Western Allied Mechanical

Who hasn’t enjoyed that soulful classic from Gladys Knight singing about the Midnight Train to Georgia? If you love old records, especially the blues and jazz, and consider Gladys Knight one of your favorites, then you have something in common with Josh Daniels. In fact, you can find Josh browsing through vinyl records at thrift stores in his free time. His rarest find is big band music from Carnegie Hall recorded in the 1920s. Josh Daniels has an old soul when it comes to music, but a completely modern education and up to date experience as our Programmer for the Dynamic Technical Solutions Controls team a recent DBA of Western Allied Mechanical.

Josh started his formal education at Mississippi State University in Aerospace Engineering and continued on to study Computer Science back here at Cal State East Bay. Most recently he spent five years honing his skills in building management systems as a programmer on the Google campus. He also is proficient in other languages. Well specifically software programming languages like java script, java, html, C++ and others. He applies his expertise to ensure that mechanical systems properly maintain their design intent and are energy efficient.

Controls has a role in our business process that starts after engineering and spans through the start-up and balance process; including graphics to match the physical floor plans and support to the service teams for maintenance. Josh describes what he likes about the work, “The problem solving aspects flex my brain because most of the solutions we need are not straight forward. I have to diagnose what is going on and develop an approach for a solution.” His manager Jason Lesser appreciates that “Josh is open to learning new ideas, embraces a ‘can-do’ mentality, and is customer focused.”

Before you conclude he is just a software engineer guy with great taste in classic music it must be added that he is also a video game enthusiast and collector. He now has video game cartridges from most of the major systems; Nintendo, Sega, Playstation, or basically all of them from 1986-2001. His favorite game cartridge is Chrono Trigger which is about time travel and was considered quite innovative at its debut, yet now has been in production for 30 years. When asked if he also plays the video games he collects he answered, “of course!” Josh is probably going to be a very strong competitor with all his skills at the next WAM Mario Kart tournament. Go Josh!