Abstract
The Association for Laboratory Automation has experienced remarkable growth this year. I will take this opportunity, in the last issue to be mailed in 1996, to reflect upon the events of the last year and to thank those who made the creation of the Association for Laboratory Automation possible.
The ALA has started a number of educational opportunities for its members which will hopefully lead to enhanced utilization of automation and robotics in the laboratories of both today and tomorrow. Our leadership has consisted of three volunteers: Tony Beugelsdijk, Ph.D., David Herold, M.D., Ph.D., and myself, along with a number of talented individuals (Patty Mitchell, Steven Valorz, Karin Rose, Amy Herold, Evan Shore, and Chris Ambrose) who have assisted with meetings management, journal publication, and membership management. In addition, this year we have utilized the Meeting Management Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory to help provide a stronger, better organized annual meeting. The organization now hosts the Laboratory Automation News journal, our annual LabAutomation meeting, and a website (http://labautomation.org).
We have established the organization on firm footing by creating a non-profit organization based in Charlottesville, Virginia. The sixth floor of the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center houses the Association's administrative offices, complete with an impressive view of Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, as well as the University Hospital, where several applications of automation are in use. Although we have a physical home base, much of the ALA activity takes place in cyberspace over the Internet. Our Webmaster and Manager of Education, Tony Beugelsdijk manages the central electronic information warehouse at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Association's website, located at http://labautomation.org, houses all of the latest information about the ALA and the LabAutomation conference.
Laboratory Automation News will have produced 6 volumes in 1996 thanks to the many creative contributors who have taken their valuable time to document and photograph their robotics projects. Our final issue of the year, volume 6, will contain the final program for LabAutomation'97 and will be distributed at the meeting in January. We will continue to publish 6 issues a year until the increase in submitted papers requires additional volumes. This year we have covered a number of diverse topics including neural networks, mobile robotics, as well as specific robotics hardware. Reader surveys have indicated that the articles we are publishing are of use to our membership. The quality of the printing continues to be of the highest caliber, making the photos we produce useful for visualizing the described robotic systems. Many members have returned the reader service cards requesting additional information from our advertisers and in the process have won Connectix™ VideoPhones!
The LabAutomation conference promises to be our most successful yet (see the preliminary program in this issue). The large number of abstracts received from the leaders in the automation field has necessitated the creation of a program with a parallel track on Monday afternoon and three parallel tracks on Tuesday, January 21st. Additionally, we have a complete day on Wednesday highlighting new technologies and the field of combinatorial chemistry and high throughput screening. Additional user workshops are scheduled during the mid-morning and afternoon. Thus, this meeting will offer a diverse and interesting exposure to the future of automation and robotics in the laboratory. In this issue we have published the preliminary program. However, there is still ample opportunity to participate in LabAutomation'97 through our poster presentations. Posters are an ideal way to interact one-on-one with colleagues and to share your creations with others in the field. In order to give the posters maximum exposure, we have planned to house them in the same room as the exhibition.
Our exhibition hall has been fully subscribed since the beginning of October. This year we have 38 returning exhibitors who are showing new products as well as 16 new exhibitors. Participants will have the opportunity to view automated systems, try out new software, and discuss various automation needs with experts. Our Sponsors have made LabAutomation possible. By listing their names at the beginning of the program we thank them for aiding in scientific advancement and education in the field of laboratory robotics and automation. We look forward to meeting you in San Diego and collaborating with you throughout the year.