An Employee Owner’s Review

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Employee Owned

When last I wrote in this space, way back in February, I told of how I was starting to begin to really feel like an owner of the company. It had been over 3 years since DISTek founder, Matt Dickinson, decided to share a part of his company with his employees by forming an ESOP – an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Yet none of us were handed a new job description with the title “owner,” but that’s what we are now – employee owners. And as each year passes, more information and knowledge about this whole ownership thing comes before us.

Not all work and no play: Friday Team Grill Out

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It’s not all work and no play around DISTek. Last Friday, we were fortunate enough to take advantage of one of the last hurrahs of summer and get out over the lunch hour to enjoy the beautiful weather. Our on-site team organized a lunchtime picnic-style grill out and all DISTekians in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area were invited to attend and partake in team-building camaraderie and delicious food.

2018 Fall AEF Plugfest Preview

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Sometimes when I write a blog, I try to be a little clever. And if ever there was a good time for me to write a clever blog, this may be that time. For one, this Plugfest is celebrating the 10th anniversary of AEF as an organization. Secondly, I have an idea of how I could make my blog post clever by incorporating an Italian flavor to celebrate the Plugfest location.

DISTek Participates in SAE COMVEC 2018

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Somehow we find ourselves at the beginning of September already and for those of us here at DISTek, it means that the annual SAE COMVEC show is just around the corner. This year’s show will once again be held in Rosemont, Illinois at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare September 11th – 13th. DISTek will be involved in several capacities from sales hosting a booth on the exhibit floor to engineering attending the technical sessions and panels to stay up to date on the latest technology. We are also pleased to have one of our own, Daniel Aceituna, featured in an expert panel discussion.

An Introduction to Available Services in the AUTOSAR BSW

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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].

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