UPAC SUMMIT 2027

April 12th - 16th
Prescott, Arizona, USA

User Performance and Automation Conference

A collaborative industry conference uniting human factors expertise and control system engineering to help operations teams improve performance, reliability, and situational awareness.

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Why This Conference Matters

  • Rising System Complexity: Industrial control rooms are becoming more complex, requiring operators to understand and manage increasingly advanced automated systems in real time to maintain safety, reliability, and efficiency. 

  • Engineering–Operations Gap: Control system engineering and operator usability are often designed separately, creating a gap between how automation works and how effectively operators can monitor and control it. 

  • Integrated Automation Delivery: Combining high-performance automation engineering helps build control room environments where both technology and operators are optimized for safe and effective operations. 

Highly effective operators require a human‑centered focus along with a technically sound control system foundation.

Bringing Together Two Disciplines

Supporting Plant Operations

Core Topics

Key Focus Areas

This conference is structured around the critical elements that shape high‑performing control room and automation environments. Sessions span the full lifecycle of control room design, control system engineering, and modernization, with a strong emphasis on human‑centered design and operational excellence. 

Topics include human factors, control system implementation and migration strategies, operator effectiveness, HMI design, alarm management, and advanced process control. In addition, the program addresses safety lifecycle optimization, covering best practices across hazard analysis, safety system design, validation, and long‑term performance management to reduce risk and strengthen operational safety. 

Attendees will explore real‑world examples, practical design strategies, and proven engineering approaches used to improve operational awareness, system stability, workforce effectiveness, and overall plant reliability. Sessions also examine how thoughtful modernization and engineering practices can extend asset life, enhance safety, and support sustainable operations. 

All focus areas are designed to deliver practical, actionable insights that attendees can apply directly within their own facilities to drive safer, more reliable, and more efficient operations. 

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Control Room Design & Planning

Operator Performance and Reliability

Advanced Process Control

Alarm Management Strategy

Safety Lifecycle Optimization

Control System Engineering
& Modernization

High Performance
Graphics

Featured Speakers

Ian Nimmo

User Centered Design Services

Steve Maddox

User Centered Design Services

Chris Heil

User Centered Design Services

Jack Lluy

User Centered Design Services

Rob Allen

Lin & Associates

Eric LeBlanc

Lin & Associates

Jeremy Podborny

Lin & Associates

Chase Anderson

Lin & Associates

Giorgio Palermo

Lin & Associates

James Fox

ProcessVue

More speakers coming soon!

A Collaboration Built on Expertise

Designed for Technical
Decision Makers

User Centered Design Services

Leaders in human factors and control room design, helping organizations improve operator awareness, decision making, and operational effectiveness. UCDS specializes in high performance HMI design, alarm management, operator workload analysis, and control room environments that support safe and efficient operations.

Lin & Associates Inc

Experts in control system engineering and industrial automation, delivering practical solutions for complex operational environments. Lin & Associates specializes in DCS engineering, system integration, advanced process control, commissioning, and automation strategies that ensure reliable and stable plant operations.

  • Control Room Managers
  • Automation Engineers
  • Operations Leaders
  • System Integrators
  • Safety Engineers
  • IT & OT Decision Makers

Conference Details & Registration

  • April 12th - 16th, 2027
  • Networking Monday - Friday
  • Hassayampa Inn

Featuring educational sessions, technical demonstrations, and structured networking opportunities designed to foster meaningful industry collaboration.

Register For the 2027 Conference

Prior Conference and Railway Excursion

© 2026 UPAC Summit | Presented by User Centered Design Services and Lin & Associates Inc. All rights reserved.

Speaker: Ian Nimmo

Company: User Centered Design Services

Ian Nimmo is a Fellow Member of ISA and IET (CEI) with over 40 years of experience in the refining and petrochemicals industry. He is the founder of the Abnormal Situation Management (ASM) Consortium and User Centered Design Services, Inc., specializing in control room design and human factors. Prior to this, he held roles at Honeywell and ICI, and worked with the UK Health & Safety Executive on national and international computer systems standards.”

Topic: Alarm Intelligence: The Operational Backbone of Industrial AI

Speaker: Steve Maddox

Company: User Centered Design Services

Steve Maddox has over 25 years of experience in alarm management, HMI design, and control room design, having worked with more than 800 refinery, chemical, utility, and pipeline operations. He joined UCDS in 2011 and focuses on identifying customer needs, promoting best practices, and delivering solutions linked to operator performance and operational discipline.

Topic: Alarm Intelligence: The Operational Backbone of Industrial AI

Speaker: Chris Heil

Company: User Centered Design Services

Mr. Heil brings over 20 years of experience in building design, project management, and construction for operations control environments. With involvement in more than 40 projects, he specializes in control buildings, blast and non-blast facility configurations, and a broad range of plant infrastructure. His expertise complements UCDS’s services by adding dedicated control building and facility planning capabilities.

Topic: Alarm Intelligence: The Operational Backbone of Industrial AI

Speaker: Jack Lluy​

Company: User Centered Design Services

Jack Lluy is a Chemical Engineer from Clemson University. Jack continues to bring value to the team with creative thinking and organization during on-site projects. Jack’s fresh industry perspective and experience leading a multidisciplinary team of engineers compliments the many services offered by UCDS.

Topic: Alarm Intelligence: The Operational Backbone of Industrial AI

Speaker: Rob Allen

Company: Lin & Associates

Rob Allen is Vice President of Operations with L&A.  He has 35 years of experience in control and automation, 13 of which were spent at an Oil Refinery in Ohio.  In his current role, he leads strategic initiatives focused on operational efficiency, internal work process optimization, and scalable growth. With a strong background in managing complex systems and cross-functional teams, Rob brings a data-driven approach to improving performance and delivering results across the organization.

Speaker: Eric LeBlanc

Company: Lin & Associates

Eric LeBlanc is Vice President of Technology at Lin & Associates in Phoenix, Arizona. With more than two decades of experience in industrial automation and control systems, he leads the firm’s software development and IT organizations, delivering modern control, visualization, and data solutions for industrial clients. Eric’s background includes DCS design and integration, high-performance HMI, alarm management, and large-scale control system modernization projects worldwide. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick, Canada.

Speaker: Jeremy Podborny

Company: Lin & Associates

Jeremy Podborny is a Product Manager with 17 years of experience in the Human‑Machine Interface (HMI) field, working with a wide range of industrial clients to achieve their HMI goals. His passion for effective implementation of HMI best practices has led him to guide product development at Lin and Associates, Inc. for the past six years, translating real‑world industrial needs into practical, high‑impact solutions.

Speaker: Chase Anderson

Company: Lin & Associates

Chase Anderson is a project execution manager at Lin & Associates in Phoenix, Arizona. In his over ten years with L&A, Chase has upgraded legacy DCS/PLC logic and HMI to modern systems, developed new complex regulatory and sequential controls, and supported commissioning and start-up in the field. Prior to coming to L&A, Chase worked as a process design engineer at an oil and gas operating company.

Speaker: Giorgio Palermo

Company: Lin & Associates

Giorgio J Palermo is a Project Director with L&A.  He has as 30+ years of experience in Instrumentation, Basic Process Control (BPCS) and Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) engineering, implementation, construction, commissioning, start-up and performance test in the Oil & Gas, Refining and Petrochemical industries.  Giorgio holds a Control System Engineering Degree from UNEXPO University – Venezuela and he is a TUV Functional Safety Engineer.

He is co-author of many papers in Spanish and English and resides in Houston, Texas

Speaker: James Fox

Company: ProcessVue

James is the Head of Product Strategy and Services for ProcessVue, a leading alarm management software and services company. James has worked in the alarm management field for more than 25 years, supporting industrial organizations as they improve alarm performance, reduce nuisance alarms, manage alarm floods, and turn alarm data into practical operational insight.

Topic: How modern alarm management tools, services, and emerging AI capabilities can help operations teams improve safety.