At DMC, we take our culture and team-building opportunities as seriously as our Control Systems.

DMC Denver recently hosted a spirited Welcome Party for our new engineers, Eliana Storkamp and Noam Ayalon, where we learned how to make craft cocktails! The results were positively shaken (not stirred) with an experienced chef teaching us how to make a couple of drinks with a seasonal Halloween-ish theme. We even held a friendly competition for the best bartender in the group!

“The mixologist who came in to teach the cocktail class was very entertaining, and the drinks we made were really fun and tasty,” stated new hire Eliana Storkamp. “I really loved making the Witches Brew Martini and muddling blackberries.”

“The welcome party was a blast! The pizza was great, and the cocktails were excellent—that pumpkin old-fashioned was a definite standout,” commented Noam Ayalon. “After most people left, a few of us stayed to play cutthroat pool. The game went on forever because people kept ‘tactical scratching’ to bring back eliminated players, which was hilarious.”

All in all, the Denver office genuinely had a great night full of food, cocktails, unexpected friendships, and the most dramatic pool game in office history.

The secret to DMC’s magic is a steady mix of collaboration and joy. Whether through cocktail crafting, escape rooms, or mountain hikes, we engineer not just solutions but community.

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

The post Engineering Culture, Community, and Craft Cocktails in Denver appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Will Run for Donuts 

We had a simple goal—find a race that offered more than just running. We looked for a race with an extra incentive at the finish line to get more teammates from the office to the race. Running is great, but running with a donut reward at the end is irresistible. We used the monthly Activity Fund budget available to each DMC office to plan social outings to secure our race bibs, and we started to prep for the run.  

Runner’s Delight 

On the morning of the race, we met in beautiful Washington Park in downtown Denver. The park is a favorite for runners because you can put in some miles while staying off the busy streets. It isn’t too hilly, making it an approachable course whether you’re a seasoned runner or just there for the donuts. The Donut Dash 5K route took us on 1.5 laps around the park as we thought about our sweet reward waiting for us at the end.  

This year, our team grew to eight runners. We even had some medalists representing DMC! Aaron Gronsman and I placed podiums for our age groups. Finnbar Norman and Max Domenech had a friendly competition going among themselves, and Finn came out on top this time.   

Sprinkles and Smiles 

Whether they were motivated by the teamwork or the treats, we had a great turnout from the office this year. It was fun to spend Saturday morning together outside of work, complete with some exercise and snacks.  

We may not have all hit a PR that morning, but having fresh donuts after a run made us all feel like winners. The Denver team agreed that there might be more food-related running events in our future. We’ll see you at the starting line! 

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

The post Sugar Rush: DMC Denver Runs the Donut Dash 5K appeared first on DMC, Inc..

DMC Denver’s New Location
In addition to accommodating more team members, DMC Denver’s new office features a much larger lab space and additional areas for the team to collaborate. The office's high ceilings and natural light make it a bright, open environment. There is plenty of parking available for both DMC team members and guests. The office is dog friendly, so our four-legged friends are still around to boost morale and productivity!

At Home in the New Office
Julia Cherkasskaya, Administrative Assistant in Denver, was instrumental in helping the team settle into their new home. “There are two major groups in our office. We have a big lab space for Embedded and Automation engineers, and they collaborate there. We also have a couple of Application Developers in the office,” Julia said. “There is a genuinely nice dynamic between them. It’s like a healthy competition going on.”

Traditions Old and New
One new feature in the office was inspired by another software company across the street. After passing by their window and seeing that company playing video games, DMC Denver asked Julia for a similar setup.  

“We set up a video game console in one of our meeting rooms. I know people enjoy taking some breaks to play in there and on the pool table,” Julia shared. “It is a nice collaboration. They all laugh and joke around with one another. This is one of my favorite moments: to see how they enjoy each other’s company!”

In addition to these new memories, DMC Denver brought their previous office traditions to the new space. Like several DMC offices, Denver has office dogs ready for a friendly head scratch in their new space.

Some of their uniquely Denver traditions include Breakfast Burrito Mondays and Western Wear Wednesdays. “Every Monday we have breakfast burritos instead of lunch,” Julia said. “On Wednesdays, we have a tradition to wear Western wear. We usually wear hats, boots, and some Western clothes.”

To celebrate victories big or small, Denver ordered a gong to have in the office when there is a call for celebration. “The engineers ordered a gong, and every time they have a new lead or customer, they will bang it and everyone will hear it,” said Julia. “Sometimes we ring the gong by shooting at it with our Nerf guns!”

Events in Denver's New Office
Denver is home to the beloved annual DMSki Yearly Office Event (YOE). This is an opportunity for employees from around the country to bond in-person at a ski event near Denver that is partially sponsored by the company. This spring, Denver hosted the DMSki event based in Silverthorne, CO just a few months after moving into their new office. DMCers skied Breckenridge, Vail, Keystone, Copper, and Beavercreek. The team was excited to show off their new space to DMC friends from all over!

Whiskey fans enjoyed a tasting event organized by John Sullivan, Senior Director of DMC’s West Region. John researched which whiskeys to order, and Julia researched how to pair them with food. This event wasn’t limited to teammates who were physically in the office. “We shipped these [tasting] packages to everyone in our office and those who work outside the office as well so everyone could be a part of it,” said Julia. “It was a nice collaborative event after hours, it was a relaxed atmosphere, and everyone could join!”

While they left their old address on Blake Street, the Denver team still gets together to cheer on the Rockies. After a half-day company meeting in April, they attended the Rockies opening day together. 

DMC’s Denver team is enjoying their new office space and creating memories together. They welcome you to visit their new space if you are in town!

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

The post DMC Denver Moves Unique Team Traditions to a New Office Space appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Michal Gumulak and I decided to have our welcome party at TopGolf. We rented out three bays for a couple hours and had an excellent time eating, drinking, and swinging the clubs.

In my bay, we played a game mode where you had to hit progressively further away targets. The winning score was over 200, and while a few DMCers had negative scores everybody had a great time. Between hits, we enjoyed the buffet of chicken wings (DMC Denver likes spicy food) and fill-your-own donut holes (because prefilled donuts are too easy).

Overall, it was a great opportunity to socialize with my new coworkers and be welcomed into DMC. I cannot wait for more events like this in the future!

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

The post Welcome Par-Tee at TopGolf appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Chicago 

Chicago DMCers went up on the rooftop deck to get a clear view of the solar eclipse!

Even Margaux adhered to safe eclipse viewing practices!

Rachel Hughes dressed for the occasion.

Milos Popovic brought double the eye protection!

Austin

Jon Jay took a great shot of the solar eclipse in Austin!

Boston

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a total solar eclipse! Boston was in awe during the eclipse!

Dallas

Dallas DMCers got together to marvel at this potentially once in a lifetime opportunity!

Denver

Denver sat back and enjoyed the show!

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

The post Total Solar Eclipse 2024: Across DMC! appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Boston

The Boston office had a board game night!

Boston also hosted DMSkeast 2024!

Chicago

Chicago DMCers went to Puttery!

Dallas

Dallas DMCers went to Bowlero!

Denver

The Denver office went to the Colorado Rockies’ Opening Day!

San Diego

The San Diego office went to Beeside Balcony during Restaurant Week!

St. Louis

The St. Louis office went to a Blues game!

Seattle

The Seattle office had Hacky/Crafty Tuesday, where they got food, played games, and worked on personal projects!

Washington, DC

The DC office played Pickleball!

 Learn more about DMC’s culture and explore our open positions!

The post Fun at DMC – Volume 22 appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Boston

The Boston office went axe throwing! 

Chicago

Chicago DMCers had happy hour at the office with the help of Drinkbot, the robot bartender!

The Chicago office also had pizza happy hour! 

Dallas

The Dallas office had fun at Puttshack! 

Denver

The Denver office hosted the annual DMSki extravaganza! 

Denver also had their holiday party! 

Houston

A few Houston DMCers went to practice their swing at Top Golf! 

They also went to Escape It Houston and did an escape room!

The Houston office also attempted to Skeet Shoot! 

San Diego 

The San Diego office went bowling and had a nice dinner afterwards with our founder Frank!

St. Louis

The St. Louis office went to Sandbox VR and played VR video games!

 Learn more about DMC's culture and explore our open positions! 

The post Fun at DMC – Volume 21 appeared first on DMC, Inc..

This past week, I took on the challenge of turning one of our IO demo kits connected to a Siemens PLC into a working game system. I chose to program the classic games Bop It and Simon Says as they would be easy to understand while still presenting their own challenges in both programming and playing.

I first created a simple infrastructure that would allow users to select which game they would like to play using one of the two colored push buttons on the IO kit. I associated each game with a different LED flash sequence to indicate which game had been selected.

The first game I decided to tackle was Bop It. In place of the original game’s “Twist it,” “Pull it,” etc., I used the IO kit’s toggle switches and push buttons.  I wrote a simple logic sequence that would randomly illuminate one of the four colored LEDs and wait for the user to press/toggle the corresponding button/switch. Like the original game, if the user waited too long or selected the wrong button or switch, they would lose the game and the program would play a failure LED sequence and return to the game selection sequence. After enough correct button pushing and switch flipping, the program would display a winning LED sequence and return to game selection.

Simon Says used similar code but with a few differences. These changes were needed due to the game’s sequence, stored using an array, which would be flashed by the LEDs then input by the user. The LED flash was accomplished using a counter up to the current length of the sequence, reading the index of the array at the current count and flashing the corresponding LED. The user input used similar logic, comparing the user’s selection to the array after each button push or switch flip. After successfully repeating a sequence of 10 LED flashes the program displays the winning sequence and returns to the game selection.

User Interface

I created a project in Ignition to graphically display the state of the game and monitor some key statistics. This endeavor added some useful functionality to the PLC code through the powerful tools provided by Ignition Perspective.

The perspective session has three main views: an overview screen and two screens for the games. It is set up so that additional games can be added easily. The overview screen offers navigation to both games, as well as a leaderboard and a popup that explains the games. Each game screen displays a brief description of the game, the status of each digital output, and the player’s current progress. Additionally, a timer shows the player how much time is remaining to make a move, a feature that is not available on the physical kit. Each game screen displays the current high score for that game. This data is pulled from a PostgreSQL database of player initials, scores, and dates. This database is also used to populate the leaderboard.

This project utilizes several of Ignition’s powerful features. Perspective can pull data from the PLC with OPC tags. These tags are then used with both built-in and custom graphics, in combination with Ignition scripting to display the status of the game. Ignition also connects to the database to create the leaderboard and high score features, through additional scripting and SQL queries. Additionally, popups are used in combination with scripts and event handlers to provide a seamless navigation experience for the user. This project uses one PLC, one database, and six windows, but these features can easily be applied to much larger automation applications.

Currently, the Perspective session only reads data from the PLC. An interesting next step could be to use Ignition to write to the plc, maybe with inputs more realistic to Bop It (i.e. twisting and pulling). This project takes advantage of some of the functionality of Ignition, but there are numerous other features that could be utilized for additional functionality.

The post Programming a PLC to be a Game Console appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Explore our open positions!

The post DMC’s Fall 2023 Career Fair Schedule – West appeared first on DMC, Inc..

The Chicago office attended Beer Under Glass!

DMC Boston went to see a Red Sox Game!

The San Diego office met for a Thai dinner. 

Dallas went indoor climbing!

The Denver office met for a roof-top happy hour.

Learn more about DMC's company culture and explore our open positions.
 

The post Fun at DMC – Volume 12 appeared first on DMC, Inc..