Last month, DMC joined 3,200 engineers, educators, and NI developers from 60 countries at NIWeek. The conference in Austin, Texas offered over 200 technical training sessions and 125 expo exhibits. This is an annual event hosted by National Instruments that brings together engineers across the globe to share information on popular topics and technical details of the test, measurement & control industry.
Jesse Batsche, Christian Owen, Steven Dusing, Peter Rijks, Dan Freve, Samantha Valenteen, Liz Rappaport, Cecilia Brookshier and I represented DMC this year, bringing with us three presentations and thirsts for fun and new knowledge. Here are some of our favorite moments from NIWeek 2018!
Enjoying Zilker Park after a day of festivities at NIWeek 2018.
DMC Presentations
DMC lead three exciting presentations at NIWeek 2018. Follow the links below to view each if you missed them in Austin.
From left to right: Darren Jones and Pete Rijks; Dan Freve and Steven Dusing; Christian Owen and Jesse Batsche
Technology Updates
NI announced several exciting technology updates at the conference.
NI Package Manager
From NIPM, a user can easily download install new templates, controls, drivers and language libraries to help them create more robust applications. Prior to this application, acquiring packages was done via a browser through the LabVIEW Tools Network or the Instrument Driver Network (IDNet) and manually installed. NIPM's core mission is to consolidate and simplify all of this into one application for finding and acquiring all of the items that were previously spread across the web.
SystemLink
SystemLink software is a NI application that should make it easier to distribute software to many devices at once. It delivers measurable improvements in operational efficiency and productivity by providing a centralized web-based management interface for connected devices, software, and data. Although aligned with NI products such as LabVIEW, TestStand, and hardware systems, SystemLink also offers an open architecture for incorporating a wide range of third-party software and hardware technologies. This now offers remote system deployment, data viewing, and data collection to users.
LabVIEW NXG
While continuing to track the progress of last year’s development, LabVIEW NXG, at the NIWeek convention, DMC encountered some important new features enabled through the software. LabVIEW NXG now allows the user to create exe’s and contains web-ready interfaces. Attending a session that allowed engineers to write a simple web application with LabVIEW NXG gave our team a first exposure to the NXG program that we will be experimenting more with soon.
What NIWeek Means for DMC
For DMC, NIWeek proved exciting beyond just the innovative presentations. DMC employees had very productive meetings with NI team members, identifying alignment between DMC technical capabilities and NI go-to-market strategies. Talking with NI engineers -- the people best equipped to answer in-depth questions related to new features and products – was helpful to our team while getting to know updated technologies and learning best practices to apply here at DMC.
Beyond this, the new technologies witnessed by the team promise to be helpful to DMC in the future—particularly with the SystemLink software update and newly available AWS and Azure toolkits.
Another exciting development that will affect DMC and our partners is the new VI Analyzer update. This tool’s usefulness has improved in a way that DMC will be trying to roll out on several of our projects in the coming months to improve overall code quality and consistency for our clients.
Fun in Austin
One of the most momentous moments for DMC’s convention crew was this photo opportunity with the DeLorean from “Back to the Future” and realizing that our company, rather poetically, shares an acronym with the famous car (check out the grill)!
Other exciting activities in the area included tacos at Torchy’s, a DMC NIWeek tradition, seeing Austin while paddle-boarding down the river, and tasting that famous Texas BBQ before heading home to share the week’s discoveries with the rest of the team.
Thanks to everyone who made NIWeek 2018 a wonderful experience!
Learn more about DMC's partnership with National Instruments.