Tag: Business

3 Reasons You Need Our Academic Site License

Originally published on the official National Instruments Blog.

Between the rising expenses of classes, textbooks, and mandatory tech, students and university programs need all the help they can get. Our Academic Site License (ASL) lets your academic institution partner with us to provide students, professors, and researchers with access to software, learning materials, and online courses.

Real World Experience

An ASL gives students access to tactile experiences that build their intrinsic engineering knowledge. Just ask Naval Academy professor John Roth.

His partnership with us provided his students with knowledge and hands-on experience that wouldn’t be possible without an ASL.

One project in particular involved launching a weather balloon, collaboratively built by the students. His project used the strongest benefits of an ASL, providing students with hands-on application that left them a real sense of accomplishment.

See for yourself: 

Better use of lab time

More experimentation; less set up. Installing our software on lab computers andstudent’s laptops allows pre-lab assignments or code up experiments to be completed when it works best for students.

For Roth, this meant assigning work outside class and allowing students to focus on the application in the lab. Building up familiarity and proficiency with the platform ahead of time let students focus on more demanding challenges in the lab, producing higher quality projects by the end of the semester.

Time efficiency through central IT management
Managing multiple single seat licenses, with individual start and end dates, varying access toolkits and modules, and separate costs puts a large burden on your IT department.

Bringing your licensing maintenance and management together under a single roof saves significant IT manpower. Our licensing software lets you integrate with industry standard license managers to provide one central place to maintain, manage and distribute licenses to your end users.

ASL owners also get access to the majority of LabVIEW toolkits and modules, as well as all previous versions. This lowers compatibility conflicts with older systems and streamlines collaboration with other NI software users inside and outside your university.

Success at a fraction of the full cost

Suited to teaching, research or student design, the software included in the ASL would cost more than ten time as much if purchased as individual licenses. Unhindered access to the significant majority of our software lets you build any application for a single, low price.

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With his ASL, Professor Roth guaranteed access to specialized tools like LabVIEW Communications, specifically for prototyping wireless systems.

When the balloon launched required students out on the road to troubleshoot and provide on-the-go analysis from a chase vehicle using HAM Radio and USRP. None of this would have been possible without taking LabVIEW outside the laboratory.

Every student. Every lab. Every researcher.

An Academic Site License is a student, instructor, and researcher’s best path to using our software.

Pursue a site license at your academic institution >>

Already have an ASL? Visit the Courseware Portal to ensure you have the latest version of all the software and take advantage of the latest courseware available.

Announcing: ATE Core Configurations

Originally published on the National Instruments blog.

We’re excited to announce ATE Core Configurations, providing mechanical, safety, and power infrastructure – all in one.

The problem for test organizations

Test orgs often employ standardization to ensure high product quality at increasingly low costs. Standardization optimizes the cost and unique value of a company, in an era of converged devices.

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Standardization requires test organizations to find:

  • A common set of instruments for stimulating and measuring signals from their device
  • Safety infrastructure that adheres to global standards
  • Power infrastructure that can receive power in any grid
  • Test executive for scripting measurements and reporting
  • Robust mechanical infrastructure

In addition, companies need to find the right vendors to globally support their systems and manage the lifecycle of each component.

Our solution: ATE Core Configurations

ATE Core Configurations help you lower your total cost of designing, procuring, owning, deploying, and maintaining test systems!

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Instead of forcing the you to track down hundreds of components from a slew of vendors, our ATE Core Configurations provide mechanical, safety, and power infrastructure all in one. They’re complemented by our industry-leading modular PXI hardware (more than 600 modules from DC to mmWave) and powered by our complete software portfolio, led by TestStand and LabVIEW.

You can leverage ATE Core Configurations as the platform for your standardization efforts. They give you the opportunity to customize as needed for each geography, department, or product line within your company.

How you can benefit from ATE Core Configurations

Our advisors put the convenience of customization in your hands and our manufacturing team will factory-install all equipment as you specify. Plus, the preinstalled software on the system controller will save valuable time.

After assembled, we package ATE Core Configurations in ruggedized shipping containers and deliver to your doorstep with the fast lead times you’ve come to expect from us. And if you need a turn-key system delivered and maintained, our global network of Alliance Partners is standing by to meet your needs!

Check out our new ATE Core Configurations >>>

Austin Outdoor Industry Booms

Many business owners in the growing outdoor industry are choosing Austin to expand and open new businesses due to its location and enthusiastic outdoor- loving communities.

A panel last Tuesday brought together a group of industry executives downtown to discuss Austin’s prosperity in the area. The group included the leaders of Yeti Coolers, who make high-quality steel coolers and cups, and Austin B-Cycle, public bicycle stations. They discussed what makes Austin a great place for the outdoor products business, and listed the city’s climate, culture, and age among its benefits.

“When you’re in the outdoor space you have the ability to build an experience as opposed to a brand,” said Ravi Parikh, co-founder and CEO of RoverPass, an Austin-based camping mobile app.

In recent years, America’s entire outdoor recreation economy has shown strong signs of growth and prosperity. Outdoor retailer REI reported record profits last year, and their competitor Cabela’s shows a five-year increase in profits, according to marketwatch.com. The Outdoor Industry Association reports $646 billion in yearly outdoor recreation spending.

Corey Maynard, vice president of Yeti Coolers, explained the industry’s appeal through his personal experience in the field.

“Being in an environment where people love and believe in what they are doing is pretty special and unique to the outdoor space,” Maynard said.

The outdoor space has many appeals to companies, among them the passion they inspire within their customers. With the opportunity to create such a uniquely positive experience, businesses are creating brand ambassadors. Brand ambassadors are customers who have such a strong love for a company that they advertise the products to the people around them.

However, reliance on brand ambassadors doesn’t crowd out online advertisement. Peter Li, CEO of Atlas Wearables, an Austin-based fitness electronics company, merges online advertisement with their brand ambassadors.

“Our experience is a little bit of a different experience because it’s digital,” Li said. “This company can lead and grow the community through online and social media.”

Not all companies based in Austin in the outdoor industry have experienced

immediate growth. Investors have bases in larger cities and aim their spending toward larger markets. Parikh addressed that most of the capital is located on the West Coast.

Li and Parikh both experienced significant difficulties finding funding. Parikh said Austin is “a smaller market compared to San Francisco and New York. Funding is difficult, but requires more hustle.”

One of the most important elements of these companies is their location in Austin. The panelists listed the location, the community, and the culture as benefits of basing their business in Austin.

The city has not only allowed the growth of the outdoor industry, but cultivated it as well. Elliott McFadden, CEO and founder of Austin B-Cycle, listed Austin’s “laid back culture,” the fact that it’s a pretty location and the University of Texas. Austin B-Cycle, a private company, partnered with the City of Austin to allow citizens rent bicycles for a short period of time.

Ally Davidson, CEO of Camp Gladiator, noted the “great attitude and accepting culture” of Austinites as the reason for the city’s outdoor development. When asked for his opinion, Mark, a San Diego native who attended the panel, said he believes the city has “a lot of passion. Really what it takes.”

All of the executives who attended the panel remain confident about the future of Austin’s outdoor industry, but unsure where it will go.

“Innovation comes from something that is broken,” Davidson said. “24 Hour Fitness, Lifetime Fitness is boring. Whoever can disrupt this, look out for them.”