Afternoon to Atlanta and
to Savannah you can hear me there.

As most of you know I'm Gary Mae on
the chair of the school of Electrical and

Computer Engineering.

And I'd like to welcome
you all to the ninth.

James R. character distinguished lecture.

This annual event was established
with the generous support

of Jim Carrick A character in
one nine hundred sixty nine

doubly graduate from Georgia Tech.

Jim character couldn't be with us today.

Unfortunately by like to share a few
highlights briefly about his career and

his service to Georgia Tech he and
his wife Helen Kearney live in

Adelaide South Australia where he
leaves the arbiter Hospitality Group

which owns and operates luxury retreats
in the wine regions of Australia.

So please if you're ever in the wine
regions of South Australia patroness

the arbutus Hospitality Group
before that he

spent sixteen years as the founder and
chairman of Aspect Communications Corp.

He is a past member of the advisory
boards for the school of the sea and

Georgia Tech at the institute level.

And Jim facilitated the establishment
of the army the Center for

distributed engineering education which
develops methods of teaching engineering

using information technology so on behalf
of the school we are very grateful for

Jim's interest and
support of this lecture series were

top industry leadership who they
are real world experiences and

the latest in technology with our
students and faculty and community.

We will continue that tradition
today with Dr James true shart who

is the co-founder president and C.E.O.
of National Instruments.

Dr true Sharda or Dr T. as they call it
and I co-founded National Instruments in

one nine hundred seventy six while working
at the University of Texas at Austin.

Under his leadership and

I pioneered the development of
virtual instrumentation software and

hardware that has revolutionized how
engineers approach measurement and

automation applications and
I have grown from a three man team.

To a global organization.

With more than four thousand six hundred
employees in more than forty countries.

Jim is an active supporter of the N.I.

Lego Mindstorms program which
introduces K. through twelve students

to engineering in a can and
computing skills in two thousand and five.

Texas Governor Rick Perry
asked him to chair the Texas

science technology engineering and
math or stem

industry advisory council which directly
addresses the declining interest and

preparation of young people to
pursue careers in technical fields.

In two thousand and seven.

Jim was elected to membership in
the National Academy of Engineering.

He was also named the University
of Texas distinguished engineering

graduate in two thousand and four and

was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy
of Engineering Sciences in two

thousand and three words magazine named
him one of the best C.E.O.'s for three

consecutive years emphasizing his focus
on long long term growth and innovation.

So please join me in welcoming Jim and
his and I colleagues to E.C.

and to Georgia Tech.

Thank you.

Of Thank you.

Back to my thanks good to be here.

Georgia Tech.

This is my first visit.

It's none too soon to come many
years ago such an exciting place.

Austin the sister city Adelaide and
company uses

aspect communication systems us most
mission critical communication systems so.

They way National Instruments was founded
back in one nine hundred seventy six I

had been working in the University
of Texas applied research labs doing

research were and
I wanted to stay in Austin and

I wanted to create a job that
really match what I like doing.

And in the end I realized
to do that I have to create

a growing companies that young folks
straight out of school have a good career.

So I'd like to share some thoughts
on the company at this point.

And so

our company has just mentioned we have
actually over five thousand employees.

We've been budget want to Fortune
one hundred Best Places to Work

now nine years running.

There's only fifty thirteen high tech
companies slept on that list and we

focused on computer based measurement and
automation taking advantage of the very

high performance computing that we now
get with personal computers and the like.

We served in their histories very in a
very diverse way and diversity has always

been one of my mom because I don't like
being dependent on one industry and

I like the fact that we work
across many different industries.

We were heavily involved in fiber optic
component manufacture in the light

one nine hundred ninety S..

Fortunately we had a lot of other
businesses as well in that time.

So as that market strong we
were actually able to continue

to serve the many other industries we
serve for example testing cell phone.

Kind of cell phones we use now
is a very important area for

us to grow in our testing testing
protocol test them a lot of automotive

you can name almost any component and

we probably have one of O.E.M.
automotive manufacturers doing test

technology semiconductor tests
very important Tronics computers

military aerospace research petrochemical

processing potato chips
that have a little messy.

Just like kind hearts the same
chips textiles were examined

broadly based in the way we work we work
with some twenty five thousand different

companies in general electric with
visions councils one we even work with

Coca-Cola as well so
many of the manufacturing companies and

it seems like we always get
involved with the right technology

car manufacturers like Ferrari and
Lamborghini.

I think enjoy going out and visit and

maybe get the spin around to
tractor too so that's a we also

actually sell to our competitors as well
like Agilent because we are standing.

Key products but you products as well.

We work with like seven thousand
universities around the world and

we're very pleased with
our work here where we're

working across areas of telecom robotics.

Just a very wide range of areas
it's really exciting to see

the the work that's been done here

company it was founded by myself and
a gentleman that were working for me.

Jeff.

Had like myself.

The grease and physics and
he got involved computer science and

was very good at a very architectural
definitions of a problem being

able to get a very fundamental
solution and he's also the inventor.

And continues to work to this day and
we've worked very closely.

He's been the technical guy I've
been the guy who waved his arms and

Jeff can figure out
something very complicated.

And I dabbled in analog working on power
amplifiers and things like that but

mainly I was a project manager where
I like before I left university at

some two dozen different product
projects in everything from

transducers to power amplifiers
to automate it test for test may

measurement systems the last one we built
had three P.D.P. eleventh's in it too.

I'm running real time on Unix and
this was in the seventy's so very early

on using computer based instrument
cation in building the system so

that's where we started we moonlight for
some years we had essentially

no outside financing separate
few bucks from family members.

So basically we're able to sell finance.

Now I've tried to advise many many people
over the years to do the same thing we did

and I haven't been that successful in
showing other folks how to do it so

I'm not sure.

This is my house when we start it.

Wasn't quite a garage it was
a room right behind the garage.

So it's sort of in
the garage that we started.

And then the second picture is building in

the time frame here we have a campus
which is right across from the new

shopping center the Domingue
which is a very upscale So

we're very fortunate we actually have
a private entrance to the domain shopping

center because land that was
originally owned by I.B.M.

and we were able to keep that
the private private road.

This is a one way of
starting a company we had

a person who was a gal
Friday she did everything.

She supported the parts she.

Appeal sales force to sell the product and

Jeff this cartoon and
I'm not sure quite what it means but

we assume Jeff was in
the big carrot there.

So anyway this is been
one of the company Lorson

terms of perspective
perhaps it's been the room.

So one of the things because I had not
myself taken any business courses.

My approach to business was to learn
by reading that probably read several

hundred books associate with
business to learn as we went along.

Encountering certain kinds of problems and

I would find a book that matched
the problems I was trying the song and

I do that to this day as we move in
the next generations of marketing.

So for in these a few of the ones
over the years thriving on chaos

chaos has a very good analysis
of how you approach customers

really like there's maybe a chapter or
two that I wouldn't buy into but

fundamentally it really gives you this
all out approach for your customer.

So like built to last.

I think everybody uses that one there and

then the cross of
the Kassam is a model for

how to come out with a radical
new technology and get it.

Successful in a broad based market and
it's become a very fundamental

approach for
us to use in introducing new technology.

In a key part of it is early
adopters elite users and

we have some here at Georgia Tech and

that's one of the key things we like to
do at universities have early adopters to

take in the new technology in
really demonstrate it's by.

You know once that's done.

We can go to the mass market after
we've kind of gotten the kinks out of

things we've demonstrated what we're
what areas are successful effect.

And then we go to the market and the
finally the laggards as you move along.

So it's an excellent book in
that way we use innovative

Lamma really remind us that you have
to keep on your toes and keep moving.

You can't stay still technology.

If you're a technology company looking

to use your competitive edge there's no
stopping you have to continue to innovate.

And we hope we are doing that.

So if you look at our history.

The first step was a job and
self-financing the company and

we did it that I never missed a paycheck
and we never had a crisis with a paycheck.

So we did sell fine.

Starting with the Moonlighting and

then I stepped on board did not take
a pay cut in right after second decade.

Really we introduced last few and
it really set the stage for

what we were to do with
virtual instruments.

But we built on the base we had
created instrumentation interface and

we added our data acquisition
products in these as we

call it sockets to war with and

that would become our platform
as we like to call and

into third decade in their day we
started working in automation.

Because it was a programming language
that had both a user interface and

the graphical data flow.

We could do automation app
applications as well and

customers were doing this we started
introducing some products like point.

And ultimately Compaq Rio and then so

these were system level products we
moved from board level to system level

products so it's a step up and
that will really be a key underpinning for

okro in this time frame as we
continue to build about this

broad base of software with these
system level products in the fourth

decade we expanded and sort of

worked on the completion of the lab
view as a graphical system design tool.

That was a little bit traumatic for the
company here we were this virtual instant

patient company and I was sort of driving
to a new point of view which we take

a step up and make it a graphical
system design tool and so

this is what we're working on right now we
are working closely with quite a number

universities it happens that Berkeley
has the most advanced technology.

So we work in the closest
Berkeley in this and

we agree on the fundamentals of how
this system level design should be done.

So this is something that's active
right now and continues to give us

new opportunities as we go
forward back in one thousand and

two was a very important junction we
at just come on board at first we

were planning to do a combination
of standard products and

consulting work in one
nine hundred eighty two.

We decided to focus exclusively on can

on the standard products
in instead of doing both.

And that was a major
juncture in one of the key

elements of that was a two
page article I read in Texas

business that outlined the strategies for
success in.

It really encouraged us to
focus on what we were doing.

We already had success with our
instrument interface and go to the next

level creating the system level software
to solve this instrumentation problem.

We really did that we turned to
put our energy behind that drop

their custom more in that
really was a major point for

our company in this day to

outline our approach to
the marketplace and when we

really take is serious in making sure
we are highly focused on our platform.

What we call profit from
the core with a lot of focus

on what we're trying to do yet being
flexible enough as new technology comes.

Mailable to take advantage of it and
integrate it into our platform and

our approach when we went public.

I was pretty anxious that we would
be able to continue our focus and

intensity that we were along with
our long term perspective and

this is a big challenge as a public
company because those guys up in

Wall Street try to lure you at the sharp
term abuse of your problem and

that's a big problem because their
motives are much shorter term than ours.

And so in the first time I met with
the investors after we've gone public.

I presented this virtually
unchanged from that time and

really did go was since we
were taken on this new role

of the ninety day results
have to report every quarter.

I added the hundred year plan the counter
balance the ninety days in in and

we've used it ever since and
you can ask how can you plan.

In the for one hundred years.

You know we have no idea how
many transistors or process or

a whether there'll be any transistors in
the process or a hundred years from them.

So it has to be something else and
basically what it is a fundamental

culture the values that things that
are really guide you over the long haul.

In these things have to just be there.

They're fundamental can't be breached
I think we could use more of it on

Wall Street as we've
seen in the culture way

here Georgia Tech you have a culture that
you work with and it sticks around for

a long time and it's really what makes you
great in the end then we get a ten year

level we're using as you start
a strategic vision of our role and

what we're trying to do
the platforms with our products like

plug in boards first in terms of hardware
and in field point in compact Rio and

these are roughly architectures
that serve for a decade also

basically the people we're hiring
what kind of technology we need.

What kind of training
we're doing at that level

when you get the next level five years.

We're starting to tune into
OK What's Hot greenness hot now right.

So we're doing green right.

It was telecom component component optical
components in the five years earlier.

So so basically you're tuning
in more to the latest things

that where the money is
you might say go on where

the money as you also look at
your goals how fast you can grow.

What kind of quality do you need.

And as we've gone into systems we've
really worked hard to get the next

level up on quality to be able
to serve the system level best.

Now that in one year.

It's more topical sales forecasts.

What's a budget.

How much are we going to spend a share.

What's the main projects individual
goal deployment What are we going to

try to accomplish what each in and
then I always say if you do those things.

Well the cotton should work on them.

So in reality we have to house a little
bit in the quad to get it exactly where

it's supposed to be so these become
very important in setting the stage for

decision making process.

Now something else A dead.

I was involved in a quality
consortium where we have classes for

two years every month and
I still want to learn to

down to two triangles the first one
is what I call the success triangle.

I believe it's very critical in a company
to find who to stakeholders are who

is important to you as year so
that if you don't do that.

It's really hard to set goals so and
then the stakeholders have win win goals.

Everybody wins.

If we grow into our profitable.

Careers for them.

Ploy more products for

the customers shareholders success and
suppliers more business so so

fundamentally when we go kind of
define who we are and then behind it.

What we want to do for
each day call it the second triangle

is really about how we want to go
about serving the marketplace.

We want to be a vision driven company so
we can get a lot of folks excited

about a vision that we have and
that vision we need to communicate to

our customers in our case these customers
are scientists and engineers they can

give us a lot of feedback because
they've been around the block.

They know a lot.

We're hiring young folks to school and
if we have season experience

customers then listen to them that
can really help us and we went to.

Basic elements to support that.

Beijing.

One is a high level of innovation.

We don't just want to be a meat to company
we want to do something original and

different than other folks have done
something else we learn you have to add

a lot of continuous improvement you can't
just invent something the first time out.

It's going to have some rough edges.

That's just the way things are so

we need continuous improvement
the roots support that.

And so that's what we work to do now.

We've also had to develop very
sophisticated techniques for

marketing and using the technologies
like the Internet now.

So this is the way we kind of put it
together and it's very important when your

vision driven company would appear
with the platform to marry that with

the traditional approach is to see
collaboration is customers competitors and

contacts and a product price place and
promotion and

this is the way we put it together with
vision platforms product lines and

products all fitting into our
view of how we go to market.

Now we've used to show

how we approach the marketplace
back in the seventies.

We were really sore novice law.

What television was one to many and
mailings and

postcards and
poll keyway meant kest law started

bringing in the network of how you
communicate in in the early ninety's

where we start building networks to really

expand our role especially that products
like lab you now reads law goes

even further when we have sub
networks that even expand further

your ability to reach and
penetrate we believe in this time frame.

These are very critical for sick.

Products that so much depend on
the excitement of custom blogs

summit's podcasts all of these
things a way to leverage and

get a broader base of customers so

these approaches we used in and when
when the internet was being developed.

We were Barry aggressive in using

the Internet because it just
was a good way in general.

Scientists and engineers to read
a computer than a salesman so

it's really worked well for us to to use
the Internet in now we've been a major

player in we continue to win
industry awards for a role

in that the latest one being these these
networks that we've been able to create.

Now this is a sales forecast in one
thousand nine hundred eighty seven that on

May the forecasts being the numbers on the
very right in actual numbers next to it.

It was the same time we set our
business model where we're at in

right of one percent of that
business model for each of cost for

R. and D. for sales and
marketing D.N.A. and so forth.

Profitability.

So we set a business model which
we stuck to because I wanted to

stabilize that model so everybody knew
how much money they had to spend.

It's makes life a whole lot
simpler if you can do that.

So that's what we did in our
product lines in that timeframe

that we were building and
what lead to you.

We create what we call virtual
instrumentation the monster

we had at that time was to do for

Test and Measurement what this spreadsheet
had done the financial analysis analysis.

I believe we did it that nobody
has found a better way to build

a virtual insulin cation system
then we did it last you.

So now lab used a premium.

Software producer in Test and
Measurement instrumentation and

there's joy to very strong Roe Now
we did have a challenge in that and

that test the measurement isn't
the first thing that engineers think of

when when they look at what they're
going to do it starts with design.

So that's what we've been working on is to
expand it is test a measurement solution

at a combination of hardware that would
bring in the data with digitizers and

we adopt it's what we call bits
versus frequency of the pine grow and

then the software that what
we call require analyze and

present at the present the results
here we see the bits versus

frequency where we leverage
the semiconductor technology is Spanish

especially that used in base station
to have phenomenal performance then

now we cover almost the entire
spectrum used in Test and

Measurement there's a little space at the
top twenty eight bits that we don't quite

cover and then some of the are a spectrum
that we're working on.

But fundamentally we tried to duplicate
the capability of traditional instruments

in this region here actually it goes
beyond what traditional instruments and

high down and arrange in this reconsider
range where we get more dynamic

range than traditional instruments so
we've been able to duplicate the front

end capability digitizers that
traditional instruments of have.

So that if you summarize it starting out
we sell fine against the company here

instrument interface is first working with
many computers than personal computers

then adding software without
a plugin cards data acquisition and

then on to system levels at
a higher selling price for

a complete system solutions which
is where we're working right.

Now all the while increasing the number of
dollars we can sell to anyone customer.

Now I mentioned graphical system
design this is where we are at now

over the last five years we've
been really changing our image

in a row include graphical system design.

We continue to focus on test and
measurement especially on a made it test

data was ation and then reconfigurable
instruments and now F.P.G.A.

technology we can even duplicate
the work done by high in them and

then a new area of industrial embed it
where we can do real time measurements and

Bennett monitoring and
something we call hardware in the loo.

If we want to test the E.C.U.
for automobile for example we can simulate

a plant or engine with sensors
to do hardware in a loop and

then a new area of machine control matter
Tronics robotics medical devices and

even generating C. code from lab values so
this opens up a whole new region.

And a let's us to work in a way that we
see a convergence of design and tests.

So we add a new mantra and
this is one that still underway to do for

embedded what the P.C. did for
the desktop fundamentally what you see

did is create a standardized platform
that gets reuse over and over and

that reuse gets sufficiency in the cost of
components customers productivities and

products like Compaq
designed to do that so

that we get very high volume
very high reuse and can really

leverage a network of software and
the like so that's a work in progress.

It's something that we're looking over
the next decade doing now looking at.

The problem.

This is where we're working with quite
a number of universities go one level

above traditional tech space
sequential programming a language.

C. Sharp probably being
the most sophisticated it today

to what we call system design and

this is trying to create higher
levels of abstraction that we can

abstract away more complex at the always
tell a story about when I started

it was a colleague of mine that spent
one month designing a flip flop.

Can you imagine how long it
would take if everybody had to

start from scratch designing flip flops
we wouldn't get very far what we so

we could carry us up a level.

So you can get more work done and what was
detail were we don't need to outsource it.

We can do it ourselves because
we're working a system level.

Well higher level productivity so
this is a very important issue.

To do this abstraction.

We've adopted the concepts from
Berkeley where they talk about models

of computation the user typically
has a view of death problem

depending on the way it's data flow for
certain kinds of single processing and.

Now we have a we've had
our control structure and

data flow of course we
could integrate backwards.

C. code in the logic tech space
map simulation like an image

system simulation and state charts and
all these help that because if the highly

integrated work together you get
a higher level abstraction where you'll

do what I call eliminate the artificial
complexity from your problem.

So the user just gets a whole lot more
done a whole lot quicker than they

could in the past.

So this is a very important concept it
all maps to a lab you under the hood.

So you have to comment in.

Integrated environment to integrate
all these models of complication

in the choice of platforms going from the
desktop to real time systems to F.P.G.A..

The microprocessor so this.

Greyson The Vironment for reuse.

Just to demonstrate is another way
in the loop is the most fundamental

element in programming and
in January Lego will

introduce a new product call we
do that serve seven year olds.

So seven year olds will be programming
with loops using this we do.

And of course you may be familiar with
Lego Mindstorms eight and ten year olds

in a higher level and then on into
our while loop in live view and

then the very we've been
heavily involved in real time.

So a real time loop that lets us
bring programming directly into real

real time application by adding
time into the programming language

simulation loop for dynamic system
simulation with simulation time and

then the single cycle loop
that we use in the F.P.G.A.

so this technology allows
says a scalable approach for

programming for
Away From seven year seven year olds.

One of the nice things
about dataflow programming.

It has significant advantages when
we get to multiple programming

traditional programming
languages are very challenging

to put on multiple cores because all
of the issues associated with it.

We can easily show parallelism.

First off and secondly we can see
where the data is in a given time.

So data flow has some very nice
advantages and tremendous success very

quickly move in our customer's
programs to mull to corps where

traditional programming approaches have
significant issues associated with them.

The same is true for F.P.G.A.
because we can lay it out on the F.P.G.A.

the inherent power is very nice and
works very nice with data flow.

So we've had a lot of success and
what lab do you.

We can effectively bring
data from programming to

what we call domain experts
medical doctors mechanical

engineers pic program F.P.G.A. technology.

We like to talk in terms of K.
through rocket science on one hand

kindergarten all the way
up to applications

large the Large Hadron Collider
where we did very advanced F.P.G.A.

based motion control but
a ten microsecond response time.

We also working on some applications
like a large telescope a forty two meter

telescope with the thousand mirrors
each one to three act actual waiters and

six sensors and then the mayor
of that six thousand actuators

with a membrane farmable membrane
a very hard control problem.

So we scaling all way from
the Mindstorms were very very hard

high in real time control problems so

lab is a programming language now has
a very broad set of capabilities.

I mentioned time come real
time math script distributed

computing all these things integrate it
into one environment for domain experts.

We introduced years ago mass scripts so

we can bring in tech space map with
some seven hundred functions based

on the original Matrix product we
acquired some years ago and it's.

Natively integrated into lab to you and
it works two different ways.

One is an interactive environment like
other products and then inside and

in lab you for real time applications
right now we're really driving

to make it a hardcore real time capability
in the next version of the lab you.

So this combine tape ability with text and

graphics and graphical programming and

some unique capabilities because we can
have our math but then we can surround it

with the interactive capability to
look at worst case boundary conditions

where domain experts that may
not understand the math as well.

Can really really use it and
I would claim.

If you do if you take one
of the math packages and

cut in credit default swaps on Google.

You will discover that
those Wall Street bankers

had some gurus often economy
using Matt who did or.

The bankers or domain experts that didn't
understand that these were doing and

they needed a product like this to be able
to see how you integrate this complex

with some ability to see what in the heck

was going on because I don't believe they
understood what their math was still and

so we weave it with this
technology we can do that.

So I'd like to talk a little bit about
graphical system design from a point

of view and really here.

Our goal is to design a system but
in the same

grette prototype it with the same
software so you don't have to redeploy.

Complex work at deployment and
to move to the real time system so we

have coined the phrase we call algorithm
engineering this combination designing.

And simultaneously prototype.

Hyping a system.

So it's this combination design
a prototype that gives us

algorithm engineering so
it's a unique way to solve your problem so

that as you do in the algorithm.

You have the opportunity
to look at the results

in the real world not just in some
abstract corner of the world where you

don't always know how it'll end
up being when you implement it.

So we call this algorithm engineering.

Here's another way we look at it we
like to start with a desktop or a P.A.

system and then be able to scale
either for cost of volume reasons

to platforms down occur or
compact real system or

integrate it real which is now being
used by the first robotics program

at the high school level single board and
this is a combination of

real time processor and
an Epi directly to the F.P.G.A.

so each module is independently
hooked up to the Epi Jr

very very powerful combination with
a lots and lots of flexibility.

So we've created a platform in
control now in control design and

simulation capability system ID Chris
we've been doing measurements all along.

So we've got a good story we

can interface to other simulation
software and motion control we've

got a lot of motion control technology
that's integrated into this platform.

So we actually involved here.

Georgia Tech as well and controlled
us on as well as university Dr Robert

one of our modern control systems textbook

actively involved in using a technology
for control is an example of control.

Stabilizing the ship

fixed position using our control to
control software with complex real.

Here's an example of modeling and
simulation Professor Wayne brook.

And Ben black at the Georgia Tech.

Doing some very nice things something I'm

very excited haven't gotten to degrade
in physics before I got a degree in

fusion power if we could
create fusion power.

You know back in the fifty's physicists
was telling us electricity would be so

cheap.

We wouldn't even bother to meter and
we all wish that was true right.

It didn't happen.

The reason is we never
made a token practical.

So we continue working toward
controlling what they use and

multi-core a core real time
system where you very high in

control problem at work and
what Max Planck on this one so

live is also being targeted for
signal processing real time streaming very

high performance combination of our signal
processing algorithms in Lab VIEW and

space map with that strip with
the graphic data flow approach.

We have a very nice digital filter
design tool kit advanced signal

processing an add on to kids for
communication modulation to for

example sound and
vibration extensive capability.

Obviously we've been doing most or
historically in Test and

Measurement But
now we're moving these to the design.

As well on a variety of platforms.

Here we see an example where we
demonstrate it using some of the.

Sensors to control away.

Chair or speech to speak to someone who
can't speak but still has the nerve

to do so it was an example of using
pretty complicated signal processing in

a lab you to do this it Illinois and
we had one.

This is kind of one of my favorites
because it involves some soner that

Professor McCloughan in this
team are working on to to

try to find land mines or
some eight hundred ten million or so

land mines buried out there big
hazard may mean lots of people and

hopefully we'll be successful
in solving this problem and

with a combination of surface wave

radar all working together to solve
the problem in a combined capability and

in the platform have capability to
do most of the technologies and

ball Robotics of course is a big area and

we've been actively engaged all
the way from the great schools

in the high school in robotics and
one of once we're very excited about.

It's our role with eighteen hundred
high school teams around because country

on the first robotics program
some forty thousand high school

students involved in this using
the compact real platform

which were donating with the help
of some of our suppliers for

this project and these guys will be
using very advanced technology to build

our robots we're really excited about that
we're encouraging everybody to help us and

certainly their jackets here to pitch in
and help and we greatly appreciate that.

That's because it's a it's a big job
to get eight hundred teams all up and

running and it's very short period time so

we're pretty excited about that we
once again at the Georgia Dome.

Next spring.

So this is exciting and so we as I mention
we are trying to create a job a job.

First off I was creating a job
I wanted to me that meant

other people had to job have
a job they like into this.

I'm pretty much doing the same thing I've
been doing all these years waving my

arms open the other folks get neat things
done and engaged in a lot of different

activities good some really neat things
a lot of work in the area of green and

green engineering where we're
controlling off shore energy

generation vertical when mail.

I'm still trying to work on the one for
flying a kite.

I don't think we've gotten that one yet
but

certainly a lot of different activities.

Lots about cleaning up old processes
making motors more efficient.

So we're heavily involved in that
that's very inspiring and so

that's no fire and get people excited
about what they're working on

to create environment where we
eliminate bureaucracy true vision with

a lot of integrity with a long term
view and creating opportunities and

a lot of dimensions so that's that's kind
of the way we work in hopefully it out

continue to make us want to best places to
work that is very challenging these days.

That's a lot of moving parts out there
with businesses especially as a public

company but
we've managed to continue to do that.

Nine years running one of
the best places to work.

So like to open the floor for

questions on question.

Yes.

Well in the first round our software was a
driver so relatively simple in the eighty

three time frame we start working on the
lab view which is was Jeff's main project.

So that's when we really took
intense focus on Lab VIEW and

software in the amount of investment
we're making in bio in terms of number.

It's always been about two thirds of
our engineers are doing software for

about one third of doing hardware.

So in some ways hardware easier
to get revenue than software.

So hardware has played
an important role for us but

it's really the combination that makes
our platform so we're really driving by

getting the hardware making nice
heterogeneous systems work well it's

really about integrating software and
hardware very closely together.

So that's what we're doing it
turns out the real hard or

tends to be in the software arena.

So we put a lot of focus on that and
certainly the key

thing that we do for
our success or questions.

Yes

right now is really the realisation that
even if we can be in every measurement

labs with some can be in lab you that
really wasn't going to get us to where

engineers were learning lab in their
coursework and so while we were

very successful in getting in labs for
measurements that is not solve our play.

Problem yet and folks from and so

even if they were using it in some
simple way so that realisation really

was what got us to focus
more on the universe.

Now at the high school level course we

get the kids all excited
about graphical programming.

They'll want to see it when
they come up to college but

also very intimately
involved with outreach

where we get kids excited
about engineering.

And I don't think we can do it with
arcane mathematics it has to be real live

things like robots and
things they can see and do so

they can get excited it in gay balls so

we really taken that on in
our outreach to kids and

I personally as you heard
are involved in stamp programs.

So we have a pretty intense
effort there as well.

The questions.

Yes

sure.

Well first off one of my claims is that we
have to work in a more abstract level so

that we eliminate the details.

So they're not need it to do level work
that we might have to outsource so

the domain experts can keep the work in
the United States so that would be kind of

mine from a company point of view it
is a big challenge in the fundamental

challenge is the number of our students
that are going into science and

engineering because we've got a lot of
careers out there as we saw Wall Street.

I'm not sure how we're helping our exports
you know we have this tremendous deficit.

Seven hundred billion dollars
a year an export imbalance.

That's a serious problem and it's right
at the core of why we have financial

problems right now if we have been
exporting like Germany with the same

level rise show I don't think we
have the problems we have now and

it's science and engineering that's
going to make the difference.

You can sell the people the products that
we scientists and engineers create I don't

know that you can do that with some of
the other things that are being created.

So I think it's very important
that we have to focus stability

on the global scale and

that starts in my mind with getting kids
excited about science and engineering.

Yes good question.

Yes.

So I was I went on a trip in one
nine hundred eighty five and

it was somebody who was
hosting this to look at five

different countries and our sales
manager is that we need to be in China.

So I came back I think as I think
we better work on Japan first and

so in that case we saw
that Pan was already

a mature country that we could get into
an operate and so we started there and

then we went to Europe next and
pretty well covered Europe and

then we started working out
we try to have some rules

about what size a revenue we
work first with distributors and

then when the revenue got to a certain
point we saw a need to switch because they

wouldn't really grow
the business because that point.

So we just follow rules that when we
got to a certain point we would invest

to go direct.

It was an expensive proposition
we did that late ninety's.

Late eighty's early ninety's and
then continue to Open Office is

the point now that it's really
not a major impact on our and

vestment dollars because it's the smaller
countries relative to the whole world but

it is very important especially
in software products software

needs to be everywhere it can
be because your costs are for

Dell roughly the same you may
have to do some translation but

fundamentally you need that critical mass
that you get from global and that's why

companies in the U.S. can compete
because you can get these products that

are our cost are low relative
to one market alone.

And so that's very important for
the questions.

Yes right.

Obviously I mean we don't have anything go
in if we don't have the sensors to work

with so sensors are a starting point for

us we we don't make them but
we work closely we

have joint marketing with a variety of
sensor manufacturer actuators as well.

And obviously very critical part
since we deal in the real world and

sensors as where that starts to converge
in real world parameters in the electrical

ones so very important very
important as we go into the design.

Into the new space of the zine in robotics
and mechatronics and things like that.

So we're heavily involved with sensors
with our products and the questions.

Yes

Yes

Well interesting back in one
nine hundred eighty five.

One percent of our engineers are female.

I was not able to maintain that as
we grew up many graduates to higher.

So we've always worked hard to create
a great environment and I think we have.

In to this day a combination of things
first a good work environment with

you know rules that apply
uniformly across the company.

Secondly as families grow needs change and
we try to be very adaptable.

I think it's important as well.

So I want to my frustrations that

the number of graduates has
not grown same percentage.

It was in the early eighty's or
maybe a little bit less it is a challenge.

We are working with the robotics
programs where we have girls start

in that to get first female
engineers as role models out

in the community to help and

try to get folks excited and we were just
discussing that today about Lego and

their involvement in this area and how
we're going to continue like the puppets.

I think the puppets might
be helpful in getting

getting the girls excited
about engineering so.

I think that's a good idea and
we have to try all the things we can.

So yes

we have the ability to integrate V.H.D.L.
for example and

at first that wasn't quite as well
done as it needed to be done.

So we improved that in the last version of
that lab you what something called a clip

now there's a lot of subtlety about that
in this streaming especially in streaming

computation where the way you handshake
between the B.-I plays a big role in that.

And this is the area we're very actively
engaged with Berkeley working through how

to get the performance while making
it creating the abstraction and

if you can't do it.

Abstract level to make sure you
maintain a performance on the road now

we in fairness.

We're going to we're opportunistic we
go where we can solve the problem.

So our real time system says Big
you're gonna hand coded tweet and

it will be for a while the same thing
is true of our F.P.G.A. technology but

the benefit that a whole new set
of users can use it offsets and

obviously there comes a point where if you
a build a cell phone you're going to tweak

it no doubt so but
it is the holy grail of what

we're trying to do and
right now that's an intense effort.

And our development team in the next
generation of what we do in the lab view

at the system level something we call
a system diagram that with these issues

that are under the hood of
how asynchronous actors.

They're sometimes called
communicate with each other very

important part of what we're doing.

Yes.

Combination.

We've been really pushed the lead
user idea because that's where you

get grabbed in the correct way you see
somebody doing something that pushes

beyond what was implied with the version
you have suddenly users to way I

like to do it in reality it's also mount
in the case of what we've extended

lab you at this higher level model
complication that was heavily built around

the ideas that Berkeley had in this
case which we I found by searching and

intense search on the internet where
I looked at all the technology that

was out there and I found that Berkeley
in France at the most advanced it came to

things like groups they have
flown these kind of things so.

So we really in this case use in that so
we do but

we try to drive theoretically
with a theoretical idea or but

we also have lead users who
are polling in the right direction and

those are very critical price success so
we have boat academic elite users and

then we have lead users out an industry
in the best of professors who

also realise there was
another hand over here.

OK That's right.

Well obviously you know
what it's things I did.

When we started looking at things
like synchronous data flow.

I looked at where all the graduates from
Berkeley went in the around the country to

find out to be working with who
had already drank the kool aid and

believed that this approach was a good
idea because you have to have people who

agree to some level and so in that
case we did a broader way sometimes

using our technology doing neat and
we see that we.

We try to work closely with
them then to take it forward.

Now the question.

Yes.

Well that's a question that gets asked.

It is a hard problem with a lot
of pieces a lot of moving pieces.

We are we have this combination
of test a measurement and

then the design and
we find plenty of jobs in and

we do see turn into things but
nobody doubts at this scope at this level

that we're going to thank you wrap up
we're going to once again let's thank Dr

Sharp to

our very much appreciate
your taking time out of

your busy schedule to share the national
estimates vision with our students and

probably have a whole new generation
of Kool-Aid drinkers here for

national assessments and
we have this small token of our Ph And

I'd like to thank you thank you.

And this concludes our two thousand and

eight character lecture I'd like to invite
everyone to join us for a reception across

the street in the bunker Henry lobby
lots of free stuff mostly food.

Thanks again for calming have a good day.