CO-LOCATED EVENTS

Speaker

DJ Daugherty

Chief Technology Officer, Pillar Technology

Ever since DJ decided not to pursue a career as a Jedi (age 12), He’s been drawn to making things. He’s not a left or a right-brain thinker—he uses the whole thing. As the Founder/CTO of LOOP, the balance between creative and analytical thinking fits him to a T. DJ’s primary focus is shaping the technical direction and vision of LOOP’s continued development, with particular attention to balance between culture and growth.

When not at LOOP, he can usually be found on two wheels—cycling or motorcycling. You can catch him fly fishing in the great outdoors or building autonomous drones.

Company

Pillar Technology

Pillar Technology is a super high-tech company taking marketing and strategy by the horns. Traditional agencies talk about integrating technology with these elements, but Pillar does it every day, in a really big way. Where and how they do it is called the Forge Network. It’s a philosophy—sometimes in four walls, sometimes not. It’s business strategists, creatives, software artisans and clients collaborating to solve business problems in a no-constraints think tank. It’s where and how they work—mentally and physically. Wherever their work takes them, they bring the Forge mindset.
For over 20 years, Pillar Technology has been a leading software consulting firm specializing in experienced challenges within the embedded systems development space—automotive, aviation, medical, agriculture, smart home, you name it. Over time, Pillar took note that their skills were being utilized in a predominantly hardware-based environment. They noticed a gap in how projects were getting done, and decided to fill that gap with a speed-to-market, cost-efficient solution. Pillar needed a new testing process that wasn’t constrained by the availability of hardware—test-driven development that can be executed on 100% software simulated, virtual hardware. So, they created it. Like most industry game changers, LOOP came to life out of necessity. It’s software that tests software’s compatibility with hardware, even before they have the chance to meet—stopping problems before they can become one.