Engineering for Chaos

Margaret Barrett, Product Marketing Manager, National Instruments

Engineering today is wildly different than the definition which influenced the simple but profound innovations of the profession’s pioneers. Edison is forever memorialized for the design of the incandescent bulb. Clearly the light bulb is a gift that has permeated all aspects of life since its invention. While no one would argue with its significance, this is the type of innovation that is now joins countless others as a data point in our engineering history that today’s innovators stand upon as they continue to fulfill the call on every engineer – improving everyday life. Modern engineers know that the breakthroughs of the past, profound as they are, transform into the stepping stones of current innovation. For instance, today, we not only think about the light bulb but how millions of lights can be coordinated to dazzle Times Square or provide light to millions of Mumbai residents. We’re celebrating the creation of the transistor by challenging ourselves to create processors the size of a coin.

We’re thinking bigger and smaller at the same time. We’re not just asking how something works, but how many ways it can be used. We’re not only thinking of one component but how they all fit together. In short, the modern engineer is a system designer. Whether his or her primary responsibility is the creation of a single component destined for incorporation into a larger system or the validation that a number of subsystems integrate together. Gone are the days of engineering in silos. The modern advancements already cited are the norm of today, which makes us think, what’s next? If the engineering triumphs that astonish us today are destined to be the stepping stones for tomorrow’s next “light bulb moment,” are we ready?

As we march into an era of unprecedented potential for innovation, our traditional ways of training our students must evolve too. As we examine engineering education, it doesn’t seem to keep pace with the output of industry. Anyone who has graduated with an engineering degree glories in recounting the pain and triumph of mastering differential equations or finally grasping convolution. These are significant and necessary victories for any engineering student, but they are the same victories that our parents and grandparents who pursued engineering also enjoyed. Certainly students are in desperate need of this knowledge, but the stories of today’s students need to be different than the stories of their predecessors if education is going to keep pace with modern potential for engineering innovation. This isn’t to discount the past, but to push us towards the future. If future innovations are to draw on the stepping stones of the modern age, then system design is a given and something that students need to be exposed to just as readily as thermodynamics; however, system design can’t be described only in equations. It must be experienced. Experience is the only way to ever really create a system.

National Instruments (NI) has long been a driver of system design in industry and a proponent of system design in the classroom. We believe that students need to “do engineering” not just theorize It. We believe in this so passionately that we have devoted our own R&D resources to ensuring that students are ready to not just appreciate what engineers have already discovered but to uncover engineering marvels we have yet to imagine.

For over a decade NI has been providing innovative engineering tools designed specifically with the student user in mind. This approach enables students to not just learn but experience engineering fundamentals such as circuit design, sensor measurement, control theory and more. Already a staple in thousands of classrooms around the world, in 2013 we challenged ourselves to take our academic offering one step further with a portable embedded device designed for students. NI myRIO offers students industry-level performance married with a sofware experience suitable for their experience level as they learn.

In only 18 months of circulation, myRIO has already become the quickest adopted academic product ever released by NI. Students around the world are beginning to incorporate myRIO into design projects previously thought impossible for undergraduate students. For instance, in Switzerland students have programmed myRIO to control an underwater robot, in the United States myRIO is being used to launch and land rockets with precision, and even to improve city infrastructure by eliminating potholes in roadways.

myRIO is demanding that students begin to integrate critical theory to produce unprecedented designs. This challenges the idea that university is merely preparation for a career. It is the starting point of future engineering advancements. There is no need to wait until graduation. Using tools created specifically to learn the fundamentals and to design systems, engineering students can be engineering innovators the moment they step foot into hallowed classrooms and laboratories

Today’s engineers are being asked to navigate and innovate in what can only be described as the technical madness of the modern world. Our students must be ready. It isn’t enough to arm them with the theory and equations that govern the world we’ve known. NI is committed to equipping them with the tools of discovery, allowing students to not just theorize engineering, but also experience it, so they are prepared to uncover a world we’re just now beginning to imagine.

For more information
Web: www.ni.com