Patti Spotlight: Dan Miller
Dan Miller is one of our newest additions to the Patti Engineering team. Having recently graduated from Indiana University - Purdue University of Indianapolis with a degree in Electrical Engineering Technology, Dan has been off to a great start in our Indiana office. Dan began as an intern and worked full-time even through his final semester.
“Dan is an outstanding young talented engineer,” says Sam Hoff, CEO of Patti Engineering. “We consider ourselves lucky that he is part of our team.”
Now graduated, as a Controls Engineer, he develops programs for various PLCs and HMIs but he’s also worked on vision systems, robots, hardware design. The biggest project he’s been involved with at Patti Engineering is an upgrade at a large automotive manufacturer. He helped create the code for numerous stations that will help run the new models in the future.
Recently, he helped replace an automatic nutrunner and install a new one. Aside from the more straightforward task of coding the PLC and HMI, there was the added challenge of creating an ethernet signal without an ethernet port on the PLC. Currently, he’s working on a project where he’s broadening his experience with how PLC and vision systems communicate using different technologies.
“My favorite part about working at Patti Engineering are the people whom I work with. It’s nice to feel like the people around you are not just coworkers, they are friends as well,” says Dan. “I also like feeling appreciated for the work I do and feel as though the work I put in doesn’t get overlooked.”
Dan grew up and has lived in the Indianapolis area his whole life. “I have a wonderful family and a wonderful group of friends whom I see all the time. I love having people over every weekend,” he says. At home, he’s currently working on finishing his basement. In his free time, he is currently learning the Bachata, Salsa, and Hip-Hop. He enjoys playing ping-pong, basketball, and golf.
Some of the unique things he has done in life involve dancing on stage with Prince and winning a food eating competition.
To explain the food eating competition, he says, “I went to a chocolate festival in a Chicago suburb and heard of a chocolate pie eating competition. I knew it was my destiny to partake in the competition. I faced off against 9 other guys all of which were double my size.”
And dancing with Prince? “I went to a Prince concert when I was younger. I was dancing like crazy in the audience and Prince told me to go onstage. When I was on the stage I did this dance and I looked around and got a standing ovation by thousands of people. The saxophone player saw this and she took me to the center of the stage while I danced for a few more songs. Prince gave me his guitar pick in the process. Afterward, I went on the radio to talk about my experience and I showed my dance to the radio station.” Dan claims there is no video evidence.