National Instruments, Texas A&M at Qatar Introduce Virtual Instrumentation Center for Excellence


Lab Combines Engineering Concepts and NI Technology to Provide Hands-On Learning Experience

NEWS RELEASE - Nov. 20, 2007 - National Instruments and Texas A&M University at Qatar are working together to make premium technology products available to engineering students at the university. Named after the approach to test and measurement pioneered by NI, the Virtual Instrumentation Center of Excellence at Texas A&M at Qatar uses NI software and hardware to provide students and faculty in the mechanical and electrical engineering programs with the technology to design, test and deploy projects.

Texas A&M at Qatar opened in 2003 in Education City, a campus in Doha, Qatar, that hosts five American universities. It offers programs in electrical, chemical, mechanical and petroleum engineering. Students in the undergraduate and forthcoming graduate engineering programs at Texas A&M at Qatar will use NI software and equipment as part of their curriculum, complementing theoretical lessons and promoting experiential learning. The center will also bring local and regional students, faculty and engineers together for research purposes.

"The Virtual Instrumentation Center of Excellence provides an effective learning environment for students by integrating NI technology," said Dr. Khalid Qaraqe, electrical engineering faculty at Texas A&M at Qatar. "NI has worked with the electrical and mechanical engineering programs at Texas A&M at Qatar to develop training and course material for some time. We are proud to offer the university and local community the best in virtual instrumentation technology."

With virtual instrumentation, engineers and scientists can create multifunctional and customizable test and measurement devices using a combination of modular hardware and easy-to-integrate software. NI LabVIEW graphical system design software features an intuitive programming environment that students can use to execute flexible and scalable design, control and test applications. NI software helps students manipulate and control the functions of hardware so it can serve multiple users and functions.

"We are honored that Texas A&M at Qatar has selected NI tools to offer students a practical and hands-on approach to engineering education," said Michel Haddad, general manager of NI Arabia. "NI commends Texas A&M at Qatar for its excellence in scientific and engineering education and ensuing benefit to the community and profession."

The center gives students real-world experience in areas such as control theory, DSP theory, RF telecommunications theory and mechatronics. It includes five labs for electrical engineering students and six for mechanical engineering students. In each lab, students can apply theories they have learned in class using products such as LabVIEW; PXI, RF digital communication, and NI CompactRIO hardware; and the National Instruments Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite (NI ELVIS). These powerful, professional tools help students visualize and implement engineering concepts and employ the same techniques widely used in the industry.

Readers can obtain information on NI in academia at http://www.ni.com/academic.

About National Instruments

National Instruments (www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 25,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 10 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 4,500 employees and direct operations in nearly 40 countries.

About TAMUQ

Texas A&M University, recognized as having one of the premier engineering programs in the world, has offered accredited undergraduate degrees in chemical, electrical, mechanical and petroleum engineering at its Education City branch campus since 2003. In addition to engineering courses, Texas A&M University at Qatar provides supporting classes in science, mathematics, liberal arts and the humanities. The curricula offered at Texas A&M at Qatar are identical to the ones offered at the main campus in College Station, Texas, and courses are taught in English in a co-educational setting. The reputation for excellence is the same, as is the commitment to training engineers equipped to lead the next generation of engineering discovery.

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