Students spoilt with virtual instrumentation

National Instruments establishes a joint virtual instrumentation laboratory in the faculty of Applied Sciences at the University of the West of England.

National Instruments has announced it has established with The University of the West of England (UWE) a virtual instrumentation facility in the faculty of Applied Sciences at the UWE Frenchay Campus in Bristol, UK.

Together they have established two laboratories and eight project rooms all using NI hardware and software.

"We are excited about working with UWE to expand the students' access to virtual instrumentation," says Katherine Robinson, Academic Relations Manager at National Instruments.

"Implementing Labview software and NI data acquisition hardware into UWE laboratories gives students the opportunity to put scientific principles into practice, which will better prepare them for the workplace.

"With the NI Labview platform, students complete experiments and projects in a much shorter period, and we can greatly expand the use of limited lab facilities; students can do experiments anywhere, anytime," said Declan Ainger, IT Manager at UWE.

"The new VI laboratory allows us to teach the most advanced virtual instrumentation technologies as well as increase our researching capabilities.

The reason we adopted NI Labview is because it is versatile enough to teach students the basics in a few hours but also powerful enough for more experienced engineers to develop complex research applications." The adoption of NI follows a circa £4 million redevelopment of the Faculty.

Areas of use will be Psychology, in a brand new purpose-built laboratory, Physiology, Biomedical Sciences, Analytical Science and various research projects (all science based).

National Instruments is committed to inspiring and preparing students from kindergarten to graduate school for careers in the fields of engineering and science.

NI works with thousands of educational institutions worldwide and offers a wide range of products, training and sponsorship for educational programs, such as RoboLab, a Labview-based software program for LEGO Mindstorms that teaches elementary school students about complex engineering concepts, and Future Truck, a North American competition that challenges university engineering students to create more fuel-efficient SUVs.

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