1 minute
Each year, we at SMT recognize the best and brightest the industry has to offer with the VISION Awards. We presented the 2003 VISION Awards during a blockbuster ceremony on February 24 at IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries' co-located APEX and IPC Printed Circuits Expo trade show in Anaheim, Calif. With the electronics assembly industry in a well-publicized slump for the past three years, you'd think that the number of new products would fall by the wayside.
You'd be wrong. Our independent panel of judges, all members of academia and industry, had a record number of entries, with more than 100 submissions to choose from. In a lot of ways, they were all winners for dedicating R&D, personnel, and resources to creating innovative products in the face of an industry downturn. The 15 companies and products you'll read about on the next few pages of this special supplement represent the cream of the crop in their categories.
Each submission was judged on its ability to meet a significant industry challenge, creative application of a new or existing technology, overall quality and consistency of performance, economic merit, and throughput characteristics. The products also were judged on their innovation, cost effectiveness, speed and throughput requirements, contribution to quality, ease of use, maintainability and repairability, and environmental responsibility.
The VISION Awards ceremony featured a keynote speaker for the very first time. The distinguished Jennie Hwang, Ph.D., an SMT Editorial Advisory Board member and president of H-Technologies Inc. in Ohio, talked to the standing room only crowd about two of her favorite topics, perspective and innovation. These were qualities each award winner had in spades.
If your company has this same kind of pioneering spirit, passion for quality, and dedication to the industry, we invite you to enter the awards program next year. Much like the flowers and trees bursting into spring, the industry is beginning to reawaken. For the last 12 years, SMT has presented the VISION Awards to the best of the industry, rain or shine, and we'll continue to do so.
Congratulations again to the winning companies this year, and we look forward to another record turnout!
John BubelloPublisher, SMT