Employee Spotlight: Corey Holland

Corey Holland

Hometown: Montezuma, Iowa
Ubisense Location: Denver, CO
Ubisense Department: RTLS Pre-sales
Education: Electrical Engineering / MBA

How long have you been with Ubisense and what is your background?
Corey: I began working with Ubisense in March of 2011. I spent the prior five years working in the on-board digital surveillance field for transit in both Bus and Rail.

What’s a typical day like for you?
Corey: If I’m in the office then a typical day begins early here in the Denver Tech Center (early enough to beat the majority of the rush hour). Once I’m settled in it’s time to catch up with the East Coast, discuss pipelines and upcoming visits before getting a chance to make it to that second cup of coffee! Staying up with the RFP distribution groups and catching up on emails can consume much of the morning. Preparing presentations, RFP completion, proposals and keeping up with Harry Pappas consumes the rest of the day!

What is the most significant trend you’ve seen in your field?
Corey: Over the course of the last few years (specifically with my previous employer) seeing the addition of RTLS in transit facilities and the fact that it continues to grow would be the most obvious and significant trend. The value of the services our product provides is unmatched when compared with wasted dollars and time savings.

How did you become interested in RTLS in Transit?
Corey: I didn’t know it but I became interested in RTLS in transit during my first visit to the Chicago garages five years ago with my previous employer. As contractors for the City of Chicago my crew and I wasted ridiculous amounts of time simply attempting to locate specific buses inside the garages.

What was your very first job?
Corey: My very first job was as an apprentice at a fiberglass/composite manufacturing company in Central Iowa. I did everything from picking up and delivering finished goods to sweeping the floor and painting the offices. I was however lucky enough to get a chance to work on not one, but two projects with the Walt Disney company building amusement park rides that are still extremely popular today.

What do you enjoy doing in your time off?
Corey: Of course spending time with my wonderful wife and three children (8, 7 and 3) as well as supporting their athletic endeavors and participating in their after school activities. I also enjoy golfing and Colorado State Football (although not so much this year…)

What is your favorite city?
Corey: This is a tough one as I’ve spent the majority of the last 15 years of my professional life traveling throughout the United States. Having been to quite a few I would have to pick Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It’s unmatched skiing and close proximity to Yellowstone National Park make it a close second to living here in Denver!

Corey with his family

Happy Holidays

On behalf of the entire Ubisense team, we would like to thank you for your support and business in 2011. We are excited for the upcoming year and look forward to sharing it with you.

All the best to you and your families during this

joyous holiday season!

Sincerely,

The Ubisense Team

Ubisense Ugly Sweater Holiday Party

Jay Cadman, Corey Holland, and Andy Schuerzinger

Peter Batty, Deb Miller, and Russ Chandler

Chris Doernbrack and son, Jack

Our magician tricking all the ladies

Peter Batty guessing how many boxes are in the one box

Americas GIS team: Lance McGee, Scott Casey, Kyle Eagen, John Fowler, Dave Harris



Our magician tricking Russ Chandler



Christian Almazan, winner of the "box game"

Scott Casey showing off his muscles and his ugly sweater

Aubree Topai (right) with friend Lyndsey

Ubisense Product Spotlight

Ubisense Series 9000 Compact Tag
Korean-certified compact location tag for personnel and assets

Specifications

Dimensions: 38mm x 38mm x 16.5 mm

Weight: 25g (0.9oz)

Temperature: Standard -20 C to 60 C (-4 F to 140 F)

Humidity: 0 to 95%, non-condensing

Overview

The Ubisense Series 9000 Korean-certified Compact Tag is a small, rugged device that, when attached to assets or worn by people, allows them to be located to an accuracy of 15cm in 3D in real time. It is designed for use in a variety of different environments, including industrial sites. In addition to its tracking capabilities, it includes additional features such as an LED for easy identification, a motion detector to instantly activate a stationary tag and a push button to trigger events.

Qualities

• Accurate location: The tag transmits ultra-wideband (UWB) radio pulses which can be used by the Ubisense location system to find its position to within 15cm in 3D.
• Two-way communication: Ubisense tags employ a unique dual-radio architecture- in addition to the one-way UWB radio used for tracking, tags have a conventional bi=-directional 2.4 GHz radio for control and telemetry.
• Flexible update rates: The Ubisense software platform allows the tag's update rate to be dynamically and automatically varied depending on the tag activity. When stationary, tags sleep to conserve power, an inbuilt motion detector ensure the tag transmits again when moved.
• User interaction features: The tag has a button to provide context-sensitive input to interactive applications.
• Long battery life: The tag's low current consumption and power management techniques result in long battery lifetimes. It has an expected lifetime of over four years, depending on application characteristics.
• Rugged and adaptable: The Compact Tag is designed to be rugged for use in harsh industrial environments. It is mechanically robust, dust and water resistant, and can be securely mounted using a variety of attachment mechanisms.

Ubisense Support Goes Viral

Supporting our customers is a top priority at Ubisense and an area we’re always looking to improve. It became clear that many of our customers, whether new or existing, would often require refreshers with general setup and maintenance tasks but would not have access to remote desktop sessions for support. As with any phone support experience, the calls can sometimes be long and technically difficult for both the customer and the support engineer because neither party can visually see the setup.

In an attempt to both reduce support calls and to impart more knowledge to the customer, the US support team has begun developing short instructional videos on such topics as software installation, hardware installation, calibration, etc. such that customer can view specific topics at their own pace and visually see the required steps for the particular task. Many times we find that our customers overlook a very small step during setup and configuration of the Ubisense system and the videos allow them to go step by step through an entire setup with screen shots, live examples, and tips on how to accomplish key tasks. The feedback thus far has been very encouraging and more video training tutorials are currently in the works.

Please visit our support channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/UbisenseSupport and make sure to register as a user so that you can be updated as more videos become available.


Author: Chris Doernbrack, Applications Engineer, Denver Office

Employee Spotlight: Jim Stippich

Jim Stippich
Hometown: Hettinger, ND
Ubisense Location: Denver, CO
Ubisense Department: Americas RTLS Delivery Team
Education: BS in Computer Science, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD

How long have you been with Ubisense and what is your background?
Jim: I started with Ubisense in July 2010. My background revolves around technology (mainly software dealing with locations) and goes like this...
1. I started with Hughes Aircraft Company working on satellite systems
2. I than moved to a GIS consulting company that specializes in utilities
3. Following that I worked at Smallworld/GE for 10 years
4. And started my own business for 3 years
5. Until I finally joined Ubisense in 2010

What's a typical day like for you?
Jim: If I'm on-site than I am usually working on installations and troubleshooting in bus/locomotive garages. If I'm in the office than my day is divided amongst conference calls, assembling/testing equipment and documenting and tracking ingoing/outgoing inventory.

What is the most significant trend you’ve seen in your field?
Jim: Applications becoming more mobile – still some room for growth, but its heading in that direction.

How did you become interested in RTLS?
Jim: I have always worked in location based technology, so RTLS looked like a space where I could contribute and learn something at the same time.

What was your very first job?
Jim: My very first job was operating heavy equipment for my grandfather’s construction company.

What do you enjoy doing in your time off?
Jim: Bicycling and rock climbing

What is your favorite city?
Jim: This isn't an exact city, but anywhere on Hawaii.

Christian and Jim working at the Denver office.