Skip to content
Tags

NIWeek 2012 Recommended Sessions

by Brian on July 31, 2012

That terrified look on our faces is the realization that NIWeek is only a few days away.  Ready or not, here we come!!!

There are soooo many great sessions.  If you’re not coming to NIWeek, you’re missing the year’s best event for learning about LabVIEW.  Come prepared to take a bunch of notes, network with a bunch of really smart people, and learn about a bunch of new technology.

First, let’s talk about the important stuff…

Food and Drink

If you’re in town early, there’s a Sunday (August 5) informal get together at the Gingerman Pub.  It’s near 3rd and Lavaca, just a few blocks from the convention center.  Since it’s informal, there’s no official start time; people just show up in the evening when they get into Austin.  I’ll be there by 8 or 9 PM or so.

Tuesday night is the annual LAVA barbecue.  This is also a non-conference event.  (In other words, you have to pay separately.  Click the link to register.)  All the cool kids will be there.

Wednesday night is the main NIWeek conference party at the Moody Theater (where Austin City Limits is filmed).  It’ll be a fun, crazy dance party.

Keynotes

The keynotes each morning are a great way to see an overview of all of the technology we’re introducing.  Here are a few highlights…

TUESDAY, AUGUST 7
Eric Starkloff, Vice President of Product Marketing for Test and Industrial Embedded

Watch Eric Starkloff and NI engineers unveil the latest products, technologies, and customer applications demonstrating graphical system design in cutting-edge measurement and control systems.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8
Jeff Kodosky, Cofounder and Business and Technology Fellow

Hear from Jeff Kodosky, the coinventor and “father” of LabVIEW, as he shares fundamental programming concepts vital to meeting the most demanding application challenges during the next 25 years of graphical system design.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 9
Dr. Thomas R. Kurfess, Assistant Director for Advanced Manufacturing for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Professor and BMW Endowed Chair of Manufacturing at Clemson University

Listen as Dr. Thomas Kurfess talks about his work with scientists and policymakers in various executive branch agencies that support advanced manufacturing, such as the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Department of Defense.

Industry Summits

There are a half dozen industry summits on a variety of topics, including Aerospace/Defense, Big Physics, and Energy Technology.  One of my favorites is…

Robotics and Autonomous Vehicles Summit
This summit unites the world’s top roboticists, researchers, design engineers, and domain experts working on robotics applications. With in-depth technical sessions and corresponding live demonstrations at the Robotics Pavilion on the expo floor, you can learn how to apply the latest technology from real-time devices, field programmable gate arrays, and graphical and textual programming to design robotics systems faster than your peers.

We’ll have a bunch of cool robots on the expo floor and in the keynotes, and several technical sessions.

Planet NI Special Event

Planet NI is a National Instruments initiative for emerging countries. We’re having a special event with polar explorer Robert Swan…

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8

Robert Swan, Explorer

Nurturing Innovation in Emerging Countries: Reducing Social Disparity through Technology

Although emerging countries account for 75 percent of the world’s population and 30 percent of the world’s economy, thousands of engineering students and professionals in these countries have little to no access to PCs, the Internet, instrumentation, or software tools.
Through the Planet NI program, National Instruments is working to provide access to graphical system design technologies for innovators in emerging countries. These entrepreneurs can then develop technology-based companies that provide solutions for solving local economic, social, and environmental challenges.
In this forum, you can hear directly from the world’s top motivational speaker, environmentalist and global leader Robert Swan, as well as small and medium enterprise (SME) business owners, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and educators from countries such as Africa, Latin America, Arabia, India, and South East Asia. You can learn how access to technology is providing job opportunities, reducing social disparity, and helping students in rural and impoverished areas to innovate and participate in experimental learning.

Training and Certification

How well do you know LabVIEW?  How does your boss measure your LabVIEW skill?  Throughout NIWeek, NI has several heavily discounted certification exam opportunities, including free preparation sessions.

We also have several discounted training courses that we’re offering just before NIWeek.

Technical Sessions by Field Architects

Because this is our blog, we get to highlight our sessions first. Smile

As with all NIWeek sessions, the schedule and room assignments might change.  Be sure to check for daily updates.

Hands-On: Code Review Best Practices

8/7/12 (Tuesday 7th), 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM, 18 B

Nancy Hollenback and Brian Powell, Field Architects

LabVIEW R&D engineers review all (yes, ALL) code that goes into the product and encourage you to do the same. In this session, examine best practices and learn how your team can use these ideas.

 

VI Shots “Live”

8/7/12 (Tuesday 7th), 4:00 PM – 4:30 PM,Technology Theater on Expo Floor

Michael Aivaliotis, and several panelists, including Brian Powell

Come watch the VI Shots biweekly podcast recorded LIVE from the technology theater. Join the discussion with host, Michael Aivaliotis and become part of the LabVIEW ecosystem. Michael will be moderating a panel discussion with prominent members of the LabVIEW community on a wide range of topics focused on taking your LabVIEW skills to the next level. Audience participation is encouraged, so bring your questions!

 

Network Streams – More Than Just Streaming

8/8/12 (Wednesday 8th), 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM, 16 A

Nancy Hollenback, Field Architect, National Instruments

The Network Streams API simplifies the streaming of buffered, lossless data between two computers or between a real-time target and a host PC. It also supports messaging between two LabVIEW targets or across application instances. Explore the mechanics and common mistakes of using this API and learn ways to abstract the API for use across a project team.

 

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Functional Global Variables

8/8/12 (Wednesday 8th), 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM, 19 B

Nancy Hollenback, Field Architect, National Instruments

As a longtime foundational design pattern in the LabVIEW community, the functional global variable (FGV) meets many common challenges but can also be overused. Join this discussion of best practices for global data storage and the transition from FGVs to data value references.

 

Design and Implement an Object-Oriented Instrument Abstraction Layer With UML and LabVIEW

8/8/12 (Wednesday 8th), 4:45 PM – 5:45 PM, 16 A

Charlie Knapp, Field Architect, NI, Orange County and JPL, SoCal

Learn how to design a simple object-oriented oscilloscope abstraction layer in Unified Modeling Language (UML) and implement this layer in LabVIEW. The design is extendible to include other instrument types, and the LabVIEW source API works with multiple models from different vendors, other A/D devices, and simulated waveform acquisition tools.

 

The What, Why, and How of a Network Connection Manager

8/9/12 (Thursday 9th), 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM, 19 B

 

Mike Bailey, LabVIEW Technical Evangelist, National Instruments

Learn what a network connection manager is, why you need one in your system, and how you can construct it in LabVIEW. Also explore the technical details of the build up as well as connection protocols, management , and methods. Lastly, see how to use the API to integrate this into your own system.

Mike Bailey is a Certified LabVIEW Architect in the United Kingdom.  He recently switched from a Systems Engineering role to work on LabVIEW adoption and proficiency among our European accounts.

A Couple of Especially Intriguing Sessions

Poland’s Fastest LabVIEW Programmer

8/7/12 (Tuesday 7th), 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM, Technology Theater on Expo Floor

Andrzej Przybylak Veritech Sp. z o.o.

Andrzej Przybylak has competed in coding competitions in Poland but now he is traveling to NIWeek 2012 to take on Darren Nattinger, reigning World’s Fastest LabVIEW Programmer, for the main title. Come listen to his story of LabVIEW coding challenges in Poland and how he is preparing for his contest against Darren.

 

Worlds Largest User Group

8/7/12 (Tuesday 7th), 6:15 PM – 7:15 PM, Technology Theater on Expo Floor

Kelly Hunka National Instruments

Help us make history by attending the World’s Largest User Group Meeting. This event during the Block Diagram party will include an award ceremony for incredible user group leaders as well as a LabVIEW technical presentation from a LabVIEW Champion. This event has all the great things that make up as user group meeting: technical content, networking opportunities, and of course fun. You won’t want to miss it!!

More Technical Sessions

While all NIWeek sessions are usually excellent, we want to highlight a few other sessions we think will be great.  See the NIWeek Session Catalog for details about each of these.

Tuesday

Secret Sauce: Non-LabVIEW Tools to Make You a Better LabVIEW Developer

8/7/12 (Tuesday 7th), 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM, 12B

Justin Goeres JKI

 

Architecting Embedded Control and Monitoring Applications

8/7/12 (Tuesday 7th), 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM, 12B

Meghan Kerry, LabVIEW Product Manager, National Instruments

 

LabVIEW Classes: The State of the Art

8/7/12 (Tuesday 7th), 2:15 PM – 3:15 PM, 19A

Stephen Mercer National Instruments

 

Developing System Components From Design Patterns on the Discovery Channel Telescope

8/7/12 (Tuesday 7th), 2:45 PM – 3:15 PM, Ballroom E

Paul Lotz Lowell Observatory

 

LabVIEW 2012 Advanced Design Templates and Sample Projects

8/7/12 (Tuesday 7th), 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM, 19A

Elijah Kerry, Senior Product Manager, LabVIEW, National Instruments

 

State Pattern Implementation for Scalable Control Systems

8/7/12 (Tuesday 7th), 4:45 PM – 5:45 PM, 12A

Paul Lotz Lowell Observatory

 

Software Engineering Best Practices for LabVIEW

8/7/12 (Tuesday 7th), 4:45 PM – 5:45 PM, 19 B

Elijah Kerry, Senior Product Manager, LabVIEW, National Instruments

Wednesday

LabVIEW Object-Oriented Design Process for Hardware

8/8/12 (Wednesday 8th), 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM, 16 A

Marcus Johnson Symbio

 

Hands-On: Explore Tools to Customize LabVIEW

8/8/12 (Wednesday 8th), 2:15 PM – 3:15 PM, 18 D

David Ladolcetta, LabVIEW Tools Network Engineer, National Instruments

 

Parallelizing the Unparallelizable

8/8/12 (Wednesday 8th), 2:15 PM – 3:15 PM, 16 A

Christian Altenbach UCLA

 

Hands-On: Software Engineering With LabVIEW

8/8/12 (Wednesday 8th), 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM, 18 D

Elijah Kerry, Senior Product Manager, LabVIEW, National Instruments

 

Hands-On: Actor Framework

8/8/12 (Wednesday 8th), 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM, 18 C

Stephen Mercer and   Allen Smith, National Instruments

 

Subversion and LabVIEW: Tips, Tricks, and Pitfalls

8/8/12 (Wednesday 8th), 4:45 PM – 5:45 PM, 19 B

Buddy Haun VirtEx LLC

Thursday

A Scalable Plug-in Architecture for Monitoring Distributed Real-Time Applications

8/9/12 (Thursday 9th), 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM, 16A

Fabiola De la Cueva Delacor

 

Tips and Tricks to Speed LabVIEW Development

8/9/12 (Thursday 9th), 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM, Ballroom E

Darren Nattinger National Instruments

 

Hands-On: Inside the LabVIEW 2012 Core Templates

8/9/12 (Thursday 9th), 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM, 18 D

Elijah Kerry, Senior Product Manager, LabVIEW, National Instruments

 

Custom Code Deserves Custom Analysis

8/9/12 (Thursday 9th), 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM, Ballroom G

Elaine Ramundo Bloomy Controls, Inc

 

Fire and Forget: Bulletproof Builds Using Continuous Integration With LabVIEW

8/9/12 (Thursday 9th), 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM, Ballroom E

Omar Mussa, Professional Services Manager, JKI

 

XControls in Theory and Practice

8/9/12 (Thursday 9th), 2:15 PM – 3:15 PM, Ballroom E

Michael Porter Lime Instruments Inc

Alliance Day Sessions

NIWeek starts a day earlier for our Alliance Partners.  Here are a few great sessions on Monday.

Using Practical Examples in LabVIEW to Move From Programming Basics to Advanced Architectures

8/6/12 (Monday 6th), 9:00 AM – 9:30 AM, Ballroom C

Piotr Maj AGH University of Science and Technology

 

Introduction to the Actor Framework

8/6/12 (Monday 6th), 10:00 AM – 10:45 AM, 18 D

Stephen Mercer National Instruments,   Allen Smith, Senior Systems Engineer, National Instruments

 

Advanced Error Handling in LabVIEW

8/6/12 (Monday 6th), 11:00 AM – 11:45 AM, 17 A

Ryan King, Senior Systems Engineer – Industrial Embedded, National Instruments

 

Hands-On Session – Actor Framework

8/6/12 (Monday 6th), 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM, 18 D

Allen Smith, Senior Systems Engineer, National Instruments

 

Know Your Weakness

8/6/12 (Monday 6th), 1:00 PM – 1:45 PM, 17 A

Matt Pollock, AE Specialist, National Instruments

 

Data communication techniques in embedded systems

8/6/12 (Monday 6th), 3:30 PM – 4:15 PM, 17 B

Vivek Nath, Systems Engineer, National Instruments

 

Rebirth of the LabVIEW state machine

8/6/12 (Monday 6th),4:30 PM – 5:15 PM,17 B

Norman Kirchner, Senior RF Systems Engineer, National Instruments

Safe travels everybody!  See you next week!

From → NIWeek

One Comment Leave one →
  1. Brian,

    Thanks for putting out your suggestions and letting us know about where to find you and your awesome team.

    Of course, I really appreciate you mentioning my presentation. I hope I get to see you there.

    Thanks and let the fun begin!

    Fab

Leave a Reply

Note: HTML is allowed. Your email address will not be published.

Subscribe to this comment feed via RSS

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.