CSIA 2025: Integrators Talk AI, Legacy Upgrades, and Industry Culture

The transcript below is available for those who prefer to read along. Please be aware that it may contain minor errors. 

Keith Mandachit – HDR:

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Please introduce yourself. Name, title, and company.

Keith Mandachit – HDR:

Yeah, my name is Keith Mandachit. I’m with HDR. My title is Control Systems Integration Team Lead.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

What does HDR do?

Keith Mandachit – HDR:

So HDR is a very large engineering and architecture firm, so very well known for doing design. 13,000 employees and hundreds of offices all across the country. So yeah, very, very big company. CSIA is kind of new to them, we’re not even a member or certified company, but definitely looking into doing that. But yeah, HDR’s bread and butter is and doing water treatment and wastewater treatment facilities. And I talk about design, it’s like the whole thing. So very multidisciplined engineering firm, we have structural, civil, electrical, mechanical, and even the controls engineers. So control system integration is a small portion of the business, but it’s a growing part of the business.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Wow, very diverse. So what are the biggest trends or challenges you’re seeing in the industry right now?

Keith Mandachit – HDR:

For me now, I’m on the design side. I mean, I spent 28 years working for a system integrator, and so that’s been my world. One of the challenges I see in the industry is still having legacy systems out there. Even today, I’m working on a project involving a client that has some really old legacy systems that they really need to be upgraded. And as far as networking and cybersecurity is concerned, that’s another area that they really need to do something. And so that challenge of, we have this large install base of control system hardware and software, but how do we get to that next step is pretty challenging and daunting. So I feel like that’s still a challenge in the industry. I mean, I’ve probably been talking about it for years, but it’s crazy that today in 2025, we’re still dealing with clients that are dealing with that. I really liked what I heard this morning and the keynote speaker, everybody’s talking about the factory of the future, what is that? But really it’s what the factory of the present, that’s really what the goal should be. That really resonated with me, and I think that should be the challenge, not the future, but today.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

There have been some good sessions. What technology innovations are you most excited about?

Keith Mandachit – HDR:

So yeah, one of things that I’m most excited about is autonomous AI. So a lot of the talk in the news has been about generative AI, your ChatGPT and things like that. But of that next step of AI, which has kind of been referred to as autonomous AI, that is what I’m really excited about. The example I can give is you have an air handler that is conditioning outside air before it goes to a piece of equipment. And so you tune the system so that it can condition the air to the right temperature, the right humidity, and the right air flow being in Nebraska. So if I did this and it’s the middle of the summer, well, the outside conditions in Nebraska, summer is really humid, it’s very hot. But come winter, those parameters that I put in place for that system to make adjustments accordingly, well, they were done during the summer and now it’s winter, which is very dry, very cold.

So it’s a very different set of conditions to be trying to adjust to. So a perfect example for autonomous AI would be to develop a model for this air handler unit and to have it learn the different conditions that it needs to adjust the equipment to, and then develop that model and then put that model in place so that as the conditions change, it’s analyzing and seeing that and then making those changes automatically in the PLC. What used to be a person that would have to realize, “oh, you know what? The weather’s changed and we need to make some adjustments to the tuning parameters for this air handler.” So it takes an operator to manually do that. Well now that can be done by an AI model, and that’s one of the things I see that is very exciting is things that have been traditionally operators that have 30 years of experience so they know exactly what buttons to push, what things to tweak. Well, those guys are retiring. That craft of learning that is hard to pass that on or capture that in some way. So autonomous AI is a great technology thing that I think is going to be solving a lot of problems that are going to be popping up here in the future, near future.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Interesting. I hadn’t heard about that before. Here at the CSIA conference are there any valuable insights or takeaways or is there a session you’re particularly looking forward to?

Keith Mandachit – HDR:

So this is my 11th or 12th, can’t remember how many conferences I’ve been to, and one of the things I’ve always taken away from the conference is just the networking with other people and just talking about the same challenges that we’re facing. This was a conference that I wasn’t sure I was going to be attending this year. Now that I am here, very much looking forward to just reconnecting with people that I’ve developed relationships with because yeah, it’s in my mind, relationships are key, and so being able to start new ones or also reconnect those old ones has been really valuable.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

I agree. How can people connect with you, Keith?

Keith Mandachit – HDR:

LinkedIn’s probably the easiest way.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Very good. Thank you so much.

Keith Mandachit – HDR:

Absolutely.

Peter Moskal – Engineered Energy Solutions:

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Please introduce yourself. Name, title, and company.

Peter Moskal – Engineered Energy Solutions:

I’m Peter Moskal with Engineered Energy Solutions. I am VP of Operations.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

What does EES specialize in?

Peter Moskal – Engineered Energy Solutions:

So we specialize in tunnel infrastructure, bridges, ventilation systems, and we have a separate division that deals with BMS – Building Management systems.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

And what geographic location is that in?

Peter Moskal – Engineered Energy Solutions:

We are in the tri-state area of New York, Philadelphia, and New Jersey.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Great. What are the biggest trends or challenges you’re seeing in the industry right now?

Peter Moskal – Engineered Energy Solutions:

The AI, which I’m sure has been said quite often, I think the term AI is a bit broad and the true understanding of what AI is and what it can and can’t do for you, and the caveats that it has that come with it for copyright purposes.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Interesting. What technology innovations are you excited about? Anything coming down the pike?

Peter Moskal – Engineered Energy Solutions:

I’m going to go back to AI. As scary as it is, I think the change in technology is going to evolve so rapidly within the next five years that this term of AI is going to be something that will actually be a more broad and detailed, more explained thing. It’s not just a computer with an algorithm now that’s generating its own equation. It will evolve enough to actually be able to put stuff into it and get way more out of it than what you expected.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

How do you think that’s going to impact your work at EES, any ideas?

Peter Moskal – Engineered Energy Solutions:

I wish I could answer that question. I would like to say it’s going to help consolidate some of the overhead costs that we have to bring those down and actually streamline a lot of our internal practices.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Great. I know it’s early in the conference, but do you have a valuable insight or takeaway or is there a session that you’re particularly interested in?

Peter Moskal – Engineered Energy Solutions:

There is one coming up for acquisitions that I’m actually looking forward to see the perspectives of what happens to people that have been acquired and still are now working for the new company and what the changeover has been like, that exchange. That to me is an interesting concept. It’s not something that we’re familiar with, but it is something that our company is looking into possibly doing.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

There’s been a lot of consolidations in the industry, so I’m sure there’s a lot of peers here at CSIA that will be talking about that. How can people connect with you?

Peter Moskal – Engineered Energy Solutions:

You can reach us on LinkedIn, EES or our website, ees-inc.com.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

And you personally?

Peter Moskal – Engineered Energy Solutions:

My LinkedIn, you can absolutely reach out to me.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Well, thank you.

Steve Malyszko – Malisko Engineering:

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Please introduce yourself, your name, title, and company.

Steve Malyszko – Malisko Engineering:

Thank you. My name is Steve Malyszko, I’m a co-founder and CEO of Malisko Engineering. We’ve been a system integrator since 1994, so we’ve been around for 31 years. And also too, I’m a retiring member of the CSIA Board of Directors.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Great. What are the biggest trends or challenges you’re seeing in the industry right now?

Steve Malyszko – Malisko Engineering:

Well, there’s a couple things. First of all is trying to find good qualified, energetic talent. I mean, that continues to be one of our biggest challenges in terms of having good resources. But the other trends we’re seeing too is the thirst and the move for artificial intelligence being applied in the manufacturing space. One of the biggest parts of that though, is for anyone who’s used like ChatGPT or any of the AI platforms, the value of AI is that it goes out and looks at everything out that’s out there on the web. Well, in manufacturing, people don’t want to do that. People don’t want their intellectual property to be exposed to the rest of the world. So one of the biggest trends, and one of the challenges that integrators system integrators are seeing is that how can we leverage artificial intelligence in the manufacturing environment without relying on what’s out there on the web?

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

What technology innovations are you excited about?

Steve Malyszko – Malisko Engineering:

Well, I’ve kind of already sort of said that in the sense that right now, artificial intelligence in the manufacturing space is something that is very, very exciting. People are asking for it, people want to implement it, but they’re looking for direction on how to do that and how to implement it in a safe and secure way.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

I know it’s early in the conference, but do you have a valuable insight or takeaway or is there a session that you’re particularly interested in?

Steve Malyszko – Malisko Engineering:

As far as the CSIA conference, CSIA always strives to stay relevant with current technology, with current trends and CSIA always works towards doing everything they can to help their integrator members become better businesspeople. This year is no different than every other CSIA conference that I personally have attended in the last 19 years, that it’s all about meeting new people, connecting, sharing ideas. The founders of CSIA always said, “give one idea and receive 10 in response.” And it’s nor truer than as it is today. And I sincerely hope that all CSIA members will continue to follow that plan.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Anything else you’d like to share?

Steve Malyszko – Malisko Engineering:

I’ve been fortunate that I’ve been affiliated and associated with CSIA on the various committees, marketing committee, best practices committee, partner committee. They’ve all been great people. And I would suggest to every member of CSIA to leverage those resources, share with them your information. You’ll get a lot of feedback that will help you become better business people and better at doing what you do day in and day out.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

That’s great advice. How can people connect with you?

Steve Malyszko – Malisko Engineering:

Well, thank you. As far as connecting with me, it’s Steve Malyszko. My email address is smalyszko@malisko.com, and I’m always available and always willing to help any CSIA member.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Thank you so much.

Barry Brian – DRM:

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Please introduce yourself. Name, title, and company.

Barry Brian – DRM:

My name is Barry Bryan and I am the owner of DRM LLC, and you can find us down in sunny and exotic Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Tell me about DRM.

Barry Brian – DRM:

Well, we are a systems integrator that we have suddenly found out that we are really an OEM. Over the years, we started building a lot of more equipment. We used to just do software, but now we’re finding as we build more equipment that we’re really fitting in the OEM space a lot more than we are SI.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Was that a surprise?

Barry Brian – DRM:

It was a surprise. Rockwell Automation is the one that brought that to our attention and let us know because they moved us from the SI over to OEM network and it made a lot of sense and it also helped us do a better job of focusing our efforts so we could be better.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Wonderful. What are the biggest trends or challenges you’re seeing in the industry right now?

Barry Brian – DRM:

For us, the biggest trends are autonomous mobile robots. That is one of the neatest things that’s coming out. We’ve had opportunities to work with a couple of the AMR suppliers so far. They are getting a lot better AMRs out there. Software is getting better, the units are getting better, batteries are better. Everything’s better, they’re getting to where they’re just working really well for customers, they’re really liking them. And now there’s a lot of companies that are replacing their old systems that maybe are not working as good or starting to show signs of age with newer ones that are much better and they’re seeing a lot more advantages of getting data out of them, more tied into their ERP MES systems better, and better tied into the cloud. Any type of computing, data collection, anything they want to do is much better now with AMRs than they were before.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

I’m a bit familiar with AMRs, and I’m wondering, do you have to write custom software for that interface?

Barry Brian – DRM:

You can. Some do, some have their own, which every one of them has their own fleet manager that allows those cars to move around as they need to. But there’s also all the integration work that goes to tie that into their MES ERP system as well as to tie it into their machinery out on the floor that it may be connected with.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Very good. What technology innovations are you most excited about?

Barry Brian – DRM:

Well, of course OT, we thought that was something that was more of a buzzword than anything, and we’re seeing that more and more becoming real. Anytime we build a machine these days, we’re always looking for, even if the customer doesn’t want it, we’re looking for reasons why to be able to sell them the data collection so they don’t have to do it right now. They don’t have to put the effort into it, the PLC is already there, data collection’s already there, but with some slight modifications to the software, then it’s available. So we always think about that and we try to help our client realize that with the equipment they already have with slight modifications, you can get a lot more value add out of it into that IIOT segment.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Very cool. So here we are at the CSIA conference, we’re finishing up day one. Are there any insights or takeaways you’ve had from today or a particular session you’re looking forward to tomorrow?

Barry Brian – DRM:

Everything so far has been great, I’ve really enjoyed it. I think it looks to me like it’s a record crowd, it seems there’s a lot more people here this year. It seems like everybody has been more open even than usual to networking, I’ve seen that happening a lot. And the biggest takeaway that I’m going to say, I have had two or more folks that this is their first time here, they’re their first time attendees, and they have asked me why is there such an attitude here of folks who want to work together instead of wanting to compete? And I told them that I’ve been around CSIA for a long time, and that’s exactly what it was founded on because if we’re all better at what we do, we’re going to do a better job. The thing that hurts us integrators as much as anything is the integrator who does a poor job or doesn’t interact with the client the way they should, doesn’t provide what the client was wanting. They get a bad taste in their mouth. If we all do a better job and know how to do better or make connections to where two or three of us can work together to provide the great solution. That’s exactly what CSIA is all about.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

I agree. I did notice that there’ve been more first time attendees this year than in past years.

Barry Brian – DRM:

It looks like there has been.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Which is wonderful. We really need to grow this association, keep it fresh.

Barry Brian – DRM:

True.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Anything else you’d like to share?

Barry Brian – DRM:

Honestly, like I said, I just think this has been one of the best conferences yet. And I don’t know if it’s the location, if it’s the way that the conference has been run, if it’s the way that, or maybe it’s a combination of all that, but it just seems like this has been the best conference yet. I’ve seen more people engage. I’ve seen more people hang around. I’ve seen more people talk afterwards and not necessarily go back to their rooms than I’ve ever seen before. So that is one of the best things I think I’ve seen out of this. And everybody’s just really glad to be here. I’ve heard a lot of people say it’s like a reunion, and so that has been really nice too. And even some of the first timers almost feel that way because everybody’s made them feel so welcome to be here.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Oh, nice, yeah. I always call it my extended family reunion once a year. How can people connect with you?

Barry Brian – DRM:

Well, of course you can always look me up on LinkedIn. It’s Barry Bryan. My email address, if you happen to want to email me is barry.brian@drmcontrols.com. Look me up, I’m always glad to talk to anybody.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Thank you so much.

Barry Brian – DRM:

Thank you, Christine, as always.