“The great Wayne Gretzky said his success has been based on skating to where he thinks the puck is going. It’s exactly what we are doing as a company,” says Jim Montelongo, founder and CEO of Advanced CAD/CAM Service Corporation, better known as EngineeringPeople. “We are anticipating that digital transformation will impact all businesses and industries.”

For nearly three decades, EngineeringPeople has provided engineering consulting services to large organizations and equipment manufacturers in both the private and public sectors, from Caterpillar Inc. to the U.S. Army. More recently, the company added software development to its lineup of offerings—employing machine learning, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality to the areas of training and education. “Our unique blend of seasoned engineers and software developers enables us to develop software applications of complex and intricate mechanical equipment for training, instructions delivery and as a visualization tool,” Montelongo affirms. 

This purposeful evolution is already paying dividends, as EngineeringPeople was selected by the United States Air Force (USAF) last year to build a virtual training application for its new airmen and airwomen. With guidance from Illinois PTAC (Procurement Technical Assistance Center) at Bradley University, the EngineeringPeople team worked hard to win the contract, delivering 10 MarshST airplane marshalling simulators—along with all hardware, support and maintenance services—in less than a year. 

Montelongo and his team are optimistic that this is the first of many contracts to come. “We have been lucky to continue to meet with the USAF, listen to their challenges, and hear where they would like to go,” he explains. “From there our team of developers and engineers have been developing new products. We are praying that we have the right solution at the right price and right time for them.” 

As the company continues to grow, it is leveraging everything it’s learned over the last 30 years, he adds. “Working with a new customer like the USAF was exactly what we needed to make the first step forward into the future.” That this product was created right here on Main Street in Peoria is a great story—not only for the company, but for the community as well. engineeringpeople.com PM