LabVIEW Tech Preview Opinion

[Bob_Schor]

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@User002 wrote:

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I have seen it so many times - students cringing while working with LabVIEW. It has no appeal at all - nothing they can find interest in. 

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This goes directly to poor (or, even worse, no) instruction.  A number of schools have made LabVIEW the paradigm for programming over Matlab, and have had their student buy MyDAQs for their Instrumentation Course, and they go great guns.  We have a Community College where LabVIEW is (well-) taught to Freshmen, and many of them get summer internships in local industries, with job offers following their second year.  They're not building video games ...

Bob Schor

[User002]

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@Bob_Schor wrote:

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@User002 wrote:

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I have seen it so many times - students cringing while working with LabVIEW. It has no appeal at all - nothing they can find interest in. 

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This goes directly to poor (or, even worse, no) instruction.  A number of schools have made LabVIEW the paradigm for programming over Matlab, and have had their student buy MyDAQs for their Instrumentation Course, and they go great guns.  We have a Community College where LabVIEW is (well-) taught to Freshmen, and many of them get summer internships in local industries, with job offers following their second year.  They're not building video games ...

Bob Schor

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I'm just giving some anecdotal evidence of what I have observed from freshmen and students.

Nothing wrong with video game tech, they do drive a lot of fine technology forward for use in other industries. Such as GPU numerical processing and physics simulations and great visualization technologies used in completely different fields.

[Blokk]

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@Bob_Schor wrote:

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@Blokk wrote:

Regarding to the future of LV, I think one of the most important key points is education(al material) and making the learning curve less steep. The programming skill distribution of LV users is a too steep pyramid. I work in the academic side (research and university), and I have a long experience with students and collegues when it comes to LabVIEW programming. It is enourmous how much manpower and resources are wasted at research centers and universities due to poor knowledge of LabVIEW and maintaining bad codes.

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I am also on the Academic/Research side.  But I was "asleep at the switch" when they announced that NIWeek 2017 would be the last week in May instead of the first week in August.  It wasn't until I said "See you next year" to a colleague from a Swiss University that he said "No, this might be my next NIWeek", and I realized that May (in many Universities) is Finals, Preparing for Finals, Grade submission, etc.  Are the Academic Days and academic reach-out being forgotten, or has someone just (as I did, shame on me!) overlooked the impact on our Academic Community?

Bob Schor

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Huge mistake from NI not to sync with uni semester schedule... Hey, and a discussion from yesterday. Recently I tutor a student through an interesting project, he learns very fast, already much above a CLAD level. I just told him, hey, you should go to Munich this year in October, so you could have a chance to do the CLAD exam for free! I saw it was possible last year in Munich at NI Day. Not this year, at least I did not see any free CLAD exam in the schedule on ni.com 😞 (I remember I did my CLAD many years ago in Budapest at a NI Day...). So, hey NI, watch out for your organisation! Reach out better to students and universities!

[Bob_Schor]

I was also able to get my CLAD at an NIWeek for free (6 years ago?), but am not sure that fees are waived any longer ...

[Ben]

Hi Roger,

Thank you for starting this thread.

While I have to reserve my dittos on some of your points, I am on-board with much of what you have said.

It is not easy to start a thread like this becuase pepole do not want to hear less than praise. For my part, if I see some stranger forgot to zip-up his fly, I will tell him as soon as I spot it.

Thank you for helping to "close the barn door".

Ben

[Blokk]

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@Bob_Schor wrote:

I was also able to get my CLAD at an NIWeek for free (6 years ago?), but am not sure that fees are waived any longer ...

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Last year I attended NI Day in Budapest, and I remember there was a free CLAD exam optionally. Last year also near Münich (Fürstenfeldbruck): http://germany.ni.com/vip/zertifizierung

But I cannot find this option for our student this year: http://germany.ni.com/vip  😞

[Intaris]

Blokk wrote:Are the Academic Days and academic reach-out being forgotten, or has someone just (as I did, shame on me!) overlooked the impact on our Academic Community?

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One thing occurred to me (as someone with a scientific background) that in the Keynotes at NI Week 2016 "Science and Engineering" was mentioned many times but when focus switched to actual products and stuff that makes money, "Science" was no longer present.  "Science and Engineering" became "Engineering".    I also question NIs committment to scientific endeavours.  Having LabVIEW at CERN does not grant a free card to ignore the rest of the scientific community for a decade or so.

[altenbach]

I don't feel compelled contributing to this thread. Sorry.

[User002]

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@Ben wrote:

Thank you for helping to "close the barn door".

Ben

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Good to hear I'm not the only one. 

Though, I'd be disappointed if you'd agree with me completely.

Oblivious to embarrassment usually becomes blatantly obvious from a little distance.

Ahem dear sir, are you aware that *cough*... 

A contemporary zen master lay dying on his death bed. His monks had all gathered around his bed, from the most senior to the most novice monk. The senior monk leaned over to ask the dying master if he had any final words of advice for his monks.

The old master slowly opened his eyes and in a weak voice whispered. “Tell them Truth is like a river.” The senior monk passed this bit of wisdom in turn to the monk next to him, and it circulated around the room. When the words reached the youngest monk he asked, “What does he mean.’Truth is like a river’?”

The question was passed back around the room to the senior monk who leaned over the bed and asked, “Master, what do you mean, ‘Truth is like a river’?”

Slowly the master opened his eyes and in a weak voice whispered, “O.K., truth is not like a river.”

[User002]

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@altenbach wrote:

I don't feel compelled contributing to this thread. Sorry.

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Come on; let it rip!