WTI Employee Obtains Level 1 Safety Certification from MIOSHA

June 16th, 2010   admin  

Jennifer M. Granholm, Governor www.michigan.gov/dleg
Stanley “Skip” Pruss, Director Email: mediainfo@michigan.gov

Matthew Eurich of Saginaw
Employer: Wineman Technology

State Recognizes MIOSHA Training Institute (MTI) Graduates at
Michigan Safety Conference

April 20, 2010 – Today the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) and Macomb Community College recognized 38 graduates of the MIOSHA Training Institute (MTI) at the 80th annual Michigan Safety Conference in Lansing. The MIOSHA program is part of the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth (DELEG).

Doug Kalinowski, CIH, Director, MIOSHA Program, and Michael Metz, Director, Public Service Institute, Macomb Community College, presented MTI Level One Certificates to 38 graduates. The MTI offers participants the necessary knowledge and hands-on training for safety and health solutions and has quickly become the premier provider of high-quality workplace safety and health training.

“Employers tell us that a strong safety and health system significantly reduces workplace injuries – which has a tremendous impact on their bottom line,” said Kalinowski. “For every $1 invested in workplace safety and health, employers see a return of $4 to $6 dollars. That makes MTI training an excellent investment for Michigan employers.”

Macomb and MIOSHA established a formal alliance on Sept. 26, 2005, to develop new opportunities to help protect the safety and health of Michigan workers. A key goal of the alliance was to establish the MIOSHA Training Institute to offer employers a high level of safety and health training. MTI launched certificate classes in October 2007.

The MTI has seen tremendous growth, from 917 participants trained in April 2008, to more than 5,600 participants trained today. In FY 2009 the MTI offered 153 courses statewide at 28 cosponsors, including Macomb College, M-TEC facilities, community colleges, and safety and health organizations. To date, 205 MTI students have qualified for Level One Certificates.

“Macomb College fully shares MIOSHA’s commitment to improve workplace safety and health, which in turn enhances both employee experiences and employer objectives,” said Metz. “We’re continually looking at ways to strengthen our partnership and have moved the MTI program into Macomb’s Public Service Institute to benefit from the synergy with our longstanding health and safety programs.”

The MTI delivers affordable, participant-driven and informative seminars based on the most up-to-date industry standards in a hands-on, interactive environment. Students attend a series of courses that will help them develop the knowledge and skills to improve their company’s safety and health system. MTI classes are consistent throughout the state, and have the same length, format, resources, activities, objectives and assessment.

In July 2009, MIOSHA developed an MTI Scholarship Program to help employers, employees and others attend training during these difficult economic times. The scholarships cover half the cost of an MTI class anywhere in the state. Unemployed workers can apply for the entire cost and only pay the $20.00 data base fee. To date, MIOSHA has provided almost $50,000 in scholarships.

Participants can attend MTI courses at any cosponsored location across the state. All participants who successfully complete a course become part of the MTI database managed by Macomb College. Transcripts are available to all participants.

The MTI assessment-based certificate program offers participants an opportunity to be recognized for their educational efforts and increased technical expertise. MTI courses offer Continuing Education Credits and Maintenance Points, as well as an opportunity to receive a Level One Safety and Health Certificate. There are two certificate tracks, General Industry and Construction. A certificate is awarded when a student attends four courses in general industry or seven courses in construction within three years.

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Selecting the Correct Voltage Input Device for Fast High Channel Count Applications

February 26th, 2010   admin  

By: Todd VanGilder – Project Manager, CLA

Over the years, National Instruments (NI) has come out with many different hardware platforms including, but not limited to: PXI, CompaqDAQ, CompaqRIO and Modular instruments. However, when dealing with fast scanning high channel count voltage measurements (200 plus), SCXI is still the best option. A matrix/multiplexer module and a modular DMM is another option, but even with the fastest switching modules available, this combination cannot compete with the available SCXI solutions; in reference to scanning speed. If accuracy is more important than speed, then the DMM/switch option is a viable solution. For the remainder of this article, I will focus on determining the correct SCXI devices based on voltage levels, filtering and scanning speed.

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Remote Support Not Just For IT Guys Anymore

February 26th, 2010   admin  

By: Todd VanGilder – Project Manager, CLA

In our line of work, a big part of the job is getting the system up and running at the customer site. Sometimes you are providing the customer with a turnkey system, and you do a complete runoff and customer acceptance on the shop floor prior to shipping. In these situations, onsite installation is clearly defined and after a few days on site, you are up and running. However, often you are only providing a piece to the puzzle. When the pieces come together and things don’t work, suddenly the software you wrote and the hardware you provided is being used to debug the overall system. But hold on a minute, we are supposed to be using the other pieces to debug our piece. It is the proverbial “chicken or the egg”. A common solution to this problem is to have all the players available on site for the entire installation process. In this scenario you may spend days or weeks on site, providing what may only amount to a few hours of support. Perhaps a better solution is remote support? Remote monitoring/control applications like “LogMeIn”, Web Cams, VPN’s and centralized source code control make it a viable option.

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What is the Best Software Development Method?

February 26th, 2010   admin  

By: Todd VanGilder – Project Manager, CLA

There are many software development methodologies; which one is the best? I believe there is only one answer to this question; the method that best fits your customer and your company. The method you select should be decided on a per project basis. There are basically two categories of software development methodologies Agile and Plan- Driven.

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A More Universal Approach to Wait Cases

February 26th, 2010   admin  

By: Dave Graybeal – Project Engineer, CLD

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this particular article is to help show an example of something that the WTI Clarkston Office has developed to help decrease the number of cases in our code and help speed up the application development process. I will be talking about the Typical Wait Case found in many applications and how we have replaced those wait cases with a single more Universal Wait Case in their place. These examples are shown using a Queued Master Slave State Machine with a String Queue. Other Types of Queues (Variants, Enums, etc.) could also be used but may require some additional code not shown in the Figures below.

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Welcome to WTI Guy

February 26th, 2010   admin  

Welcome to WTI Guy, a collaborative blog from the Employee’s of Wineman Technology, Inc (WTI), an NI Alliance Partner. I have been thinking of starting a blog for a while know, but like many others I am sure, I was not confident I would have the time to keep up with it or enough to say (that people wanted to hear anyway). This Blog is my solution; hopefully a collaborative blog does not offend or unbalance the blogosphere.

At “WTI Guy” you will get your share of LabVIEW tips and tricks and design pattern discussion, but I also hope we can provide something more. WTI has over 40 employees that live LabVIEW and NI five days a week, in various capacities. This blog will also be a collage of the insights, observations and commentary of Project Managers, Project Engineers, Electricians, Sales and Office personnel.

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