In 2006, when he received his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from the Department of Engineering Technology (TECH) in NIU’s College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (CEET), Dan Carlock was “done” academically.
Or so he thought.
In 2020, aided by his employer’s reimbursement for pursuing a master’s degree in Industrial Management and Technology, he ventured back to CEET/TECH. Still, it was with some reluctance. He questioned how it would fit in with his responsibilities as a husband, father and full-time employee of Felsomat USA. He’s Lead Mechanical Engineer at the firm’s Schaumburg headquarters. He joined Felsomat in 2008.
Carlock stands outside Felsomat USA’s Schaumburg facility.
“It was a difficult decision to make, to take on a master’s degree. I was concerned school would be more of a burden than I could have imagined,” he recalled. “But my company had initiated a reimbursement program and I figured I’d take advantage of it, one class per semester.”
Carlock’s classes were exclusively online, meeting usually on Saturday mornings. To avoid potential distractions at home, he would often make the seven-mile drive from his Maple Park home to virtually attend those sessions in one of his favorite spots, NIU’s Founders Memorial Library.
`You Don’t Feel Like a Number’
It didn’t take long for Carlock to see the value of his second stint as a Huskie student.
“They pushed you, but you really get that small-school experience at NIU,” Carlock said. “That’s why I originally picked NIU for my bachelor’s degree. They give you a Z number when you start, but after that you’re a human at NIU—you don’t feel like a number.”
When he began his grad studies, he didn’t understand management theory in detail. Along the way, he has come to see “there’s a lot more to managing or leading than what you find in books.”
“That’s what sets NIU apart,” he added. “Every class, it wasn’t just what was in the text. All the faculty, they’re amazing people. They really, really care about the students and are very helpful. You knew you were going to walk away with something more than what’s in the textbooks.”
Professor Shanthi Muthuswamy, who taught two of Carlock’s courses, cited his disciplined time management and consistent focus. His “voracious appetite for learning,” as she put it, has netted comprehensive understanding that helps him tackle problems at his job.
“He absorbed theoretical principles like a sponge, eagerly putting them to the test in real-world scenarios,” she added. “His seamless application of skills underscores his commitment to excellence and innovation in his field.”
Carlock described Muthuswamy as bringing “a lot of compassion and a lot of good listening capabilities” to her work. “What made her classes outstanding was she pushes you very hard to understand the science and the math. For me, that was a challenge to get through each one of her courses.”
“As an engineer for about 15 years then, there were certain things, like the ins and outs of management, that I didn’t understand,” he said. “Courses like Industrial Systems Management, Industrial Project Management and Research in Industry and Technology were groundbreaking. They taught me how to learn as an individual in a new kind of way; those classes drill down to the most basic levels of learning and thinking. It’s refined me so much as a professional.”
The classes helped him take on additional responsibility developing a technology department for his company as it seeks to expand its ability to serve the U.S. automotive market. In that role, Carlock is learning about clamping technology, cutting-tool technology and machine processes that are integral to that market. He’s wielding the tools he picked up at NIU to wage effective research.
“A lot of what I’m learning is trade secrets that the competition won’t share. I’m finding ways to research this information, so that I can talk to my colleagues in Germany and ask legitimate questions. Their expectation is I’ve done some research, and then they bring me to the next level.”
Learning People Skills
In addition to the technical knowledge he gained, Carlock is grateful for the people skills that he’s learned.
Carlock on his ’24 commencement day.
“I really want to use my degree to make whatever I’m doing better. There’s always a reason for how people respond to a situation. Sometimes, people are quick to lose their cool—we’re dealing with solutions that you cannot see with the human eye,” Carlock said. “The question is how do we move forward? It’s taught me how to not worry about the little things: How do you navigate out of that situation? How do you bring the planets back into alignment and keep moving forward for a common goal?”
Through his Total Quality Management course, Carlock learned the importance of “treating suppliers just like they were a customer, and understand they have a lot of risk too in working with you.”
Now that he’s attained his master’s, Carlock isn’t resting on those laurels, maintaining a database of every assignment he completed because “you never know when you’re going to need to go back to it,” he said. “I wasn’t just getting a degree—I was gathering the information to build myself a how-to library.”
With NIU roots that go back to 2003—as a sophomore, he met his wife, Sara (Kummer) Carlock when they lived in Stevenson Towers—Carlock feels a deeper affinity to the Huskie family.
Dan, Sara and their son, Colin James, in 2019.
That feeling has translated into service: he’s a member of the Manufacturing Engineering Technology Industrial Advisory Board, a body composed of faculty, alumni and industry representatives that provides guidance to the Department of Engineering Technology on its Program Educational Objectives. He was also a judge for Senior Design Project presentations and the student representative on the three-member Grade Appeal Board.
Reflecting on his M.S. in Industrial Management and Technology, Carlock noted that many firms would benefit from applying the management and leadership principles that he learned through the program.
“The degree is much like a mechanic’s toolbox for a manager – this degree gives graduates the tools needed to be successful as both a manager and a leader,” he said. “I will be forever grateful for what I have learned at NIU.”
“A speaker said something at our commencement that stuck with me: We use our degree to make better decisions,” Carlock concluded. “I’ve learned so much in the process of earning my master’s degree but maybe the most important thing is it’s helped me understand how to be better to people.”
