Echoes

In a career field dominated by sophisticated, high-end technology, Steve Darbin puts people first.
    As vice president of Applied Science Fiction (ASF), Darbin finds his reward in people. “The technology is interesting, but working with people is what I really like,” said the 1979 electrical engineering graduate and one of this year’s Distinguished Young Alumni.
    Applied Science Fiction’s hiring requirements bear out Darbin’s people-first attitude. “The three things we look for in a hire are intelligence, integrity, and ability to work in a team,” Darbin said. “Skills are details. We can teach details. It’s really more attitude than what you know.”
    Darbin’s attitude has been making things happen at Applied Science Fiction for two years. The company creates, licenses and brands imaging technologies. A fast-growing, high-tech company, Applied Science Fiction has developed a technology called Digital ICE (Image Correction Enhancement). That product can help tackle image scanning problems such as dust, fingerprints and scratches.
    Darbin has been instrumental in developing technology that enables direct digitizing of 35mm film without using conventional wet-film processing.
    “We have technology that’s mostly ideas,” Darbin said. “We take imaging problems people have and solve them. We don’t have fear. We’ll try things people tried 10 years ago and said couldn’t be done. New technologies are making that approach possible.”
    While Darbin’s workaday world includes topics such as digitizing, scanner, color dyes, and algorithms, people remain at the core of his business philosophy.
“I have a fascination with images and color and the way they impact people emotionally,” Darbin said. “The printed word made the world smaller. Images will make it even smaller. Images are so much of what we are.”
    Because people are the focus of his business, Darbin believes it necessary for him to be a generalist. “It’s not enough to be technically excellent. That won’t equate to commercial success. You must be well-rounded.”
    “I didn’t graduate that way. I was pretty much a hard core double E (electrical engineering). When I left Rose-Hulman, I thought I wanted to build audio equipment and then maybe get a Ph.D. and teach.”
    Upon graduation, Darbin went to work for Texas Instruments (TI), where he designed improvements for analog control circuits used in a variety of military equipment.
    After receiving advanced engineering degrees from Stanford University in 1981 and 1982, Darbin continued to apply his skills in microwaves at Texas Instruments. He then moved into infrared imaging, where he says he was “infected” with the imaging disease. Part of his work focused on the “Star Wars” project that led to a successful test intercept and destruction of an unarmed nuclear warhead. After working on defense projects, Darbin moved to TI’s electrophotographic printing operations.
    In 1997, Darbin became president of Unified Design Automation in Austin, Texas. Later that year, a call from venture capitalists led to Darbin becoming vice president for digital film processor development for ASF.
    Although 20 years out of Rose-Hulman, Darbin recounts a variety of faculty who made an impact on him. He cites Ralph Grimaldi, Pat Brophy, Keith Hoover, Charlie Rogers, R.D. Hill and Herman Moench. “Professor Moench was a funky, cool looking guy who would talk to anybody. He gave me the feeling engineers could have fun.”
    As the fun continues in Darbin’s career, he makes an effort to pay attention to his personal life. He said his biggest challenge was “learning how to pay attention to my private life while having a career. There was a 15-month period I worked without a day off, including holidays and birthdays. That created problems and I made a commitment not to do that anymore. I strive for balance in my life.”
    Darbin and his wife, Kathryn, have two daughters, Carolyn and Laura. He attends their sporting events, and they are helping him build a home theater that allows him to continue his interest in audio. He also is a backpacker.
— by Bryan Taylor