My name is Jeff Winegar, and I'm a systems engineer at DMC. One of my favorite things about DMC is ,the huge variety of projects that we get to work on. Every couple of months, I get to work on a new project in a new different industry with lots of new technologies. And so it's very fast paced, and I'm constantly being challenged and learning new things every day.
One of my favorite projects that I've worked on so far has been a pepperoni slicer for a frozen pizza line. It was really challenging because it was using a third party motion controller with a PLC platform that I'm pretty familiar with. But having third party motion presented some unique challenges that I hadn't worked with before. So it was a fun project and very challenging. I guess my favorite programming language would be Ladder Logic.
I do a lot of work with PLCs so I'm using Ladder Logic every day. It's really flexible. You can do a lot of it. With the PLC platforms, a lot of times there's additional languages like structured text, where if you need additional flexibility, you can use that as well.
One engineering hobby that I'm currently working on is an LED lighting system for an aquarium. The idea is that it would mimic the night and day cycles with sunrise and sunset and have it synced to a 24-hour clock. The end goal of that project would have it to be synced with a 365-day calendar. So during the winter months, the sun would set earlier in the day. And in the summer, there would be longer days and the sunset would be later.
One thing I like to do for fun is cooking. I've always loved it since I was a kid. I'm always looking for new recipes to try out. It's one of my biggest hobbies. I guess in that same line I love going to brunch on the weekends. There's a lot of amazing restaurants in Chicago. So there's always a great new place to try for brunch.
I guess one of my favorite places in Chicago would have to be the Museum of Science and Industry. I went there all the time when I was a kid, and it's really great to go back there now and see all the new exhibits along with all the old ones that I remember from when I was growing up.
I think my favorite DMC activity so far would have to be the welcome party that I had when I first joined DMC. We went to the Adler Planetarium for an event called Adler After Dark that they do every month there. It was really cool. I guess one of my favorite hobbies would have to be like astronomy and astrophysics. So getting to go there and learn about particle physics and all of that, with everyone at DMC, it was a really good time.