2004 is shaping up to be a special year for Control Engineering in many ways. For starters, it is our 50^th anniversary and we will be celebrating it throughout the year. 2004 is also the first full year of publication under our new design and guidance, and we will be debuting new columns and sections. In February, we will introduce "Academic Viewpoint," featuring engineering professors' opinions on the current and future state of the manufacturing engineering profession. We are also launching our redesigned Web site (www.controleng.com) in January and introducing additional online newsletters throughout the year, as well as hosting a number of Webcasts.

To celebrate our 50^th anniversary in print and online, we will present four specific content vehicles:

• Each month will feature content from 50, 25, and 10 years ago, as well as vintage cartoons from our first year of publication (see page 8 for the first installment);
• 50^th anniversary timeline poster highlighting the principal advances in control and automation since 1954 (appearing in the August issue);
• Our 50^th anniversary edition (September) will feature perspectives from prominent industry representatives on how far we've come in the last 50 years and how what's gone before will affect our future direction;
• A September panel discussion Webcast featuring industry figures showcased in our 50^th anniversary issue will address some of the more pressing issues facing manufacturing engineers in the years ahead and allow you to ask questions of the panel.

Of course, there's no better way to kick off a special year than with our annual Editors' Choice Awards. I'm sure you'll find the array of winners this year to be excellent examples of the three key issues we employ in judging the awards: technological advancement, service to industry, and marketplace impact. We featured all our editors on this year's cover so you can see who's responsible for making the tough award choices. Pictured left to right are: Dave Harrold, senior editor; Mark Hoske, editor-in-chief; Frank Bartos, executive editor; me; Jim Montague, news editor; Jeanine Katzel, senior editor, and Vance VanDoren, consulting editor.

To introduce reader participation in our awards program, this year we're giving you the chance to select the top winner in each product award category through our new Engineers' Choice Awards. A select group of Control Engineering subscribers will receive instructions via email about how to select the "best of the best" from among the editors' winning selections. The email will go out in mid-January, so check your inbox to see if you've been selected to participate in our inaugural Engineers' Choice Awards.

As you can tell, we've got lots planned for our golden anniversary—both to celebrate our past 50 years of success and position ourselves as the continued go-to source of information for manufacturing engineers. Cheers!

dgreenfield@reedbusiness.com