From 5G to Legos, National Instruments has its hands in projects big and small. The company is known for partnering with all sorts of different companies over a vast array of industries.
In this edition of “Digs,” RCRtv gets an inside look at National Instruments world headquarters in Austin, Texas. NI’s Director of Software Marketing and Customer Education, Shelley Gretlein, takes us on a tour through the campus, highlighting the company’s latest projects including the 5G innovation lab, programmable Legos and a visualization tool for the Industrial Internet of Things.
Gretlein says of the company’s core purpose is to “equip engineers and scientists around the world to be able to innovate, discover and create…to solve the engineering grad challenges,”
It is immediately apparent upon entering one of the company’s three buildings that they pride themselves on innovation above all else. The patent wall in the lobby of building C is a perfect example of this. “What this allows us to do is publicly recognize the engineers and celebrate their unique ideas,” Greitlen said.
On the next step of the tour, Gretlein shows us NI’s lastest programmable Lego project, the EB3. NI writes the software and develops the censors, actuators and control systems that power the brains of these smart Legos.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is another high priority for NI. Gretlein gave us a demo of an IIoT tool that combines a heads up display with NI’s LabVIEW hardware to help Airbus mechanics work on airplanes more efficiently.
“They’re able to get feedback. They’re able to get verification they are using the right tool for the job,” she said. “In the end, for you and me that means we’re going to get safer airplanes.”
From smart factories to complex energy systems, NI is looking to play a key role in the future of the IIoT.
But perhaps the most important aspect of the Austin, Texas office is NI’s 5G innovation lab where the company works with industry leaders such as Nokia and Samsung to develop and define the standards for 5G.
The lab focuses on research areas such as millimeter wave, massive MIMO and other spectrums and waveforms.
“We actually created this lab to make sure we can help our customers in all those different vectors,” Greilein said.
Recently, NI and Nokia teamed up on a 5G hardware demo that it debuted at this year’s Brooklyn 5G Summit. It was the first system to demonstrate 10 gigabits per second, 74 gigahertz capabilities at the show.
National Instruments key facts:
- Founded in 1976 in Austin, Texas
- Co-founded by Dr. James Truchard, Bill Nowlin and Jeff Kodosky at the University of Texas at Austin’s Applied Research Lab.
- 2,500 employees in Austin, Texas office, more than 7,000 worldwide.
- $1.24 billion revenue (2014)
- Key products include LabVIEW graphical development environment, NI CompactRIO and PXI platform.
Co-Founder and CEO, Dr. James Truchard, believes an approachable environment leads to innovation. There are no offices at the company. Truchard has an open cubicle in the middle of the office, which is designed so anyone can come to him with ideas.
The parking garage where the company has many electric vehicle charging stations even uses NI’s hardware and LabVIEW software.
In the end, Gretlein says NI wants its employees to have a healthy balance between life and work.
“We actually encourage a lot of fitness. We have different tournaments, volleyball tournaments, basketball tournaments, boot camps and that really provides that nice balance between intense innovation we have to do…with the nice life balance and physical aspects you have to have.”