Contributions, funded from a patent infringement settlement, are being used for teaching and research applications in areas such as signal processing, control systems, and communications
National Instruments has announced that it donated $4 million worth of NI products and $1 million in cash to more than 100 universities in 25 countries for academic research and classroom projects that improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.
The contributions, which were funded with $2 million from a patent infringement settlement, are being used for teaching and research applications in areas such as signal processing, control systems and communications.
"The educational grant from National Instruments will provide critical hands-on experience with state-of-the-art software and equipment in a series of courses in mechanical and electrical engineering," said George Johnson, a professor from the University of California at Berkeley.
"It is particularly beneficial to have the same software for a sequence of upper division courses in circuits, controls, signal processing, instrumentation, design and system analysis.
"This grant will permit our students to explore the behaviour of real systems in far greater depth than is possible now through the use of advanced analytical and data visualisation capability of Labview".
Engineering programmes at leading educational institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fudan University in China, and Indian Institute of Technology now have access to cutting-edge NI products, including PXI-based RF modules and control hardware, NI Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suites (Elvis) and the new NI CompactRIO reconfigurable I/O embedded control systems.
With the donated equipment and the NI Labview graphical development environment, students can quickly put engineering theories into practice through easy-to-use interfaces and connectivity to thousands of measurement devices.
"National Instruments is dedicated to advancing engineering education by equipping leading universities with resources that give students hands-on experience with engineering concepts," said Ray Almgren, NI vice president of product marketing and academic relations.
"With these grants, we fulfilled 150 proposals from top institutions around the world to add innovative graphical system design and development techniques into their research and teaching applications".
National Instruments says it is committed to enhancing engineering and science education worldwide by providing educators and students with innovative software and hardware to connect the curriculum with the real world. Professors and students benefit from industry-leading, professional tools such as NI Labview graphical development software, which helps students visualise and implement engineering concepts.
The integration of Labview in the classroom creates an effective and dynamic learning environment - from RoboLab in primary schools to research laboratories in universities.
NI also offers resources to universities for hands-on laboratories, cutting-edge research and student programmes and competitions.
