You Shall Know His Velocity
By Marisa Demers
It took a decade for Mike Beckage to earn his engineering degree. It was worth it.
Michael Beckage (’87, engineering technology) helps people on the edge of catastrophe—drivers inches from a collision, soldiers under assault, and astronauts leaving Earth—stay safe. Beckage, co-founder and chief technology officer of Diversified Technical Systems (DTS), creates sensors, software and data acquisition systems that are used by organizations around the world for safety testing.
Designing devices that are as small as a cubic inch and as light as two ounces, yet can effectively measure velocity, vibration, acceleration, and more, is no easy task. Their creation is a testament to Beckage’s knowledge of engineering and science, as well as his tenacity and perseverance, qualities he developed at Cal Poly Pomona.
“You can be passionate about a goal, project or even your career, but your commitment isn’t truly tested until you face a difficult challenge,” Beckage says. “Even when you feel closer to failure than success, you must keep working. Cal Poly Pomona taught me that sticking with hard problems would pay off, and it did.”
From Go-Karts to Miniature Sensors
Growing up in Riverside County, Beckage loved to build things. His father, an airplane mechanic for the U.S. Air Force, nurtured that passion by teaching Beckage how to repair cars and audio equipment and assemble his own telescope and go-kart. As much as Beckage’s father and mother supported his dream of attending an engineering school, they did not have the money to finance it. If Beckage wanted a degree, he would have to pay for it himself.
And he did. He worked 30 to 40 hours a week as an electronics technician and later as a test engineer for Mobility Systems, where he collected and analyzed vehicle crash data. At the same time, he was a College of Engineering student with a solid B-plus grade point average. This was a time of sleep deprivation, studying and driving countless miles on the 60 Freeway. It took Beckage a decade—three years at Riverside City College and seven at Cal Poly Pomona—before he walked across the commencement stage to receive his diploma.
“I never doubted I would earn my degree, I just had a different timeline,” Beckage says. He and his sister Donna were the first in their family to earn a college degree. “From my experience, those who had to work really hard to pay their tuition and keep their grades up found a lot of success after graduation.”
By being both a student and a worker, Beckage immediately saw the value of his coursework in the real world. The projects he worked on, and even the circuits he built in the lab, could be used at his job. “These hands-on learning experiences offered me a depth of knowledge one would expect from a master’s program,” he says.
Terminal Velocity
In the mid-2030s, Martian rocks will land on Earth for the first time in human history. As these specimens, encased in a canister, free fall into our atmosphere at speeds of 100 mph, JPL and NASA engineers must ensure their safe landing. To accomplish this task, they are using DTS’s data acquisition systems to record vital information, such as stress and strain.
DTS devices are also embedded in vehicles undergoing crash testing and in the helmets of soldiers and football players who are at risk for traumatic brain injuries. And DTS technology is showing NASA engineers how blasting off from Artemis II, which is equipped with the most powerful rocket in the world, will affect astronauts' heads, necks, and spines.
A football field. A battlefield. The Milky Way. The thrill of imagining new instrumentation and applications is why Beckage launched DTS in 1990 with Tim Kippen (’89, engineering technology) and Steve Pruitt.
“We were three energetic engineers who wanted to do cool design work and figure out a way to get paid for it,” Beckage says.
In the beginning, the trio kept their day jobs. Their fledging enterprise was simply an outlet for their passion and creativity. Soon, prospective clients took notice. Their continuous ability to innovate and build smaller yet more powerful products keep them at the forefront of their industry.
“I know it sounds corny, but I love Cal Poly Pomona. Being a student there was truly a life-changing experience. I want to help any way I can.” - Mike Beckage ('87, engineering technology), CTO and co-founder for DTS (Diversified Technical Systems, Inc.)
Unlocking Dreams
Today, Beckage is a successful, self-made entrepreneur. The years he lived as a struggling student, though, remain vivid in his memory and he knows that many Cal Poly Pomona students face the same circumstances now. As he transitions to part-time work at DTS, Beckage is ready to step up his commitment to his alma mater.
“I know it sounds corny, but I love Cal Poly Pomona,” Beckage says. “Being a student there was truly a life-changing experience. I want to help any way I can.”
Currently, Beckage is chair of the Dean’s Leadership Board, a small group of alumni and industry leaders that advise the dean and ensure the college keeps up with industry needs. He also looks for opportunities to meet with engineering majors. Beckage often shares his 10-year college journey with those who are on the cusp of dropping out. He guides many more on their professional development skills in “Stuff They Didn’t Teach You,” a workshop series he and others on the Dean’s Leadership Board conceived.
Recognizing that attending college poses more of a financial strain today than in the 1980s, Beckage and his wife Bridget Spanier have established several scholarship funds in the colleges of Engineering and Education and Integrative Studies. In monetary terms, he and his wife have donated over $1 million to the university.
“Working and being a college student is not an easy path to take,” Beckage says. “If there is anything Bridget and I can do to offer students more comfort and less stress, we will absolutely do it. We want them to know that somebody cares about them.”
Caption for photo above: DTS company photos in 2001 (top) and 2023 (bottom). Since the company's founding in 1990, DTS measurement systems have been used by NASA, Toyota, SpaceX and much more.