National Instruments Recognizes
Engineering and Science Innovation With Graphical System Design
Awards
Application of the Year Presented to Virginia Tech for Their
Semiautonomous Vehicle for the Blind and Visually Impaired
NEWS RELEASE Aug. 9, 2010 National Instruments recognized
15 innovative applications developed by engineers, scientists and
researchers from around the world at the third annual Graphical
System Design Achievement Awards. At the award ceremony
held during the annual NIWeek graphical system design
conference and exhibition in Austin, Texas, winners from seven
application categories ranging from academic research and education
to prototype and validation test were recognized for using
graphical system design to develop applications that meet complex
engineering and science challenges. The 2010 Application of the
Year Award was presented to Dr. Dennis Hong, assistant professor
and director of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia
Tech, who developed a semiautonomous vehicle that makes it possible
for a blind driver to successfully navigate, control speed and
avoid collision using auditory and tactile cues.
Todays innovators are asked to solve increasingly challenging and
critical problems, said Dr. James Truchard, president, CEO and
cofounder of National Instruments. These awards recognize the
cutting-edge ways engineers and scientists are using the NI
graphical system design approach in both the development and
deployment of ground-breaking solutions.
Virginia Tech was honored for its achievement in building and
programming the worlds first functional prototype of a blind driver
vehicle using an NI
CompactRIO programmable automation controller and NI
LabVIEW software. The university provided blind and
visually-impaired people with the opportunity to drive a vehicle
and generated interest in the collaborative development of blind
access technologies. Though it may be years before blind driving
technology is commercially in use, the first public demonstration
of the second-generation blind driver vehicle will be at the
Daytona International Speedway in January 2011.
The Green Engineering Application of the Year Award winner, Wineman
Technology, was recognized by Truchard for using LabVIEW and
CompactRIO to control a waste heat engine, which recovers thermal
energy from industrial sources to create a power-generating cycle.
The resulting power-generation cycle eliminates transmission loss
and reduces carbon emissions, contributing to the preservation of
ever-depleting fossil fuel resources and the global climate.
The Humanitarian Application of the Year Award was presented to
Biorep Technologies for the development of an automated solution
that improves the process for cell secretion analysis, which is
routinely conducted in pancreatic islet in type 1 diabetes
research. Using LabVIEW and CompactRIO, the automated solution was
developed in only three months with the sophisticated debugging and
troubleshooting features in LabVIEW, saving more than $10,000 USD
in development costs.
A panel of technical experts, industry specialists, technical trade
publication editors and National Instruments executives selected
the award winners from 108 authors from 22 countries. The panel
determined the winning papers based on several criteria ranging
from the technical difficulty involved in developing a solution to
the engineering challenge and benefits achieved from using the
application.
To learn more about the Graphical System Design Achievement Awards
and view a comprehensive list of this years winners, readers can
visit www.ni.com/gsdawards.
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