What is your actual job?

[Intaris]

I have a BSc in Analytical science (all things measurable, biological, chemical, physical) and a PhD in optical chemical sensors.

I've been programming LabVIEW for longer than I have studied, so I suppose it is now my main qualification.  Started out developing pH electrodes, utilising LabVIEW to automate on small-scale, some projects moved to production but still small scale stuff.   Then I developed miniature spectrometers (we made ourr own diffraction gratings and manufactured ourselves).  I was doing the Quality control (among other things) and automated the whole calibration routine, taking testing time down from 2-3 hours to 5 minutes.

Now I'm programming software for scanning probe miicroscopes.  Cryogenic measurements with some new movement into quantum computing.  Windows, Real-TIme, FPGA, all done in LabVIEW.

So neither CS nor EE need apply here.

I used to be a CLAD until I forgot to recertify. 

[Rodéric_L]

2 years degree course in Physics

Bachelor in Project management

MS in Electrical Engineering (Sensors and associated systems)

I discovered LabVIEW during an internship and never went back (using LabVIEW in every project)

I have been working as a test engineer for 5 yearsnow, been a CLA for 3.5 years. Currently working with LabVIEW FPGA and RF (FlexRIO, VST...), automating a test bench for a radar. I also had the opportunity to work in different industries (Space, Railway, Lithium Batteries...) with a lot of different hardware (PXI, CompactRIO, etc...)

[thoult]

MEng Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College

Dabbled in LabVIEW to create a control system for a novel model helicopter as a student project. Took a module in data acquisition and analysis, which in hindsight was pretty average. Got a job working for a design consultancy designing, manufacturing and testing impact protection (body armour, shinpads, motorcycle armour etc). Wrote some customer facing software for impact testers, much of which I would now be deeply ashamed to see again.

Fast forward some many years and I'm currently a process development engineer for a manufacturing company, designing and implementing test systems for optical encoders. Got my CLD, failed the CLA the first time round last year after being on the production line fixing a fault until 11 pm the night before, hoping to take it again this autumn if time permits.

[ijustlovemath]

No degree yet, but approaching my B.S. in EE from the University of Illinois. I started using LabVIEW in summer 2014 while working for a small startup in the medical device field. Their original reason for wanting to deploy LabVIEW was its ability to interface with some USB programmable pumps, which use some simple serial comms, but the application has since blossomed into a full fledged acquisition, signal processing, simulation, and control suite, of which I've been the primary architect.

Like many, I'm sure, I missed the ability to create variables, and some of the older parts of the application are currently still using a global variable because of that. Luckily, I learned about state machines pretty early on, so while horrendous to behold, most of the code I wrote wasn't too bad, save the "super cluster" I was really fond of at the time. Since then I've been migrating things slowly to an OOP based approach, which is working out pretty well so far. I think my LV experience has been pretty unique in that I've never seen or used NI hardware, a DAQ, or a cRIO. It's pretty much all serial comms for me!

Anyways, got my CLAD last semester and will be going for a CLD this coming fall.

[RTSLVU]

I started out as a TV repairman back in the day, installed the big satellite dishes in the 80's, but for the last 27 years I have been working as a test engineer in R&D of a company that makes inverters for telecommunications and alternative energy mainly grid tie solar applications.

I did a couple years Community College but never got a degree in anything.

Totally self trained in LabVIEW. Started with LabVIEW 5.1 then made a big leap from 5.1 to 8.0 when I finally managed to talk my company into upgrading.

[ChrisK88]

Thanks for all of the responses guys, this thread is turning out to be very interesting!

We are stuck on LabVIEW 2012 at my company and will be migrating to LabVIEW 2015 in a few months and I can not wait, I am so sick of not having my Ctrl+Alt reduce space function!

[Hooovahh]

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@ChrisK88 wrote:

We are stuck on LabVIEW 2012 at my company and will be migrating to LabVIEW 2015 in a few months

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Are you sure you don't mean 2016?  If you are buying 2015 in a couple of months it will likely come with one year of SSP which means you can get upgrades for free for a year and by that time LabVIEW 2017 should be out.

Of course some choose to stay on a version of LabVIEW with a SP1 release for stability which would mean staying with 2015 until February when I expect 2016 SP1 to come out.

[ChrisK88]

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@Hooovahh wrote:

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@ChrisK88 wrote:

We are stuck on LabVIEW 2012 at my company and will be migrating to LabVIEW 2015 in a few months

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Are you sure you don't mean 2016?  If you are buying 2015 in a couple of months it will likely come with one year of SSP which means you can get upgrades for free for a year and by that time 2017 should be out.

Of course some choose to stay on a version of LabVIEW with a SP1 release for stability which would mean staying with 2015 until February when I expect 2016 SP1 to come out.

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Yeah, the enterprise standard has been 2012 for well, 4 years now, still on TestStand 2010 and we are very slow to upgrade, so we are going to 2015 for SP1 just like you stated, probably be stuck there for another 4 years before upgrading again..

PS - I registered and signed up for your XNodes session as well as most of the Advanced Users Track sessions by other Champions on this board.

[Thoric]

I'll add mine, for fun:

PhD in Thermoaerodynamics, on top of a Mechanical Engineering degree.

Currently run my own company Thoric Solutions specialising in Embedded, FPGA and Real-Time LabVIEW, plus I'm getting known for my User Interface work.

I also work as a Senior Software Engineer at Draeger Safety, developing LabVIEW based networked test systems for their production lines.

Worked with LabVIEW since 6.0, back in 1999. Never looked back.

[Gregory]

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@Thoric wrote:

[...] plus I'm getting known for my User Interface work. [...]

Do you work with a custom set of controls? I always like getting new UI ideas, have you considered publishing to the tools network?