A legacy of industrial technology excellence: UTSI International turns 40

Cheers to 40 Years

Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

As UTSI International celebrates its 40th anniversary, president and CEO Shaun Six reflects on the company's history, achievements, and exciting future.

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In March 1985, Dan Nagala and a few friends took a risk, leaving their full-time jobs to pursue their passion and start their own company.

They founded UTSI International amidst groundbreaking advancements in Industrial Control Systems and SCADA technology, revolutionizing remote operations for critical infrastructure. From the start, UTSI has been at the forefront of OT innovation and integration — a legacy we proudly carry forward today.

The legacy of Dan Nagala

Dan Nagala’s 50-plus-year career is too vast to cover every accomplishment, but if you’ve ever heard the phrase “Houston, we have a problem” in a movie, those screens in the control room and the logic causing the “blinky lights” to alert the operators, you’ve seen some of his work. Dan and his team ultimately paved the way for field communications to detect and communicate leaks on pipelines and give operators in remote locations situational awareness, expanding their ability to safely monitor and control their operations.

This capability was requested early on in the first pipeline control rooms, leading to UTSI’s first check-in 1985 (which I proudly have framed on my bookshelf). The protocols to communicate and do advanced calculations — which many would be tempted to call AI today — for the purpose of monitoring and control, was created from this group of enthusiasts who open sourced it and allowed it to proliferate, leading to over 80 percent of all critical infrastructure in the world now utilizing a variant thereof.

Given the novelty of the technology and the experience of UTSI, having implemented control systems and automation for pipelines in over 22 countries, Dan was asked to collaborate with industry experts, creating the first API leak detection and control room management standards for the American Petroleum Institute. These would later become regulation under PHMSA, DoT, and TSA, placing UTSI as the go-to experts in compliance in addition to their traditional expertise.

UTSI has delivered for the world’s largest infrastructure owners in multiple critical infrastructure sectors, like mining, water/wastewater, oil and gas, green energy, transportation authorities, etc. We have also done AI and cybersecurity, in addition to SCADA and ICS work for the DoD and DoE.

Strength in partners

I joined UTSI in 2022 as vice president, working under Dan, with the goal of gradually stepping into leadership. In 2023, I became CEO, president, and majority shareholder. While no one can truly fill Dan’s shoes alone, we’ve focused on strengthening our team, partnerships, and capabilities to continue UTSI’s legacy of excellence.

One of our first strategic partnerships was with Tory Tech, a leading API-compliant Control Room Management tool. UTSI has worked as integrators with Tory Tech for years and Dan worked as a CRM compliance advisor for them in the U.S. while they were setting up their headquarters in Houston. In 2024 we made it an official partnership, becoming a preferred integrator and focusing our team on training and development in the MaCRoM (Master Control Room Management) tool.

We've also made significant investments in our OT cybersecurity capabilities, expanding our team and partnering with industry leaders like Dennis Parker, Derrik Oates, Nozomi Networks, Fortinet, and Schneider Electric. These strategic moves ensure we deliver top-tier expertise, products, and solutions to better serve our customers.

Our partnership with ThreatGEN and the utilization of their AI-driven “AutoTableTop” tool not only utilizes our experience with TSA guidelines, but adds an element of reality that the traditional methods are lacking, making these engagements more interactive and beneficial for operators who are required to participate annually.

In 2024, UTSI also invested heavily in AI and Data Science by acquiring Houston-based AI company Pandata Tech and leveraging their Data-Quality-Methodology (DQM), Leak Geek, and time-series data science expertise to solve industry specific problems.

Moving up – in and around Houston

Building on our recent successes, we strategically relocated our office to the Netrality building (1301 Fannin St.), bringing us closer to clients and partners, while getting access to a Tier 3 Data Center with an uninterrupted 40-year power record.

Netrality is a SOC2-compliant facility with seven points of detection from the street to our server, including biometric screening. Our very own Roberto deLeon has architected our upgraded servers using the Purdue model as a basis of design while leveraging our relationship with Fortinet to standardize our hardware and software to the highest standards. We practice what we preach — every architecture, framework, and hardware recommendation we make is not just advised but actively implemented within our own operations.

Our investment in this space includes increasing our “SCADA R&D Lab” to play with toys from vendors, testing them out in our environment before we recommend and advise them to our clients and partners. Currently we’re working on LLMs for OT, building our own “DANN2.0” for use in-house. DANN is an homage to Dan Nagala (and, for the nerds, stands for Dan Artificial Neural Network), which we started in 2022 when I realized that knowledge capture is an industry wide epidemic and we need to be ready to integrate for our clients in a safe and local way at scale, in the OT environment.

Additionally, having come from a startup before joining UTSI, I wanted to get us closer to the heart of innovation, so we’ve added additional office space at The Cannon downtown. While there are many tech hubs around Houston, and we are proud to work with and partner with companies from Greentown Labs and the Ion, to name a few, we’ve found that The Cannon community is incredibly active and innovative, with experience in industrial use-cases.

Houston is set to become the Energy Transition capital, leading in hydrogen, carbon capture, and repurposing. With a 5:1 ratio of engineers leaving the industry and an average age over 60, we must innovate. The solution lies in combining a secure, cloud-free "ChatGPT for OT" with digital twins. Bringing the field to engineers is essential. We've partnered with a satellite constellation for asset imaging and U.K.-based Mods Solutions to leverage their CFIHOS-driven platform for intelligent digital twins — more on that partnership soon!

And we will need to leverage enhanced automation tools and actively monitor control networks to ensure security and respond quickly to issues, which is why we’ve partnered with Nozomi Networks.

Shaping the future

Although Dan has semi-retired to his cabin in Montana, he continues to do “the fun stuff” that brings him joy, such as conducting research for PRCI and assisting long-time clients. He also has been a mentor and advisor to me since I started at UTSI three years ago. I’m grateful for him and the group of industry experts he gathered around him to make UTSI such a well-known systems integrator and OT advisor for the world’s largest asset owners.

Our group of experts are active in the industry and will be speaking at events throughout the year, with a presence at Entellec, Level Zero, and participating at this year's API Cybernetics and PSIGs biannual conferences. We proudly serve on the BCarbon advisory board and GHPs Energy Committee.

Lastly, we have one request: We see a critical need for H2 and supercritical CO2 studies to develop simulation models, response plans, and leak detection best practices. These gases differ from those covered in existing standards. If you know anyone interested in funding or contributing, we’re collaborating with industry partners to secure support.

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Texas still ranks as No. 1 in U.S. for inbound moves, but growth dips

by the numbers

Texas continues to be the country’s No. 1 magnet for newcomers from other states, giving a boost to the state’s economy. However, Texas’ appeal weakened in 2024 compared with the previous year, due in large part to spiking home prices.

An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by self-storage platform StorageCafe shows Texas saw net interstate migration of 76,000 people in 2024. Texas’ net interstate migration dropped nearly 50 percent from 2023, according to the analysis. Net migration refers to the number of incoming residents minus the number of outgoing residents.

California remained the top source of newcomers for Texas, sending nearly 77,000 residents to the Lone Star State in 2024, the analysis says. Florida ranked second, followed by New York, Colorado and Illinois.

“These trends reveal Texas’ continued pull from both high-cost coastal markets and other large Sun Belt states, resulting in a mix of affordability-driven and job-driven relocation,” StorageCafe says.

Putting a damper on the influx of new residents: a roughly 124 percent surge in Texas home prices over the past decade, according to StorageCafe.

“While the state remains significantly more affordable than California, its top feeder state, the once-wide pricing gap has narrowed,” says StorageCafe. “For many movers, Texas is still a relative bargain, but no longer an undisputed one.”

Nonetheless, Texas keeps attracting young, highly educated people, which bodes well for the state’s long-term economic outlook, StorageCafe says. More than half of new arrivals to Texas in 2024 held at least a bachelor’s degree, and the age of newcomers averaged 32.

Where are most of these young, highly educated newcomers settling?

Lloyd Potter, former Texas state demographer, tells StorageCafe that population growth in Texas is happening most rapidly in suburban “ring counties” at the expense of slowing growth in urban cores. Ring counties are on the outskirts of major metro areas.

“Many people are moving from urban cores to suburban rings seeking lower costs, newer housing, better schools, and more space,” Potter says. “Typically, a move to a suburban county will be within commuting or hybrid‑commuting distance of major metro economies.”

Artemis II makes historic call to space station with help from Houston Mission Control

History in the making

Still aglow from their triumphant lunar flyby, the Artemis II astronauts made more history Tuesday, April 7: calling their friends aboard the International Space Station hundreds of thousands of miles away as they headed home from the moon.

It was the first moonship-to-spaceship radio linkup ever. NASA's Apollo crews had no off-the-planet company back in the 1960s and 1970s, the last time humanity set sail for deep space.

"We have been waiting for this like you can’t imagine,” Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman called out.

For Christina Koch on Artemis II and Jessica Meir aboard the space station, it marked a joyous space reunion despite being 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) apart. The two teamed up for the world's first all-female spacewalk in 2019 outside the orbiting lab.

Koch told her “astro-sister” that she'd hoped to meet up with her again in space “but I never thought it would be like this — it's amazing.”

“I'm so happy that we are back in space together,” Meir replied, “even if we are a few miles apart.”

Houston's Mission Control arranged the cosmic chitchat between the four lunar travelers and the space station's three NASA and one French residents.

Koch described being awe-struck by not just the beauty of Earth, “but how much blackness there was around it.”

“It just made it even more special. It truly emphasized how alike we are, how the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive,” she told the space station crew. “The specialness and preciousness of that really is emphasized” when viewing the home planet from the moon.

By late Tuesday afternoon, the Artemis II astronauts had beamed back more than 50 gigabytes' worth of pictures and other data from the previous day's lunar rendezvous, which set a new distance record for humanity. The highlight: an Earthset photo reminiscent of Apollo 8's Earthrise shot from 1968.

"While they are inspirational and, I think, allow all of us to really feel a little bit of what they were feeling, there's also a lot of science hidden inside of those images," said Mission Control's lead lunar scientist Kelsey Young. “The conversations and the science lessons learned are just beginning."

During a debriefing with Young, the astronauts recounted how they spotted a cascade of pinpricks of light on the lunar surface from impacting cosmic debris. The flashes lasted mere milliseconds and coincided by chance with Monday evening's total solar eclipse.

Young said it was too soon to know whether the crew witnessed an actual meteor shower or more random, run-of-the-mill micrometeoroid hits. Either way, there were “audible screams of delight” in the science operations center, she said.

Koch described being awe-struck by not just the beauty of Earth, “but how much blackness there was around it.”

“It just made it even more special. It truly emphasized how alike we are, how the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive,” she told the space station crew. “The specialness and preciousness of that really is emphasized” when viewing the home planet from the moon.

The first lunar explorers since Apollo 17 in 1972, Wiseman and his crew are aiming for a splashdown off the San Diego coast on Friday to wrap up the nearly 10-day test flight. The recovery ship USS John P. Murtha left port Tuesday for the target zone.

It sets the stage for next year's Artemis III, a lunar lander docking demo in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV will follow in 2028 with two astronauts attempting to land near the lunar south pole.

As for the Orion capsule’s pesky potty, Mission Control assured the astronauts that no maintenance was required Tuesday. The toilet has been on-and-off limits to the crew ever since last week’s launch, prompting them to rely on a backup bag-and-funnel system for urinating.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told the crew following the lunar flyby Monday night: “We definitely have to fix some of the plumbing” ahead of the next Artemis mission. Engineers suspect a clogged filter in the overboard flushing system.

Aside from the toilet and other relatively minor matters, the mission has gone well, Isaacman noted at a news conference Tuesday, “but I'll breathe easier when we get through reentry and everybody's under chutes and in the water.”

AI-powered Houston startup helps restaurants boost customer loyalty

order up

It’s no secret that restaurant trends move fast and margins run thin. And with the proliferation of platforms like Uber Eats, DoorDash and Easy Cater, customer loyalty is fleeting.

The solution?

How about an AI-powered restaurant technology platform that helps restaurant brands cut back on third-party platforms in favor of driving direct discovery, conversion and loyalty?

Enter Saivory. Founded in 2025 by Stephen Klein, a software investor, and Fajita Pete’s restaurateur Hugh Guill, the Houston-based startup aims to help eateries better understand and activate guest behavior across digital channels as AI increasingly reshapes how consumers discover and engage with brands.

In less than a year, Saivory has partnered with Shipley Do-Nuts and Fajita Pete’s to bring AI-powered ordering to life.

“With Saivory, we were able to answer the question of, ‘what if the ordering process could be reduced to a single step, where customers simply tell us what they want and AI takes care of the rest?’” Klein tells InnovationMap.

The Houston-based startup made such an immediate impact that it was selected as a semi-finalist during Start-Up Alley at MURTEC, the restaurant industry’s leading technology conference, which took place last month in Las Vegas.

“Houston is a great hub for technology innovation, and we were proud to represent the city at MURTEC this year,” says Klein. “We didn’t win, but we were able to talk about some of the work that we have existing in the market for clients right now and a little bit about what we’re working on in the future.”

In the current restaurant technology ecosystem, the third-party aggregators own the customer attention that brings volume to restaurants, while also taking big commissions and having control over the end relationships with the customer.

That can often make it difficult for restaurants to grow loyalty and repeat business from customers. Saivory aims to level the playing field for restaurants, helping them stay more connected to their customers.

Take Saivory’s recent application with Shipley’s Do-Nuts, for example.

Saivory powered the donut giant’s AI-ordering and launched Shipley's website and mobile app to support its over 300 locations in Texas alone.

Shipley’s new AI-powered assistant helps users create personalized order recommendations based on individual or group preferences. And unlike standard chatbox features, the new assistant makes custom recommendations based on multiple customer factors, including budgetary habits, individual flavor preferences and order size. It can also be used for large catering orders.

“They're seeing more traffic to the site and they're seeing when customers use our AI-enabled flows,” Klein says. “And they're seeing higher basket sizes, bigger tickets, by about 25 percent.”

Klein says Saivory’s technology helps strengthen first-party digital relationships, reduce friction and cart abandonment, improve average order value, and delivers personalized, efficient experiences.

“It’s a win-win: the customer gets the right order quickly, while the restaurant gets a bigger margin,” he adds.

Additionally, the technology makes it easier for restaurants to share rewards, loyalty and discounts, ultimately growing more direct traffic and making restaurants less reliant on third-party delivery apps.

Next up for Saivory is adding new components to its platform to enhance the relationship between restaurant and customer, as well as technology around making it easier for restaurants to get found on Google.

“A lot of people are still searching for the best donuts near me,” Klein says. “Or what’s the best Mexican food near me? Customers will increasingly move to AI, where they’re going to ask where they should eat dinner and expect it to just order them dinner. They will eventually expect the technology to know how to do that. So that’s what we’re driving at.”

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