Geoffrey C. Orsak, NI Week 2004

A Successful Career in Engineering(In Theory)

Tim DehneBSEE Rice University 1987

Senior VP of R&DNational Instruments

What do Michael Dell and Bill Gates have in common?

Geoffrey C. Orsak, NI Week 2004

Engineers = Leaders

• Fact: 17% of Fortune 500 CEO’s have a business degree

•Fact: 20% have an engineering degree

Source: US News and World Reports

Why do 20% of Fortune 500 CEOs have an engineering degree?

Leadership Traits of Engineers

• Intelligent•Problem solvers•Creative•Persistent•Thorough•Logical•Practical

What job functions need engineers?

•Product development•Design validation•Manufacturing•Technical Sales•Product Marketing•Applications support•Any role

Two Basic Paths in Product Development

• Technical Track– Deep technical competence– Mentor– Tackle the hardest technical challenges

• Management Track– Motivate people– Streamline processes– Make business decisions

Geoffrey C. Orsak, NI Week 2004

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Arthur C. Clarke

850 books

1 USB Memory Stick

2/3 of a ton4oz

In college you get your personal GPA

In industry you get a raise if you can work on a team

AM/FM Stereo

DVD+RW

PC/WWW/EmailNavigation

Cellular Phone

Satellite Car Alarm/Radio

Games

Remote Diagnostics

PDA

CD+RW

Today’s Designs– Converging Complexity

How do you get off to a great start?

• Stay on top of the latest technology– Learning never stops

• Work hard• Meet your commitments/deadlines

– Just like you did in school!• Be a contributing member of the team• Be curious• Ask questions• Sign up for needed tasks

Key Aspects to a Design

• Sound design and simulation• Prototype verification• Break the design• Test, test, test• Minimize costs• Packaging/usability• Manufacturability• Test

How do you continue to grow?

• Stay on the leading edge of technology• Keep a watchful eye on your industry• Become more well-rounded

– Global perspective– Communication skills– Project management– Systems perspective

The World is Flat

Bachelor's Degrees conferred by Degree Granting Institutions in the US

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

90000

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Academic Year

# E

ng

ine

eri

ng

De

gre

es

Aw

ard

ed

Series1

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics,Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS)

Engineering Graduates Comparison

Country GraduatesChina 300,000India 200,000Japan 103,300Russia 90,700US 63,300Germany 25,500France 22,800UK 22,000

Source – NSF: Science and Engineering Indicators 2004*Data for China and India are estimates

Product Development Process

Modeling,Modeling,DesignDesign

Modeling,Modeling,DesignDesign

Verification/Verification/PrototypePrototype

Verification/Verification/PrototypePrototype ValidationValidationValidationValidation ManufacturingManufacturingManufacturingManufacturingAnalysis,Analysis,

SimulationSimulation

Analysis,Analysis,SimulationSimulation

“97% of design engineers support their designs all the way throughout the manufacturing phase” - Cahners Research, 2001

“ The shuttle Columbia was doomed in part because NASA relied on flawed computer simulations and mathematical formulas

that failed to accurately predict damage… ”

“ …experts say, they should have performed tests on shuttle components… ”

Columbia Accident Investigation Board findings as summarized by Alan Levin and Traci Watson, USA Today

Emphasis by author

The Need for Validating Simulations with Test Data

Geoffrey C. Orsak, NI Week 2004

Machine Vision

Typical Manufacturing Line

Motion Control

Operator Interface

Discrete Control Temperature

Control

Geoffrey C. Orsak, NI Week 2004

Typical Measurement and Automation Applications

Body & Chassis AudioEngine

Durability

Tire & Brake SafetyEmissions Electronics

Keypad

LCD

Sound

Acoustics

RFSignal

Battery

Audio Sound ElectronicsPower Supply

Video SignalDisk Drive

From the touch screen user interface, physicians can

select spot sizes, pattern types, spot density and

number of spots.

Laser Photocoagulation

Visica2 Treatment System– Cryogenically freezes benign breast

tumors using ultrasound– Eliminates need for surgery– CompactRIO and LabVIEW

used to design, prototype, and deploy a control system

Sanarus Medical, Inc.

™

3 GHz

Single Core

Quad Core

Octal Core

Parallel Architectures Drive Performance

1,000

10,000

100,000

1,000,000

10,000,000

100,000,000

1,000,000,000

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Clock Speed (kHz) Transistor Count

Intel QX6700 Quad-Core Processor

•Pair of Core 2 dies in single package•2.66 GHz CPU speed

Faster processors Multicore processors

“To fully exploit the power of processors working in parallel...new software must deal

with the problem of concurrency."

– Bill Gates, Microsoft

There’s a Small Catch…

“But a parallel programming model…will not emerge for five to 10 years,

according to experts from Microsoft Corp."

– Rick Merritt, EE Times

Inherent Parallelism with LabVIEW

15 Global Challenges Facing Humanity

World Federation of United Nations Associations - Millennium Project

Green is Everywhere

What Others are Saying

“We find with energy and greenhouse gases, if you start to measure, people reduce the usage,” says Linda Fisher, the

chief sustainability officer at DuPont. Measuring is not a simple task, but once a company has a proper baseline it

can see what can be changed. - Excerpt from “A Change in Climate”, published in the

January issue of the Economist

“What gets measured gets managed”- Excerpt from Green to Gold authored by Daniel Esty and

Andrew Winston

Measure It Fix It!

Green EngineeringDefinition:

Green Engineering is the use of measurement and control techniques to design, develop, and improve products and

technologies resulting in environmental and economic benefits

NI Enabling Technologies:• High-Speed and High-Resolution Measurements

• Advanced Analysis and Signal Processing• High-Speed and Advanced Control

• Embedded System Technology

Green Engineering Areas• Renewable Power Generation• Power Monitoring• Environmental Monitoring• Optimizing the Efficiency of Existing Machines and Automation Systems

• Development and Test of Environmentally Beneficial Products and Technologies

Renewable Energy

Siemens Power Generation - Denmark

• One of the premier companies in the international power generation sector

• Supply wind turbine generators with rotor diameters up to 107 meters (350 ft)

• Use PXI, LabVIEW, and LabVIEW Real-Time and to develop and test the control algorithms embedded in the turbines

Thermomax Tests Evacuated Tube Solar Collectors

• Challenge: Test equipment for efficient and economical conversion of solar radiation into thermal energy.

• Solution: Two PC-based, fully automated test systems.

• Products: FieldPoint, Motion Control, LabVIEW DSC

• Green Benefits: The new facilities have significantly reduced the time and cost of product development, making it possible to perform tests all year round, using the solar simulator.

Control of a Permanent Magnet Linear Generator for Ocean Wave Energy• Challenge: Interest in wave energy conversion devices is rapidly growing worldwide

for the potential to harness a sustainable and renewable energy source. Due to the oscillatory nature of ocean waves, the power generated from a permanent magnet linear generator (PMLG) for ocean wave energy conversion is pulsed and left unconditioned, is not easily used or stored.

• Solution: With an active rectifier topology, the real and reactive power from the PMLG is fully controllable. Using a novel three-phase active rectifier topology and force controller with a dc-dc converter for bus voltage regulation the energy can be stored.

• Products: CompactRIO, LabVIEW FPGA

• Green Benefits: A working design of a three-phase active rectifier and controller was implemented and prototyped with a CompactRIO system.

Full paper available at: http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/dspace/bitstream/1957/5921/1/Novel+Control+of+a+Permanent+Ma

Retrofitting Existing Machines and Production Equipment

Virginia Tech Wins ChallengeX 2006 Hybrid Vehicle Competition with cRIO

• Challenge: Develop methods for reducing total energy consumption and emissions in a crossover vehicle while maintaining or exceeding vehicle utility and performance

• Solution: A high-level control strategy for the hybrid vehicles implemented and prototyped with LabVIEW FPGA & CompactRIO.

• Result: VT reduced well-to-wheels petroleum use by 74% for Year 2 Win

• Products: LabVIEW, Simulation Interface Toolkit, LabVIEW Real-Time, CompactRIO

• Green Benefit: A three-year engineering competition to improve fuel efficiency and performance at a lower cost for future GM vehicles.

Steel Mill Reactor Monitoring

• One of the largest consumers of electricity in the US

• Optimizing Existing Melting Process using:– Advanced Power Analysis– FPGA-based protection circuit– Datalogging

• Used CompactRIO for advanced control and integrated it with existing PLC system

• Prevents the over melting of scrap steel (waste electricity)

• Maximize the efficient use of electrical energy and rapidly change control methods to reduce power flicker

T&O Stelectric Reduces Pesticide Use with NI Vision

• To keep the Danish railroad tracks weed free, herbicides were sprayed on 100% of the railroad tracks

• NI Vision systems were outfitted on the weed spraying wagon to identify weeds and limit pesticide spraying to those areas

• Green Benefit– Reduced herbicide usage by 50%– Automated the reporting of pesticide

use to comply with environmental regulations

Environmental Monitoring

Environmental Sensor Networks: Monitoring Global Change

• Monitoring interactive phenomena– Atmosphere, Water, Soil, and Ecosystems

• Characteristic spatiotemporal diversity

C H2O Light Q

Environmental Sensor Networks: Example Program - NIMS

NIMS at Wind River (Costa Rica)Canopy Crane Research Facility

46

Mercury Emissions Stack MonitorApplication• Reliable mercury emissions sampling system for

coal fired power plants• Developed as monitoring system approved by

EPA

Benefits• Expanded memory and performance • Automated interface

Technical Key• Flexible, real-time software architecture

“The success of the project was due to the processing and automation power of the cFP-2120, as well as the ease of use derived from integrating

the PDA Control System. ”

From Kindergarten to Rocket Science

LEGO Mindstorms NXT“the smartest, coolest toy

of the year”

CERN Large Hadron Collider“the most powerful instrument

on earth”

“To do for embedded what the PC did for the desktop.”

Graphical System Design

National Instruments Vision Evolved

Complex instrumentationRF

DigitalDistributed

Industrial controlRT/FPGA systemsElectronic devicesC code generation

Real-time measurementsEmbedded monitoringHardware in the loop

Virtual Instrumentation Embedded Systems

Geoffrey C. Orsak, NI Week 2004

It’s OK to have fun!

Customer-Defined PC-Based Measurement and

Automation SolutionsTraditional Vendor-Defined

Instruments

What is Virtual Instrumentation?

Processor

RAM

Real-TimeOS

Display

PowerSupply

Hard Disk

Geoffrey C. Orsak, NI Week 2004

Engineering Feats were Rock Festivals…

25,000 New Yorkers paraded for 16 hours when the first cablegram was sent from America to Europe.

• 200,000 people celebrated a week-long fiesta when the Golden Gate Bridge was opened in 1937

32,000,000 visitors came to see the 1000 foot Eiffel Tower in 1889

Geoffrey C. Orsak, NI Week 2004

Engineers used to be Rock Stars

Wright brothers Thomas Edison Henry Ford

The World Needs Engineers

• Intelligence•Problem solvers•Creativity•Persistence•Thoroughness•Logical•Practical

“Clearly it is now possible for more people than ever to collaborate and compete in real time … on a more equal footing than any time in the history of

the world – using computers, e-mail, networks, teleconferencing, and dynamic new software.”

- T. Friedman, The World is Flat

“… the most profound thing to me is the fact that a fourteen-year-old in Romania or Bangalore or the

Soviet Union or Vietnam has all the information, all the tools, all the software, easily available to apply

knowledge however they want.”

- M. Andreessen, The World is Flat