Rick Rice, TJ McDermott, Michael Batchelor, and Jim Barry — these four are individuals you need to know.
The Control Design Editorial Advisory Board is a select group of highly skilled and experienced individuals who have cut new trails in machine controls and automation. They help to determine the direction of our editorial content. Members range from machine builders, integrators and more who bring their decades of experience to the content of Control Design.Â
 Current Members
Rick Rice is applications specialist, engineering, at Crest Foods, an Ashton, Illinois-based company with more than 60 years of experience in dairy stabilizers, manufacturing and contract packaging. He has more than 25 years experience in the packaging industry, with expertise in custom machine programming. Rick specializes in line integration, including other vendor’s equipment as part of a total packaging solution. He’s particularly adept at packaging applications, machine programming and on-site troubleshooting. Rick supports and mentors team members in day-to-day operations and focuses on lean-manufacturing initiatives and standardization. He holds associate’s degrees in controls engineering technology and electrical engineering technology from Fanshawe College.
TJ McDermott is project manager with Systems Interface, an integrator in Bothell, Washington, where he’s responsible for design of electrical panels/enclosures and the controls programming for them, covering all ranges of industrial automation, including motion control, VFDs, PLCs and HMIs. McDermott is an engineer with 20 years of experience in all aspects of machine design, specializing in mechanical, electrical, motion control, programming and safety. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering, aerospace engineering, from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Michael Batchelor is instrumentation and controls specialist at Automation Electronics, an industrial electrical design-build contractor with strong automation and communication departments in Casper, Wyoming. He has more than 30 years of industrial experience in control systems design, data architecture, system implementation, start-up, operation and management of projects in power generation, electronics, data processing and business intelligence mining. Batchelor has specific expertise in MES database design and implementation and plant-floor-to-business interface layer development. He’s experienced in Web-based solutions, desktop-based client/server solutions, and OPC-based solutions. He is an FCC-licensed commercial general-radiotelephone operator, with certifications in a variety of Schneider Electric Wonderware solutions, and a reactor operator from the U.S. Navy Nuclear Power School.
Jim Barry is director of engineering at Arpac, a packaging-machinery manufacturing and service organization in Schiller Park, Illinois. He is experienced with 21 CFR Part 11 validation and has strong vision-solution design and programming skills using Cognex, DVT and NI LabView vision systems integrated with PC and PLC control systems. Barry has special expertise in database design and interfacing for industrial applications using Microsoft SQL Server and RSSQl, as well as experience automating very difficult processes including fiberoptic alignment. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Southern Illinois University.
Check out our Q&A session with the Control Design Editorial Advisory Board:
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