At each Sensors Expo awards are presented to individuals and companies for their innovative creations and overall excellence in the field of sensors and related technologies. These include awards for the best sensor products and sensor applications, best engineering team, and rising star engineers, those who have shown great promise and are expected to go on to greater heights of innovation and success.
Back in June, the team at Phase IV Engineering took the Engineering Team of the Year Award.
A fairly young company, veteran-owned small business headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. Starting up in 1992, Phase IV Engineering, Inc. is engaged in research, development, and production of both passive and active wireless sensor and monitoring products. Essentially, they are the inventors of passive (battery-free) wireless sensing based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.
The Phase IV Engineering team members are Bill Simms, Mechanical Engineer; Cameron Nicks, Electrical Engineering Technician; Dale Yones, ASIC Engineer; David Kramer, Software/Firmware Engineer; Eric Harden, RF Engineer, Project Manager; Joe Letkomiller, Electrical Engineer; Leo Carrasco, Electrical Engineer; Rich Pollack, CTO, Project Manager; and Scott Dalgleish, CEO, Project Manager. In spite of extremely demanding schedules and design deadlines, we managed to nail down Scott Dalgleish for a few moments to get his and the team’s reactions to Sensors Expo 2015.
What did to expect to see and/or accomplish at Sensors Expo 2015?
Scott Dalgleish: We wanted to see the latest sensor technology that we might be able to integrate in our designs as well as we wanted to see what our competitors were doing and where they are going. In terms of what we wanted to accomplish, like other exhibitors, get sales leads, improve exposure for our company that is transitioning to a products company, and talk to customers and get a feel for where our products are and where they need to go.
Scott Dalgleish, CEO and Project Manager at Phase IV Engineering
Were your expectations met and/or goals achieved?
Yes, the show went much better than we expected. It was rough for us to attend with some timing issues, but we will definitely be back.
At Sensors Expo 2015, was there a central theme or market trend that stood out above the rest and, if so, was the coverage good (enough, not enough, or excessive)?
The interesting trend we saw was there are many Internet of Things (IoT) software/web companies out there that have the software infrastructure but are missing the hardware sensors. The IoT is driving the need for sensors.
Did you attend and/or present at any of the educational sessions and, if so, what was your experience?
We were swamped in our booth and could not attend any educational sessions, however I presented at a session and was really happy with the attendance, especially since it was the very last time slot of the show.
Did you attend the extracurricular events, i.e., opening reception and engineering awards ceremony, Best of Sensors Awards, networking sessions?
Yes, we attended the opening reception and Best of Sensors awards. The opening reception turned-out to be better than I expected for networking. We met some people that probably would not have come by our booth otherwise, and now have become good contacts. We learned a lot.
Will you be attending Sensors Expo 2016?
Yes, and next year we will bring more people. We were so tied down talking with people in our booth that we didn’t get to see as much as we wanted to. And if accepted, we hope to present another session at Sensors Expo 2016 in San Jose, California.