Three decades later, I can easily say we more than accomplished that goal. People sometimes ask about the secret to our success, or our “special sauce.” My view is that there usually isn’t a secret; success comes from executing the basics consistently. And as far as special sauce goes, everyone knows it’s Thousand Island dressing.

As I did five years ago, I’m going to share a list of valuable lessons, this time with some of the best decisions we’ve made. Some may not fit your circumstances, or even ours today, and sequence matters: cherry-picking one or two ideas may not work the same way it worked for us.

Alright, enough yakety-yak; here are some of the choices that helped us become a great company.

1. Making ‘Hiring Smart People’ Our #1 Core Value

DMC’s core values are really more operational than they are aspirational, and if you don’t believe me, take a look at their order because it’s intentional. There’s a reason “Hire Smart People” is number one on our list: because hiring smart people influences safety, customer satisfaction, telling it like it is, etc. Everything cascades from getting the right people on board.

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Then, if you go all the way to the last core value, “Use Resources Wisely,” bookending the list that way was also intentional because people tend to remember what they read first and what they read last: primacy and recency. So even though it’s #9, it’s just as important.

2. One DMC

As DMC grew beyond a single office, we made a deliberate decision not to treat each location as its own profit center. Instead, we adopted a “One DMC” philosophy where all offices succeed or fail together. This may sound simple, but it has had a profound impact on our culture and operations.

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Rather than worrying about which office gets credit for a project or where revenue is booked, our managers focus on assembling the best team for the customer regardless of location. Engineers collaborate freely across offices, knowledge is shared openly, and resources flow to where they are needed most. By avoiding the territorialism that often comes with office-level P&Ls, we’ve been able to provide better service to customers, create more opportunities for employees, and build a stronger, more unified company.

3. Best First Day (BFD)

Everyone thinks they know the meaning of BFD until they join DMC. We realized early on the importance of setting the tone from the first moment someone walks through the door on their first day.

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Having your “BFD” at DMC means everything is set up and ready. It means a Welcome Lunch in your first week and after-work events to connect with your new teammates. BFD was created because we know there’s never a second chance at a first impression.

4. Creating the Career Development and Improvement Program (CDIP)

CDIP is really the brainchild of Kristie Shea and other members of the leadership team. We recognized there isn’t truly one clear path to career advancement; it’s more of a lattice.

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As engineers work on more projects and gain experience, we provide feedback after each project to reinforce their technical skill development. That way, engineers are constantly growing and evolving their technical knowledge and confidence. CDIP also offers opportunities to partner with an experienced engineer and advance their career with guidance from a mentor.

5. Expanding Our Service Offerings

Over the years, we have continually expanded our capabilities, both by adding entirely new service areas and by broadening the offerings within those areas. Test & Measurement was our first major addition beyond our original controls focus, but the larger lesson was that growth opportunities often existed right in front of us.

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As customers trusted us with more complex challenges, we added new technologies, industries, and service offerings that allowed us to solve a wider range of problems for existing clients while reaching new markets. This strategy helped us grow without becoming dependent on any single technology or industry and created a culture of continuous learning and innovation that remains a core part of DMC today.

6. Deciding to Expand Geographically

Back in 2012, when we decided to open our first regional office, the vision was that we could better serve local-ish clients, expand our ability to recruit and retain talent, and give emerging leaders more opportunities to grow.

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Now, having opened up 15+ offices across the country, I can say that this has been the best decision we’ve made to drive our growth. I’d be a bit remiss if I didn’t mention my oft-quoted geographic growth strategy, weasel words and all: “We will have an office in every major metro area in the country…where it makes sense”

7. Making Employee Feedback Count

When we created our annual “How’s It Going?” survey, we wanted to do more than collect feedback and file it away. We decided we also wanted to act on what we learned. Every year, employees provide feedback on everything from leadership and career development to project staffing, benefits, culture, and day-to-day work experience, and the feedback has been more than just eye-opening; it’s been motivating.

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As I said, we don’t just collect the data and file it away. Teams review every response, identify themes, route feedback to the appropriate leaders and committees, and use the results to drive improvements and shape future initiatives. Over the years, the survey has helped us identify problems earlier, prioritize the issues that matter most to employees, and take action where it really makes sense. Listening to our people has been one of the most effective ways we’ve found to keep improving.

8. Focusing on Customer Service

There are a lot of smart engineers in the world, but we quickly realized that technical competence alone wouldn’t differentiate us. We made a deliberate choice to obsess over customer service: responding quickly, communicating clearly, managing expectations, building relationships, and doing what we could to exceed expectations.

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Over time, that focus became part of our culture and one of our strongest competitive advantages. Many of our customers have been with us for years, and many of our new customers come from referrals. That’s not because of marketing. It’s because people like working with companies that genuinely care about their success.

9. Activity Funds

Everyone must be invited. You must take pictures. And it must be legal. These are the only firm rules behind planning Activity Funds. Every office is budgeted each month to do an activity together as a group, and the more creative the activity, the better.

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We’ve had teams go to Broadway plays, hold 40-person LEGO builds, cake tastings, and craft cocktail lessons—if you can think of a group activity, one of our offices has probably done it as an Activity Fund event.

And as I like to tell each new hire on day one, with “Have Fun” being one of our core values and monthly activities, we more or less manipulate you into becoming friends with your coworkers.

10. Creating a Culture of Transparency

I’ve never liked being told “because” when asking a reasonable question, because I’ve always believed that when people don’t have information, they fill in the blanks themselves, often with assumptions that are worse than reality. That’s why we make a concerted effort to put transparency at the heart of our company culture.

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We work hard to share information openly, explain the reasoning behind decisions, and maintain an open-door policy throughout the company. I regularly tell candidates and new employees that I’ll answer almost any question they want to ask—with the exception of confidential HR or compensation information.

Over the years, this approach has helped build trust, reduce rumors, and create a workplace where people feel respected and informed. Transparency doesn’t mean everyone always agrees with every decision. It means people understand why decisions are made and feel comfortable asking questions.

11. Structured Employee Recognition

People do great work every day, but in a growing company it’s easy for those contributions to go unnoticed. Rather than hoping recognition would happen organically, we built systems to encourage it.

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From the DMC Team Award and PAFOAITFOE (our Periodic Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence, a nod to The Simpsons) to the Webby Award and Community Award, employees have numerous opportunities to nominate and recognize their peers.

What started as a way to celebrate accomplishments evolved into something bigger. These programs help reinforce our values, strengthen relationships, and remind people that success at DMC is rarely the result of one person’s effort. Culture is shaped by what gets recognized, and we’ve found that creating structured ways to celebrate great work helps make DMC a better place to work.

12. Establishing LIFT (Leadership Improvement Forged Together)

LIFT, or its full name, Leadership Improvement Forged Together, is a leadership development program that was yet another great initiative led by Kristie Shea. Anyone interested can sign up for LIFT, and they join a cohort of others learning leadership skills.

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We not only want our engineers to have a high degree of technical skills, but we also want them to be skilled at managing teams, clients, and project dynamics. LIFT teaches you how to communicate clearly, quickly resolve challenges, and be better partners and advocates for our clients.

13. Growing Our Office Space in Chicago

If you put a plant in too small a pot, it won’t grow. After about seven years in our office on Kingsbury, we knew it was time to move on. Our next office location needed to be larger in scale to support where we were going as a company.

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The size of the Kingsbury office was putting both a mental and physical constraint on our growth. We moved into our current offices on Elston in 2011, and the amount of physical space we gained changed things significantly for us.

14. Creating Work Environments People Love

This notion of creating office spaces that people love actually started when we moved to our current headquarters on Elston. We wrote down a wish list of all of the things that we would love to have in our new office, and we hit most of them.

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A ping-pong table, a big lunchroom, some outdoor space, a gym, bike racks, kitchens stocked with snacks and drinks. Certain constraints, like budget, never really go away, but we made a concerted effort to prioritize building spaces that people want to be in as we’ve expanded across our offices. Plus, snacks and caffeine = more productivity.

15. Embracing a Hybrid Work Environment

Like many companies at the time, pre-COVID we used to be in-office five days a week. But in working from home throughout the pandemic, we realized, hey, this works; people can be productive at home.

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So, the decision to embrace hybrid work was an easy one. That said, we haven’t gone fully remote, and that was a conscientious decision, too. In-person connection is still very important to us.

16. Expanding Benefits That Support Well-Being

The story behind our benefits really is no mystery. What’s the right thing to do for people working marathon hours? Our benefits make it possible for hardworking people to do a hard job.

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Project recuperation time, sabbaticals, a flexible sick time policy. It has helped tremendously with our retention, engagement, and managing burnout in a job that can be really, really hard. That decision was a no-brainer for me, and our engineers certainly appreciate it.

17. Establishing Yearly Office Events (YOEs)

YOEs actually grew out of an Activity Fund “misuse,” when we held our first DMSki event in 2010. At the time, I was metaphorically biting my tongue. A ski event wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned when we first implemented the Activity Fund.

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I was thinking bowling, going to the movies, happy hour, but the ski event turned out to be one of the best uses of DMC resources I could ever imagine. As we grew our geographical footprint, Yearly Office Events became a way for different cities with DMC offices to come together and connect despite the distance.

18. Building Strong Performance Metrics and KPIs

Our performance and KPI metrics are really built into a unique feedback system we created to keep everyone on the same page and focused on what’s important. Building strong individual performance metrics has given us a very fast, weekly feedback loop of how we’re doing as a company and how individuals are doing, too.

19. Creating Dynamic, Real-Time Dashboards

Early on, we made an explicit decision to create dynamic, real-time dashboards that would make it possible for us to keep a close eye on things like company performance, KPIs, sales performance, and so forth. It also allows anyone, at any time, to take the metaphorical “pulse” of the company and understand what’s happening.

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The company health dashboard, for example, gives us a better sense of overall business performance. Like each of our performance dashboards, it’s readily available to everyone in the company, and that transparency has helped us make informed decisions over the years as conditions change.

20. Growing from the Ground Up with College Recruiting

Hiring the smartest people starts in seemingly the most obvious place: college campuses. We’ve put a considerable amount of thought into our college recruiting strategy, hiring the next generation of engineers. Setting up our best people at campus career fairs every fall gives a direct line to some of the brightest engineering students in the country.

21. Choosing to Grow Organically

This is a decision that is regularly up for review, but having built a unique culture and very high hiring standards has led us to grow without acquisitions. Though buying other firms might accelerate our growth and entry into new markets, we’ve so far resisted the path that many firms our size follow, and I think it has paid off longer term for us.

22. Opening Our Manufacturing Center

For the longest time, we believed that focusing on our engineering services was best for our customers and for our business—thinking that manufacturers were better at the production side of things than we could be and that partnering with those firms would be most efficient.

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While we still do partner with other fabrication companies, opening DMC’s Manufacturing Center has made us more responsive and agile for a lot of our projects, strengthening our relationships with both our customers and our vendors.

23. Having a Content-Driven Web Strategy

Stating the obvious, the web has been transformative in how people find information and research companies. An entire industry has been created around search engine optimization and search engine marketing.

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While we certainly follow best practice techniques for our website, what we have found most effective is having our engineers share their expertise in blogs, case studies, and other content. Of course, our goal is to drive new business. If it also helps people in the technical community solve problems on their own, we’re more than ok with that as well.

24. Getting CSIA Certified

One of DMC’s most important decisions was pursuing certification through the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA). CSIA is the leading professional organization for control system integrators and has developed a comprehensive set of best practices covering everything from project management and engineering quality to financial management, cybersecurity, and customer service.

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Looking back, CSIA certification did far more than earn us a credential. It forced us to formalize and continually improve the management practices, quality systems, and project processes that enabled DMC to scale from a small engineering firm into a much larger organization without losing consistency or customer focus. As I’ve said before, I believe the certification process helped lay the foundation for much of our future growth.

25. Offsite Leadership Meetings

Our offsite management meetings started as a small group gathering in a Chicago hotel conference room, but we found they were so valuable, we eventually evolved them into multi-day retreats and, later, leadership summits involving nearly 50 leaders from across the company.

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Over the years, we’ve met in hotels, rental houses, the Chicago Guest House, my lake house in Holland, and most recently just across the street from our Chicago office. The location itself isn’t the important part. What matters is creating even a small amount of physical separation from day-to-day work.

Getting people out of their normal environment changes their mindset, encourages more creative thinking, and allows us to focus on long-term improvements that often get pushed aside by daily responsibilities. Just as importantly, these meetings build relationships across offices, service areas, and leadership teams. Many of the initiatives, process improvements, and strategic decisions that helped shape modern DMC trace their roots back to conversations that began at an offsite.

26. Budgeting by Not Budgeting

Conventional wisdom says that every department should have an annual budget. I’ve never been a big fan of that approach. Too often, budgets create incentives to spend money simply because it’s available. As the end of the year approaches, people start looking for ways to use up their remaining budget so they don’t lose it the following year. That behavior may be rational within the system, but it’s not good for the business.

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Instead, we’ve generally preferred to evaluate expenditures individually and ask whether they’re likely to create value. If they are, we should spend the money regardless of whether it was planned months earlier. If they’re not, we shouldn’t spend it just because a budget says we can. Looking back, avoiding the “use it or lose it” trap has helped us make more thoughtful decisions and keep resources focused on things that genuinely improve DMC.

27. Building Our Own Systems

There are many advantages to hiring the smartest people. One of those advantages happens to be that if you need a tool or system capable of doing something very specific, you just need to build it.

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We’ve built systems that support everything from sales and recruiting to employee well-being and client responsiveness. We don’t build our own tools because we enjoy reinventing the wheel. We build them when doing so allows us to create something better suited to our business and the way we work.

This approach reflects a core belief at DMC: the people closest to a problem are often the best equipped to solve it. Rather than changing our processes to fit a piece of software, we’ve often chosen to create systems that fit our needs exactly. The result is tools that are simpler, more effective, and aligned with the way our employees and clients actually work.

28. All-Day Company Meetings (ADCMs)

One example of a decision that made a lot of sense at one point, but became less effective as we grew, was our All-Day Company Meetings (ADCMs). When DMC was a much smaller company, ADCMs were a dedicated day each year when everyone stepped away from project work to learn, share knowledge, and spend time together as a team. The specific activities varied by office, but the goal was always the same: strengthen connections and reinforce our culture outside of the day-to-day work environment.

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Over time, however, DMC grew to roughly 300 employees spread across multiple cities. As we expanded, it became harder for a single annual event to create the same level of connection and impact it once had. A program can be successful and valuable yet no longer be the right fit for the company. Knowing when to stop doing something is just as important as knowing when to start.

29. Employee-Led Recruiting

The people who know DMC best are the people who work here every day. That’s why we decided to treat recruiting as everyone’s responsibility, not just HR’s. Our employees are the ones who can speak honestly about the projects, the culture, and what it takes to be successful.

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Employee-led recruiting reflects a lot of what we value as a company. It demonstrates ownership and reinforces teamwork because every great hire strengthens the entire organization. It also helps us maintain the culture that has made DMC successful by ensuring we bring in talented people who will contribute to and improve what we’ve built together.

The strongest companies aren’t built by a few people making hiring decisions in isolation. They’re built when employees take an active role in attracting and selecting colleagues they’d be excited to work alongside every day. That’s one of the reasons employee-led recruiting continues to be such an important part of who we are.

30. Building Connections One Meal at a Time

We’ve always brought people together at the table—not the boardroom table, the lunchroom table. When we were a much smaller team, we would all go to lunch together, 12 or 15 people at a time, and then we’d run back to the office like we were teenagers.

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That connection over meals was the important thing and so, as we’ve grown, we’ve morphed that tradition into ordering lunch three days a week in office so we can all come together regularly and share a meal.

Taken individually, each milestone in this list tells a small part of our story. Together, they reveal how we prioritized our people, embraced growth, and served our clients over 30 years. While we can’t predict exactly what the next 30 years will bring, we know the same mindset that fueled these milestones, curiosity, continuous improvement, and a commitment to doing the right thing, will undoubtedly help us reach the next 30 milestones.

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Kanoa is a next-generation Manufacturing Execution System built on Ignition that helps manufacturers improve production visibility, support better decision-making, and advance digital transformation on the plant floor. Through this partnership, DMC can offer clients an additional, flexible MES option that complements our existing Ignition-based and custom manufacturing solutions.

We’re excited to collaborate with the Kanoa team and see this as a strong fit for many of the manufacturers we work with.

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The SHIELD multiple-award IDIQ is a 10-year, $151B-ceiling contract vehicle designed to accelerate the research, development, testing, and integration of innovative technologies for U.S. missile defense, supporting efforts like the Golden Dome initiative. As part of this enterprise-wide framework, SHIELD enables rapid task-order awards to qualified companies delivering advanced solutions across engineering, analysis, prototyping, and test & evaluation domains.

“It is a great honor for our company to be listed as an approved vendor for the SHIELD program, and it highlights DMC’s track record of providing best-in-class aerospace and defense solutions,” stated Jesse Batche, Vice President at DMC. “We look forward to contributing to future work with the MDA.”

In the list released last month, DMC is included amongst approximately 2,100 companies qualified for future awards from the MDA.

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Team Growth 

Our San Diego team has grown to 12 talented engineers with deep expertise in manufacturing automation and test and measurement automation. Each team member brings unique skills and perspectives that elevate our work and ensure we’re ready to tackle complex engineering challenges across industries. 

We’re also thrilled to announce that two additional engineers will be joining us in early 2026. This expansion reflects our commitment to investing in a strong, collaborative team and strengthens our ability to deliver exceptional solutions and support for our clients. 

Expanding Client Base 

With this growing team, we’ve seen a significant increase in client partnerships throughout the Southwest region, including California, Arizona, and Nevada. From automation projects to custom solutions, our team is proud to help businesses achieve their goals with cutting-edge technology and expertise. 

Whether we’re supporting clients in biotech, electric vehicles, energy, battery, or other industries, our team is dedicated to helping businesses achieve measurable results. We’re grateful for the trust our clients place in us and look forward to building on these relationships. 

New Service Offerings 

In addition to our core automation services, we’re excited to introduce DMC test and measurement services to the San Diego office. Our team also supports embedded development, application development, and digital workplace solutions projects. This expansion allows us to provide a broader range of solutions, ensuring we meet diverse client needs with precision and innovation. 

Building Partnerships 

Collaboration remains central to our mission. Over the past year, we have continued to strengthen relationships with industry partners, enabling us to deliver integrated solutions and stay ahead of emerging technologies. We work closely with automation partners including Siemens, Rockwell, Beckhoff, Inductive Automation, and more. For test and measurement projects, our partners include NI, Pickering, and UEI. 

These partnerships help us deliver fully integrated solutions and ensure our clients benefit from the latest tools, platforms, and industry best practices. As the technological landscape evolves, we remain committed to continuous learning and strategic collaboration—allowing us to stay ahead of emerging trends and deliver exceptional value to our customers.

Looking Ahead 

With our growing team, expanding services, and increasing project work, we are now exploring larger office spaces in the San Diego area. This step reflects our long-term commitment to the region and our confidence in the opportunities ahead. We’re excited for what the future holds and grateful to our clients, partners, and team members who make our success possible. 

The post DMC San Diego: Growing Strong in the Southwest appeared first on DMC, Inc..

After growing the Manufacturing Center, previously called the DMC Fabrication Studio, last year to accommodate our custom control panel build shop and add significant capacity for contract manufacturing, we are expanding it again to double its size. The expansion reflects DMC’s growth in manufacturing operations, complementing our manufacturing automation, test and measurement, and embedded development services.  

In addition to providing more space, expanding our Manufacturing Center enables our operations to leverage several new capabilities. We will have a wide range of power availability up to 100A 480V 3 phase service to test and run equipment. DMC has also upgraded its laser engraving, laser cutting, and 3D printing capabilities. Improved loading dock access will allow us to accommodate a greater variety of projects. 

DMC Chicago Manufacturing Center supports a wide range of projects, from small custom builds to volume contract manufacturing. DMC can handle everything from procurement and design to manufacturing and production line setup. Every system is fabricated with attention to detail and optimized for performance in real-world conditions. 

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Our involvement has continued to drive value for DMC and, hopefully, the other CSIA members. It has included presentations at the 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024 executive conferences, as well as Frank joining the CSIA Board of Directors in 2019, multiple recertifications across the years, and involvement in three CSIA peer groups.

CSIA has become an organization where DMC continues to both provide and extract value; it has helped accelerate DMC’s growth. This year at the 2024 CSIA conference in Dallas, TX, DMC was recognized as the Integrator Member of the Year. This honor recognizes a CSIA Certified Integrator that has participated significantly in the advancement of the association and profession.

“As DMC enters our sixth CSIA certification, we continue to appreciate the value and direction that CSIA and the connected resources have brought to DMC,” Frank said.

John Sullivan, Senior Director of DMC’s West Region, was also recognized by the CSIA 2024 Emerging Leader award. This honor recognizes members who have demonstrated attributes of a future leader, innovative approaches and commitment to the industry, as well as contributions to CSIA.

John has been Chair of the CSIA Emerging Leaders Committee since 2020, where he helps drive content for the next generation of leaders at all CSIA members.

“CSIA has really worked to expand beyond the C-suite and start involving and helping leaders and aspiring leaders from every level of the organization,” John said. “I appreciate the recognition for my work in helping develop those leaders, but even further appreciate the opportunity to grow that CSIA has helped enable.”

We are grateful for this recognition and look forward to our continued partnership with CSIA.

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Rockwell Automation is a global leader in the industrial automation industry. Their solutions optimize productivity, efficiency, and sustainability for manufacturing and industrial operations, employing robotics, control systems, analytics, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

DMC's Gold System Integrator status recognizes our demonstrated expertise in implementing Rockwell technologies including ControlLogix, CompactLogix, FactoryTalk View, Magnemotion, Kinetix Motion Controllers, PowerFlex VFD Drives, and PanelView for manufacturing automation solutions.

We have been working closely with Rockwell Automation on some of our most impactful projects over the last several years. These projects touch nearly every industry imaginable, including advanced semiconductor tech and Covid fighting life sciences projects. DMC’s elevation to Gold Tier Partner status is an acknowledgement of the work done on both sides in building this relationship and sets DMC and Rockwell up to work together in continuing to provided world class solutions for our clients.

DMC is proud to be recognized for our expertise with Rockwell Automation. We look forward to continuing our partnership and providing exceptional solutions with Rockwell technology. 

Learn more about DMC's Rockwell Automation expertise. 

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This certification required passing several exams and proving success in implementing Sepasoft in customer MES solutions.

Sepasoft’s MES solutions help manufacturers improve production efficiency, quality control, and overall operations. DMC has been a Sepasoft partner for several years and currently has 14 Gold and 2 Credentialed engineers on our team. We are recognized for our competency in a variety of Sepasoft offerings including OEE, SPC, Track and Trace, and Business Connector.

I have been working with Sepasoft for years and I am very excited that DMC's MES expertise is being recognized by Sepasoft with the Premier Partner status. I hope to continue delivering high quality Sepasoft solutions to even more of our customers and seeing how Sepasoft can transform their operations.

Learn more about DMC's Sepasoft Programming expertise.

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Rose-Hulman

Welcome Back Wednesday

DMC is a Gold Sponsor for Rose-Hulman’s Welcome Back Wednesday, an event to kick off the school year when all students come back to campus. This year, we brought DrinkBot and handed out flavored sodas.

DMC was proud to be one of the primary sponsors for the event as we have many Rose-Hulman alumni – Ben Griffith, Bryce Pruemer, Caleb Stoll, Carolyn Corcoran, Christian Owen, Dan Freve, Glen Janson, Jason Ims, John Sullivan, Jon Carson, Keith Janson, Leigh Matthews, Ryan Landwehr, Sam Alvares, and Shay Merley.

While on campus, Shay discovered that his and Bryce’s picture is now plastered on the side of a new building.

Dr. Ryder Winck’s Industrial Controls Class

DMC will continue to partner with Dr. Ryder Winck’s industrial controls class on campus this academic year.

DMC first partnered with Dr. Winck in 2019 to create the class. We helped to come up with a lot of the course content, refine the curriculum, create homework assignments and lab work, and give our insights for what working in industry looks like.

“It’s definitely a first-of-its-kind class for Rose-Hulman in terms of collaborating with a company to be able to teach. I think this is super interesting. Not a lot of schools have any sort of industrial controls classwork,” Carolyn Corcoran, a Senior Project Engineer at DMC and Rose-Hulman alumni who helped create the class, said. “Dr. Winck is hoping to spread these to other schools and teach other professors how to teach these kinds of concepts. Rose-Hulman puts a lot of pride in getting students ready for industry jobs, and I think this is a huge missing piece in some of the course curriculum that students don’t have exposure to how industrial manufacturing works – and that’s such a huge part of what you might be doing as a mechanical engineer.”

During the class, Carolyn and alumni John Sullivan, Senior Director, West Region at DMC, do weekly check-ins, call in to do code reviews in front of class and give feedback, and answer any questions students ask in a shared Slack workspace.

Carolyn went to campus in fall semester of 2022 and gave a demonstration of the Winding Demo – a motion demo Rose-Hulman students designed and DMC then built as a FedEx Day project that can display speed or tension control.

Winding Demo

“That level of corporate involvement in class and being able to emphasize that what you’re learning in this class is something that is useful in the world outside of Rose Hulman [is so important],” Carolyn said. “So much of what you do in college is all theoretical and you’re making all sorts of crazy assumptions, and it’s cool to see how control concepts actually get applied in industry.”

The class will be running again this school year in the Spring, according to Carolyn, and DMC is bringing in more Rose-Hulman alumni to network, interface with students, share some of our Core Values, and teach more about what it is that we do and why DMC is an awesome company to work with.

Rice University

Rice Eclipse

DMC is an Interplanetary Sponsor for Eclipse, Rice University’s rocketry team.

Within the club there are three main divisions: Aerodynamics, Propulsion, and Avionics. Then there are 20 sub teams divided amongst the divisions with some adjacent sub teams like the certificates program, and an officer board which oversees club operations.

The club has two main focuses: to build a hybrid rocket engine and to build a custom carbon fiber rocket airframe that can fly with it. The Aerodynamics team designs and builds the team’s rocket airframes, while the Propulsion team’s goal is to build a hybrid rocket engine that has enough thrust to fly. This has been the club’s mission since its inception, and after many rockets and engine design iterations, the club is closer than ever to accomplishing its goal.

Last year, Eclipse alumni from DMC attended and brought pizza to one of the Eclipse meetings on campus. They gave an About DMC presentation and had the opportunity to walk around the club space, see what they had been working on, and network with current students. DMC will be attending an Eclipse meeting again this year on October 23 at 5pm.

“DMC’s involvement exposes the students to our industry, and, because Rice is a more academic research-focused institution rather than an industry institution, one of the big drawbacks of Rice is that there isn’t as much industry exposure,” Luke Howe-Kerr, a Systems Engineer at DMC and Rice Eclipse alumni, said. “Being able to go to these meetings and showcase what we do as a company is really valuable because a lot of people do not even realize that companies like us exist. Also, the fact that we have a really strong history of hiring Rice people is a testament to the company culture rather than just being random faces at a career fair. It’s just that little bit of a personal connection [that] really helps with vouching for the company culture, which is important to a lot of people.”

Luke Howe-Kerr, Teddy Hoisington, and Natalie Pippolo, former Rice Eclipse members and now DMC engineers, holding the rockets they built to earn their L1 and L2 Rocketry Certifications

Good culture is what keeps a lot of people around Eclipse as well, according to Luke, and he is happy to help as a Rice Eclipse alumnus.

DMCers Natalie Pippolo and Teddy Hoisington hanging out at the test sit while members of Eclipse

Another Rice Eclipse alumni, Teddy Hoisington, a Systems Engineer at DMC, adds that our contribution strengthens the Rice alumni network.

“Rice Eclipse is one of the largest engineering clubs on campus at Rice, and the scope of work they are doing costs a decent amount of money,” Teddy said. “It does mean a lot that their Eclipse alums are able to get their employers to help sponsor the club activities and keep this network of alums still involved. Our donation helps them accomplish their goals and strengthens our alumni network with them.”

The money DMC donates goes directly towards buying materials and allows the club to continue working towards their goals, according to Teddy, while learning data acquisition and testing, as well as other applicable skills that can be transferred when working in industry.

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at RICE

DMC has hired many alumni from Rice – specifically, many women – and we are proud to be a Gold Alliance Partner with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Rice.

“SWE is an organization that focuses on building community and promoting the advancement of women in STEM,” Elizabeth Goodnight, a Project Engineer at DMC and Rice alumni, said. “In your career, it also provides a lot of different opportunities for training, advancement, and networking to provide a support system – especially for those of us who might continue to work in a male-dominated field, industry, or work environment.”

The organization focuses on diversity and inclusion and is also open to gender minorities as a whole.

“Anybody who identifies as a woman or any gender minority who is in engineering can be a part of it,” Natalie Pippolo, a Systems Engineer at DMC and Rice alumni, said. “Most universities have chapters where people who are studying engineering can get scholarships from SWE, or SWE will help you find internships, help you out with a job search, and just be a community and host events for women in engineering.”

Last year and again this year DMC will host an event with the club where our Rice alumni will give a presentation regarding professional development or engineering awareness. In the past, these have included resume reviews and presentations on What is Technical Consulting? Or What to Expect in a Technical Interview.

Our Rice alumni include – Andreas Piaggio, Andy Corbato, Caroline Courbois, Casimir Smith, Cecilia Tetlow, Elizabeth Goodnight, Eric Voigt, Fadil Eledath, Gabby Martinez, Jacob Rupp, John Michael Frullo, John Williams, Luke Howe-Kerr, Natalie Pippolo, Nick Leisle, Odnan Galvan, Perry Lin, Teddy Hoisington, and Vedant Patwari.

Notre Dame

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at Notre Dame

DMC will also be partnering with Notre Dame SWE as well this year.

SWE at Notre Dame had a large impact on alumni Mia Gorman as she found out about DMC through a SWE email.

“Company sponsorships of SWE had a large impact on where I applied because of name recognition and getting to network with people at presentations about the companies,” Mia said. “In-person presentations specifically gave SWE members an opportunity to get a great feel for the people who work at these companies and see women in their field talk about their successes at the company, which was huge for me when applying.”

Our Notre Dame alumni include – Aaron Dorrance, Abby Greentree, Adam Wojcik, David Berno, Eddie Hunckler, Jason , Jason Wassel, Jeff McCormick, Jesse Batsche, John Dusing, Kyle Grebb, Steven Dusing, Max Domenech, Paul Mangels, Rose Appel, and Tim Hosty.

Robot Football Club

DMC will be sponsoring the Notre Dame Robot Football Club again this year. The club builds robots to compete in football matches played on basketball courts against other universities.

Our contribution directly impacts the club and allows the club to buy new parts and build new robots or repair those that are broken, according to Aaron Dorrance, a Systems Engineer at DMC and Notre Dame Robot Football Club alumni.

As alumni of the club, Aaron and Eddie Hunkler leverage their embedded systems engineering skills from DMC and volunteer their time to the College Robot Football Conference, a conference to organize all robot football teams and expand the sport, to create more reliable, new tackle sensors for all the robots.

Like last year, we will be sponsoring the Combine event hosted at Notre Dame on November 11, 2023, along with a networking event where students can chat with Aaron and Eddie about DMC.

“Robot football is a great activity that really builds good fundamental and practical engineering skills – especially relevant for DMC because [members] are building robots,” Aaron said. “They’re learning how electrical communications work between different parts of robots, learning how to do motor control, learning how to build robust machines because these robots really take a beating, learning how to build the best way to interact with these robots through controllers or whatever interface they want to use. In that sense, it’s really good practical engineering.”

Fixing robots on the fly is also really good under pressure engineering, according to Aaron.

“For DMC, this is exactly the type of engineering event that we want to support. These are the types of engineers that we want to hire.”

Northwestern

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at Northwestern

For the first time, DMC will be sponsoring SWE at Northwestern.

“Northwestern SWE was an important source of support both socially and professionally,” Emily Blackman, a Systems Engineer at DMC and Northwestern alumni, said. “I hope DMC’s sponsorship will enable Northwestern SWE to continue giving women the support to not only continue in STEM, but to thrive in it.”

Later this year we will be joining for a member meeting with alumni for a professional development workshop.

Northwestern University Robotics Club (NURC)

DMC will also be a Silver Partner for NURC for the first time this year. Our contribution will help fund their projects for the year. 

Northwestern alumni Stephen Shull, a Systems Engineer at DMC, and Brandon Tanner, a Project Engineer at DMC, also recently went back to campus and hosted an informational session about DMC with the club as well.

“We talked about what DMC does and how the work that they do with their robotics club relates to work that we do in industry,” Brandon said. “It was also an opportunity for student to ask questions about life after college and things to expect when entering the workforce.”

Our Northwestern alumni include – Aaron Shoemaker, Alex Sabala, Blake Strebel, Brandon Tanner, Brent Hoerman, Bridget Miles, Emily Blackman, Jacob Bruce, Kevin Service, Mark Locascio, Nikhil Holay, Rachel Hughes, Stephen Shull, Tim Herrmann, TJ Dohm, and Zen Iwankiw.

Advisory Board Involvement

Some of our alumni are especially passionate about improving the next generations of engineers and sit on the industry advisory boards for their alma maters.

John Sullivan, Senior Director of DMC’s West Region and Rose-Hulman alumni, sits on the Industry Advisory Board at Rose-Hulman.

Jason Mayes, Senior Director of DMC’s South Region and Notre Dame alumni, sits on the Industry Advisory Board at Notre Dame.

Ray King, a Senior Project Engineer in our Houston, Texas office and Texas A&M alumni, sits on the Industry Advisory Board for the Electronic Systems Engineering Technology program at Texas A&M.

The three return to campus for annual meetings, consult with the faculty in the department for course direction and curriculum, and network and advise students interested in careers in industrial controls.

DMC is happy to engage with academia and contribute to these programs to support current DMC employees who are passionate about their universities’ programs as well as the future generation of engineers.

Learn more about DMC’s company culture and check out our open positions!

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Arduino is an open-source electronics platform and designer of both microcontroller-based development boards and software tools. Known for their user-friendly approach, versatility, and a strong global community, Arduino tools are a popular choice for engineers, educators, and professionals in a diverse range of projects: from custom electronics to complex IoT solutions.

Arduino has expanded their product suite to include Arduino Pro, an advanced line, for integration in industrial and electronic product markets. Our partnership allows us to power a variety of embedded solutions with Arduino’s new range of products.

“We’re immensely proud to join the Arduino System Integrator program. This partnership signifies DMC’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of innovation,” Frank Riordan, Founder and CEO of DMC, said. “Together, we aim to offer integrated solutions that will revolutionize the way creators and industries approach technology.”

DMC has a demonstrated history of delivering expert IoT and embedded programming solutions to clients across a variety of industries. We look forward to bringing more ideas to life with the Arduino Pro line. 

Learn more about DMC’s Arduino Programming services. 

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