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Faces of Interface Featuring Robert Hawk

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In today’s Faces of Interface feature, we spoke with Robert Hawk, director of information technology (IT). He is responsible for keeping Interface’s business operational using all kinds of hardware and software, which is core to our fundamental success.

Robert was our very first IT guru at the company and since joining the company and has helped modernize our systems to keep our operations running smoothly. We sat down with Robert to learn about his background and get some insight on everything he does for Interface, our customers, our partners, and global network.

Robert’s background in the world of information technology started with his time in United States Army. He spent his early years in the service with the Infantry. When looking for new opportunities and challenges for his career, he switched his military specialty to Communications and IT, and he then transitioned to the Wyoming Army National Guard.

During his time with the National Guard, Robert worked as an Admin NCO for the 115th Fires Brigade and the IT Department at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base Medical Center. While doing all this, he also continued his support of the Communications and IT section as a Wyoming Army National Guard soldier serving on weekends. Thank you for your service! He obtained two Master of Science graduate degrees, one in Computer Information Systems and one in Computer Engineering.

Robert’s transition to the private sector was as an outsourced IT consultant, serving customers in Wyoming and then Arizona. It was a demanding role that required long hours and some travel; however, it was a wonderful experience. He decided that he wanted to spend more time with his family, and this is when he found Interface.

Interface hired Rob as our first official IT guy in 2014. In fact, which was the name of the role at the time – IT Guy! In the eight years since Rob joined Interface, he has brought our technology light years forward to meet the demands of a growing and thriving manufacturing technology brand leader. The company’s investments in IT allowed Rob to modernize our infrastructure, systems and vastly improve our digital efficiency internally, and with customers. One example is our transition from Windows 95 to Windows 11. He and his team are now rolling out an entire ERP system that will create huge efficiencies and capabilities for the 54-year-old business.

His role at Interface includes managing a team of nine information technology people who are responsible for ensuring the business and production is running smoothly, all the time for a 24/7 business. He is committed to always staying on the lookout for innovative technologies to help streamline operations, support continuous improvements, and help stay on the forefront of ways to engage with all stakeholders. He is also keen to keeping Interface on the forefront of information security.

One thing that you will certainly learn from Rob is that he loves his work because he enjoys helping Interface in their role of helping our customers achieve remarkable things across a wide variety of applications.

Robert is a bit of a workaholic, so part of his free time includes learning, recertifying, and reading up on the newest technologies. He is definitely an IT guy through and through. When he gets some time away, his hobbies include giving back to the military community through charity work with veteran’s organizations. He also loves to ride his motorcycle. Most importantly, he spends time with his three kids aged 21, 19 and 12. In fact, the 19-year-old works for us here at Interface!

Robert is a critical member of Interface’s team, and we could not provide the outstanding technology solutions we do without his work on our digital systems. We thank him for his dedication to his craft and to Interface! What keeps him up at night, keeps us running all day!

 

Faces of Interface Featuring Tin Nguyen

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Today’s Faces of Interface features a person who might possibly hold the most titles in the company, and for good reason. Tin Nguyen is our calibration engineer, manufacturing engineer and business unit manager for calibration. Tin has earned all these titles along with the important responsibility through his relentless ability to take on and excel in new tasks, as well as his desire to learn. Check out his story.

Since he was about the age of eight years old, Tin had a proficiency for learning how to design and build things. It all started growing up on his grandparent’s farm where he would theorize ways to make tools and machines around the farm easier to use or more efficient. He vowed then that when he grew up, he would find a way to build things to make life easier for people.

Tin went on to attend Arizona State University (ASU), where he received a bachelor’s degree in manufacturing engineering and in technology in 2000. He really enjoyed the ASU engineering school experience because it was hands on and he got to work with the latest technology, preparing him for the real world. While attending school, Tin also served as an auto mechanic for racing cars to earn some extra money on the side and because he really enjoyed the work.

Tin joined Interface in September 2001. He began his career as a calibration associate in the calibration lab. After a few years in the lab, Tin was then promoted to manufacturing engineer. A year later, he was promoted to calibration supervisor followed by the calibration departments business unit manager. His success in each of these roles allowed him to retain some of his titles and work throughout the company to lend his skills and expertise.

Today, his role covers quite a bit of what we do here at Interface. His day-to-day responsibilities include developing and maintaining tooling for calibration, fixturing, improving production processes, auditing equipment, figuring out ways to reduce costs, training calibration techs, maintaining calibration standards, looking after 20 different rigs, to highlight a few. His depth of experience and expertise lends to supporting and helping the company meet the growing demands for Interface’s quality products.

What Tin enjoys so much about working at Interface and continuing to take on new roles is that he loves to learn everything there is to know about the company and serving customers. Tin noted, there are a lot of talented people around him to provide that knowledge and support. After more than 20 years with the company, Tin still feels that he has more to learn. He’s also very honored by the trust that Interface and its leadership have placed in Tin to take on all of his important roles.

In his free time, Tin loves to travel and explore the great outdoors. He enjoys hiking, camping, fishing, boating and more. And, as if he doesn’t already have enough projects in his work life, Tin is also very fond of upgrading and remodeling his home. He takes a lot of ownership over the process and will do everything that he can before hiring somebody to help.

With all the hats Tin wears, he knows Interface inside out and we’re thrilled to have him and his cross-departmental expertise as part of the Interface family! We hope you enjoyed the newest entry into our Faces of Interface and if you’re looking to learn more about our talented staff, visit our ForceLeaders feature here.

Faces of Interface Featuring Scott Whitworth

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Our Faces of Interface features the masterfully creative force behind the Interface brand. If you’ve ever downloaded an Interface product brochure or spent time on the Interface website, chances are Scott Whitworth, Interface’s creative services manager, played an important role.

Scott puts together complex product details for T&M pros, develops visual stories with digital content, and helps us keep track of thousands of offerings – one at a time! This is a story about Scott’s journey from film to the video game industry and even teaching before finally joining Interface.

Growing up, Scott was always interested in art and filmography. He pursued creative endeavors, such as a degree in the film industry at the Arts Institute of Phoenix, where he also took some traditional painting and sculpting classes. During his time in school, he started to pick up graphic design skills as well. These talents led Scott to begin his career in the film industry at a company called Digital Domain. In this role, he did digital effects for several different films and commercials.

He then moved to Phoenix, where he worked for a company called THQ. At THQ, Scott began in the film and television division where he worked in animation. Two years after he started, the company closed the film and television division and offered Scott a position in the games division. Scott remained with THQ for eight years doing 3D modeling and design.

From 2008 until 2015, Scott worked as an independent creative resource across several creative disciplines for many clients. And then an old colleague brought him back to Arizona and back to the Art Institute working a teaching job. He enjoyed his freelance work but wanted to get back into the corporate world, which ultimately led him to Interface.

Scott started in graphic design for Interface to help bolster our marketing footprint. He quickly learned about the load cell industry and all the customers that utilize sensors. Growing up in Michigan, his grandfather made parts for the automotive industry, so he was familiar with some of the technical intricacies and use cases. With a naturally technical mind and blended with a passion for creative works, he was a perfect fit for Interface.

“The blending of technical content with design tasks is I really love about working at Interface. It provides creative freedom in my work, with the discipline of getting all the technical details exactly right.” Scott Whitworth, Creative Services Manager at Interface.

Scott’s day-to-day involves leading a agile marketing team and overseeing all branding and creative functions, including collateral material, data sheets, website design and supporting the development of creative assets for our global network of sales partners. He plays a big role in creating continuity amongst all of Interface’s marketing assets. When he arrived, there were differences between marketing materials, so he has worked to standardize and strengthen the brand into the same style. His efforts and leadership in this area has really supported a leading look and representation for Interface.

When he’s not making the Interface brand shine, Scott can be found spending time with his wife and four kids. He has three sons ages 14, 13 and 10, as well as a 2-year-old daughter. So, Scott doesn’t have time for much more than being a great dad! When he does get some free time, he continues his creative passions through 3D modeling for himself, exploring painting and sculpture and other forms of art.

Scott has worked hard to make the Interface brand standout from the competition through a wide variety of platforms We’re thankful for Scott and his many talents and are glad we got share his story.

Envisioning the Future of Force Measurement

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It is estimated that the force measurement sensor industry market, which includes strain gages and load cells, is valued at $2 billion annually. This is a result of the diverse amount of application uses for these types of sensors, whether embedded into an OEM product or for use in test and measurement. With innovations pushing product designers, this segment of the overall sensor market is growing rapidly from the advancements in robotics, semiconductors, automotive, aerospace and defense.

In these areas of growth, Interface continues to focus on the manufacturing and sales of precision force measurement products. For 52 years, Interface remains the leader in accuracy and quality. There are no plans to change that focus. What is changing is the market place and opportunities for using precision sensor technology of all sizes and capacities, whether that be for electronic vehicle testing or industrial automation, launching spacecraft or introducing new robots.

The way we develop force measurement products is continually evolving. It is our responsibility to understand trends in the engineering, testing and manufacturing, as well as identifying customer needs, in order to develop new force measurement innovations for today and into the future.

Technology is moving at a fast pace, and it’s imperative that companies like us rise to meet the demand for new innovations to solve modern and future design and testing challenges. In last week’s blog, we detailed our product development process and our evolution over the years to meet these demands. Product development has grown from a process to something that we engage in every day, especially in the customization of our standard products as well as introduction of new solutions.

The voice of our customer is instrumental in defining this development journey. We learn about new trends and opportunities for expanding our product line by listening to our customers and team members. At Interface, we know that in order to continue building upon our half-century legacy, it’s critical to keep an open mind to new solutions and continually learn how our customer’s industries are evolving too.

Interface recently had the opportunity to contribute article to two different publications that outlined our thoughts on the trends in force measurement. We were able to lean on our entire team to discover what they believe is the future of our industry. It was not only a fun exercise to take a step back and look into the future, but it was also encouraging because we realized that many of these trends are things that Interface has placed a heavy focus on in our strategic plans for the months and years to come.

Included below are links and a quick synopsis of recent articles by Interface ForceLeaders™ that were published in Machine Design Magazine and Metrology News.

Machine Design Magazine: 2020 Trends in Force Measurement Sensors

Until about 10 years ago, the force test and measurement industry had been fairly unimaginative. It had developed a standard way of building analog load cells, torque transducers and other devices, and it worked for many years. However, as most of the rest of the technological world advanced and big data changed the way engineers and manufacturers work, this age-old force measurement analog technology stood out with no way to improve data collection or make it more efficient.

The digital revolution has pushed load cell manufacturers to look around and think about how customers develop products and how factories and production lines operate. Here are some of the trends force-measurement companies must get in line with or risk disappearing, as defined by Keith Skidmore, Regional Sales Director at Interface. Click here to read more

Metrology News: The Future of Force Measurement

The rise of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and “Big Data” has had a tremendous impact on almost every industry, including force measurement. Up until about ten years ago, the industry had remained steady and predictable. There was a standard way of building load cells using analog technology that was widely accepted, and they served their purpose well. In this article Ted Larson, VP Product Management and Marketing at Interface explains the industries recent transition and what lays ahead. Read more here.

Interface will continue to remain future-focused in an effort to serve our clients force measurement needs for now and beyond. If you are interested in learning more about custom solutions or new applications, contact us here.

Faces of Interface Featuring Jay Bradley

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It is not often that we have a team member we are highlighting that has both engineering and musical talent. That sums up our next feature of the multi-talented Jay Bradley. He is Interface Engineer by day and rockstar by night.

Jay discovered his passion for music and engineering at a young age. He could often be found taking apart and tinkering with amplifiers for his guitar. “Anything that was given to me as a kid that included moving parts or electronics was disassembled pretty quickly,” said Jay.

After high school, Jay joined the United States Air Force. During his time in the service, he began to realize that he was destined for a career in engineering. Jay worked on a number of projects that were, in his words, “very cool,” involving the operation and development of classified electronic warfare equipment. This job went on for several years after his service because he continued to work with the U.S. Air Force as a contractor.

Upon leaving contracting, Jay started working for Microwave Systems Engineering, manufacturers of RF devices such as downconverters and microwave amplifiers. The knowledge and experience he gained in this field helped him to land a job at Honeywell, where he became immersed in navigation-related RF engineering. Before joining Interface, he worked for 10 years at Osmonics and Instrulink specializing in PH and conductivity sensors.

Today, Jay enjoys his career as an electrical engineer at Interface. He started at the force measurement solutions company designing amplifiers, a familiar field, where he applied his knowledge specifically for load cells. He worked his way up the ladder and is currently a lead designer on many of the products Interface makes today.

As a part of his responsibility for designing products, Jay works closely with customers to understand their technological challenges.

“The work I enjoy the most involves solving specific and complex pain points customers are experiencing.” Jay Bradley

A recent example of this type of work came with the development of one of Interface’s latest innovations, AxialTQ. This product was a direct result of customer feedback, mixed with Interface’s continuous drive to innovate.

Another aspect of Jay’s position with Interface that he enjoys is leading a group of engineers.

“My approach to leading these individuals is getting out of their way. I know that the engineers at Interface are incredibly talented, and it’s my job is to facilitate a work environment that is based on communication, supporting one another and allowing smart people to do what they do best without micro-management.” Jay Bradley

To satisfy his inner “rockstar,” Jay can be found jamming with his buddies in a garage band or tinkering with amplifiers to get the sound right. He has carried this passion with him throughout his life. Another creative outlet that Bradley has enjoyed since he was a teenager is photography. To this day, he shares these activities with his wife Ginny and three children. Rock on Jay!