National Instruments Vice President Delivers Keynote Address at the 53rd Annual Japanese Society for Engineering Education Convention; NI Executive Discusses the Importance of Graphical System Design in Engineering Education.

AUSTIN, Texas -- National Instruments (Nasdaq:NATI) Vice President of Product Marketing and Academic Relations Ray Almgren delivered the keynote address to engineering educators from universities and high schools at the 53rd annual Japanese Society for Engineering Education (JSEE) conference yesterday in Hiroshima, Japan. In his keynote, "The System Design Experience in Engineering Education," Almgren outlined the importance of introducing design experiences early in the curriculum to better prepare engineering students for today's engineering challenges and to provide them with a more challenging and exciting experience during their undergraduate education.

"Engineering educators now have a great selection of engineering tools that facilitate project-based learning and expose students to technologies they will use after they graduate," Almgren said. "National Instruments focuses on graphical system design tools, which provide an easy-to-use and intuitive interface to enhance learning using real-world, hands-on experiments."

Almgren outlined system design trends, such as platform-based tools, multiple processors and programmable hardware, and the role of graphical system design in addressing these trends. He also highlighted examples of programs around the world that are offering design experiences or project-based learning to their undergraduate engineering students. Some of the examples include the introduction of engineering concepts to high school and even elementary school students through the use of LEGO Mindstorms and ROBOLAB, which is based on the NI LabVIEW graphical development environment.

NI delivers several products that enhance the learning environment for students studying control design, embedded design and signal processing, such as the NI LabVIEW DSP Module, LabVIEW Embedded Development Module, LabVIEW Digital Filter Design Toolkit and LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Bundle. In addition, engineering educators can take advantage of an integrated design, prototype and measurement platform in the NI Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite (NI ELVIS) for a range of courses, including instrumentation, circuits, signal processing, control design, communications and mechatronics.

"We are very pleased that Ray Almgren came from the United States to share the National Instruments vision for engineering education," said Osamu Tsubakihara, executive director of the JSEE. "We are very impressed with the company's commitment to science and engineering education and can learn much from the international perspective and many ideas that were presented."

Ray Almgren is an 18-year veteran of NI and an expert in graphical programming systems and virtual instrumentation. A leading authority on the challenges of and solutions for improving the science and engineering workforce, Almgren serves on numerous university, state and national advisory boards, including the Government University Industry Research Roundtable, ABET Industrial Advisory Board and the FIRST Executive Advisory Board. He frequently speaks on and leads discussions about STEM Workforce development as well as the latest trends in innovating science and engineering education.

Organized by the Chugoku and Shikoku district of JSEE, the annual convention provided the opportunity for educators to discuss the promotion of science and engineering education as well as the development of industry in Japan. The convention was held from Sept. 9 to Sept. 11 at Hiroshima University.

About National Instruments

National Instruments (www.ni.com) is a technology pioneer and leader in virtual instrumentation -- a revolutionary concept that has changed the way engineers and scientists in industry, government and academia approach measurement and automation. Leveraging PCs and commercial technologies, virtual instrumentation increases productivity and lowers costs for test, control and design applications through easy-to-integrate software, such as NI LabVIEW, and modular measurement and control hardware for PXI, PCI, USB and Ethernet. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 3,600 employees and direct operations in nearly 40 countries. In 2004, the company sold products to more than 25,000 companies in 90 countries. For the past six years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. Readers can obtain investment information from the company's investor relations department by calling 512-683-5090, e-mailing [e-mail] or visiting www.ni.com/nati.

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