LabVIEW Champion: Darin Kinion

[Hunka]

LabVIEW Champions Member Profile - Darin Kinion

Name:
Darin Kinion

Home:

Lafayette, CA

Programming Languages:

C++ (a lot), Fortran (enough to be dangerous), Python (a fair amount), LabVIEW (obviously)

Certification:

Certifiable but not certified.

Used LabVIEW Since:

1992.  I stumbled across an old computer with LV1 running and had a bit of a play.  What it actually was did not impress me much, but I had a sense of what it could be and that is probably what got me hooked.  One of my first thoughts was literally "What? No recursion."  (In our beloved NI timescale, that was worked out eventually!)  I managed to acquire the much improved LV2.something and I have used every version since.

Applications Areas:

I use LV for automation in all phases of my research, starting with the design and microfabrication of devices, the experimental tests, and finally the analysis and presentation of the data.  Someday LV will generate publication quality plots (sigh), so until then I still have to use other software now and then.  (I actually use a lot of specialized software, fortunately LV has the flexibility to be the ringmaster of this circus).  Now with scripting I can use LV to automate my LV coding as well.

Biography:

I am an experimental low-temperature physicist with a PhD in High Energy Physics.   I also hedged my bets by getting a BS in EE as well as Physics.  I currently perform experiments exploring the fundamental limits of quantum mechanics along with searching for Dark Matter.  LabVIEW is always there for me, working nights and weekends so I do not have to!

User Groups:

Cameos at various meetings around the Bay Area.

Discussion Groups:

LabVIEW forums (primarily): http://forums.ni.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/134255

LAVA (interloping): http://lavag.org/user/26690-darin

NI Community: https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-20345 (told you I love recursion)

Articles:

https://str.llnl.gov/Mar09/kinion.html

http://www.phys.washington.edu/groups/admx/pdfs/fantastic_five.pdf

Websites:

https://decibel.ni.com/content/groups/coding-challenge-2010