Originally published on the National Instruments blog.

Our official mascot Nigel helps out and hypes us up, and now it’s time for him to make his public debut. He’ll be attending NIWeek, and we had a chance to sit down, talk with him, and let him share with the world who he really is.

Tell us about yourself.

BWAWK. SKWAAAAK. CAAAAAW

Oh, sorry, you’re a human, I keep forgetting you don’t speak Eaglish.

I’m Nigel the Eagle. That’s first name Nigel the, last name Eagle. I go by Nigel for short (though I was nameless until 2006 but that’s a whole ‘nother story). I have existed behind the scenes here at NI for a while, answering employee questions on my FAQ blog and showing up at company meetings, but now they want me to talk to people.

You may know me from that one episode of “Planet Earth” or the NI logo (yes, my wings are actually N-shaped; I’m self-conscious and don’t like to talk about it).

I enable scientists and engineers to battle programming foes and tackle the greatest engineering riddles of our day. Essentially, I am the Batman of Engineering, to understate things.

How does it feel to be the mascot for NI?

Personally, I enjoy it! The people are great, our products are awesome and I have a MASSIVE nest in a rent-controlled tree on our gorgeous tech campus. Honestly, they should probably be paying me just to live near them. It is truly is an honor. For them.

How do you show team spirit and unity for NI?

Well, I generally consider myself a hype guy. I dance, wave my arms, take pictures, and pose for pictures.

Don’t worry, I’ll give you plenty of time to recover after seeing that picture.

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I’ll also be at NIWeek this year, meeting some of you humans. (Don’t be shy if you see me, the camera loves me!)

Sometimes I get worn out doing this, and then I remember how much better your day gets after meeting me, and I push on.

My primary job is to inspire NIers to crush our competition with the best software-centric platform around. And by crush, I mean this:

Do you have a technical background?

Yes, absolutely. I studied for four years at the Fowl Institute of Technology, and got a Flyer’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. I graduated top of my class, with a world-record 12 AWPPM…that’s Average Words Pecked Per Minute, mind you. Pecking is slow business.

What is your favorite NI product?

Is this a question?

LabVIEW, duh. Wait, do you know what LabVIEW is? It’s a development environment to accelerate the productivity of engineers and scientists. With a graphical programming syntax that makes engineering systems simple, LabVIEW is unmatched in helping you reduce test times, deliver business insights based on collected data, and translate ideas into reality.

Copy and paste is a useful tactic when it takes forever to type (don’t even ask how I go about pressing ctrl+c).

I have a program I created in LabVIEW which uses systems of differential equations and large-scale statistical data to determine the best place to find worms each day. Humans use Google Maps or Waze (AHAHAHAHA I guess some people use Apple Maps too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯), and I use a custom-programmed LabVIEW system to know where I’m going.

Do you have anything else to say?

Yes! Come find me during NIWeek! We can meet up and talk about our favorite fish and our favorite programming practices. It’ll be great.

I’ll be even more excited if I spot you wearing one of the t-shirts we’re giving out at the Software Pavilion. You can learn more about that here.

Ok, I’m going to go sleep now, it took me two days to type this (voice-to-text is nice but Siri doesn’t know Eaglish).