Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
I recently led a book study on Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team with those who are enrolled in DISTek U 101. First, let me state that I really enjoyed this book. Second…
An Introduction to Available Services in the AUTOSAR BSW
AUTOSAR, or AUTomotive Open System Architecture, is a standard to commonize automotive control systems across the industry. The benefit of running an AUTOSAR standard operating system across all electronic control units (ECUs) within a vehicle platform, or a company/industry, is analogous to the benefits of all PCs within an organization running a common operating system. This allows the application engineer to develop software for the standard operating system and gives the organization a single solution, which is independent of hardware variations. In addition….
A Culture of Innovation: Lessons from 3M
On June 6, 2018 3M Corporation opened up their Innovation Center in St. Paul, MN to members of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM). DISTek Integration sent representatives from our engineering group to attend 3M’s presentation entitled, “Building a Culture of Innovation.” 3M leaders presented how the company went from a small and unprofitable Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (where the three “M”s come from) company in the early 1900s, to one of the most successful product companies in the world today.
NI Week 2018: SEPAD Sessions
Another May and another NIWeek has come and gone. What did you miss this year if you weren’t able to attend? Maybe not as much as you think, at least if you’re interested in advanced technical sessions.
Again this year, there was an advanced session track titled “Software Engineering Processes Architecture and Design (SEPAD).” These sessions were led by LabVIEW Champions and LabVIEW Architects. The majority of these SEPAD sessions were recorded and the videos are available online for viewing.
International VDI Conference: Thoughts from Jim
In April of this year, I had the opportunity to attend an international conference in Dusseldorf, Germany; well, to be more accurate, I attended three (3) conferences in Dusseldorf, Germany: Connected Off-Highway Machines (On the Road towards Autonomous Mobile Machinery); Smart Farming; and Autonomous Trucks.
International VDI Conference: Thoughts from Korey
In April, DISTek sent me to Dusseldorf, Germany where I attended the 3rd International VDI Conference for Connected Off-highway Machines. This 2-day conference was a great opportunity since there were two additional conferences running in parallel. The fine folks at VDI allowed access to any of the three conference events with admission to any single event, so not only did I have access to the speakers and round table discussions at the Connected Off-Highway Machines Conference, but also the Autonomous Trucks Conference and the Smart Farming Conference. Overall, it was a great experience that provided a glimpse into what the future holds for autonomous machinery.
Recap: ISOBUS Spring Plugfest 2018
My blog posting this year seems to be following the Steve Miller Band lyric, “Time keeps on slippin’ into the future.” It is now a full month since the AEF ISOBUS Spring Plugfest and I am just now writing my recap. I normally try to get these out sooner, especially since the Fall Plugfest is not too far away…
Leaders also Innovate: Functional Safety Contributions
Steve Jobs, the person behind Apple and Pixar, famously said: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” [1]. At DISTek Integration we take that quote to heart when it comes to Functional Safety. In our efforts to provide Functional Safety services to our customers we have resolved to not only follow the standard procedures and services that are part of Functional Safety, but to strive toward leadership by innovating within the field. A case in point is our efforts to make Functional Safety contributions in the form of published papers and conference presentations. The latest such contribution is a paper DISTek published in collaboration with researchers at the University of North Texas (UNT); the paper is entitled: “A Combinatorial Approach for Exposing Off-Nominal Behaviors” [2].
A Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe 4.5)
In the past, DISTek faced long and challenging development cycles with single individuals assigned to complete projects in isolation. Projects were often plagued with schedule delays, cost overages, and quality problems. Guided by a SAFe champion and small team of coaches, DISTek successfully implemented the Scrum framework within SAFe 4.5.
Surviving as an Intern: Thoughts from Varina & Johnny
Here at DISTek one of our top priorities is investing in the next generation of innovative technology leaders and engineers. One of the ways in which we do this is through our internship program. We are fortunate to have so many qualified experts on staff that can mentor and foster the skills necessary for these college students to be successful in the industry upon graduation. This past fall, we were joined by two sophomores from the University of Northern Iowa. Johnny Pham is local to the Cedar Valley and is working on obtaining his B.S. in Computer Science. Varina Timothy is an international student from India and is majoring in Electrical Engineering Technology.
Don’t Make a Mountain out of a Mole-HiL
Hardware in the Loop (HiL) systems are used in the development and test of real-time embedded systems often found in Electronic Control Units (ECU) within almost any on- or off-highway vehicle today. HiL systems are comprised of both hardware and software that can simulate the larger entity (i.e. car, tractor, etc.), so that the smaller ECU can be inserted into that larger system to determine whether or not it’s internal real-time embedded system is performing as intended. While this may seem like a mountainous task for vehicle manufacturers in industry today, DISTek has invested in tackling the design and production of an internal HiL solution.
DISTek U: Developing the Next Generation of DISTek Leaders
As an engineering services company, what are the keys to DISTek’s future success? We believe it’s: 1) hiring and developing top notch engineers, 2) a best place to work culture, and 3) great leadership. With “great leadership” in mind, we recently established DISTek U and kicked off our first leadership track (DISTek U 101: Potential Leads).
