Mullins and Truchard to deliver Keynotes at NIDays 2012

Truchard's Keynote, entitled System Design for the 21st Century, highlights the latest innovations that will equip engineers and scientists with tools that accelerate productivity, innovation and discovery, and opens the conference at 08:30.

Mullins' Keynote covers the Progress and Challenges of Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi computer has sold in the hundreds of thousands since its launch earlier in 2012. The hope is that these versatile, low-cost computers will help develop a generation that can confidently control, adapt and exploit the digital world. Mullins will describe the Raspberry Pi story so far: the motivation for the project and journey since launch, including some of the projects that are exploiting the Raspberry Pi and the significant challenges that must be overcome to ensure the original goals are met.

Both technology pioneers will also take part in the panel discussion to debate the topic: Are New Engineering Graduates Ready for Industry? Truchard and Mullins will be joined by other industry experts including:

• Mike Sutton - Technical Fellow, Engine Oils, Lubrizol
• Professor Martin Levesley - Director of Teaching and Learning, University of Leeds
• Rhys Morgan - Head of Secretariat to Education for Engineering
• Jose Lopes - Head of Technical Excellence, Jaguar Land Rover

John Pullin, an industry journalist and editor, will moderate the discussion and take questions from the audience.

Dr James Truchard

Truchard, who co-founded National Instruments in 1976, continues to lead the company today. Under his leadership, NI has pioneered the development of graphical system design software and hardware that revolutionises the way engineers design and develop test and measurement applications. In 1986, Truchard and Jeff Kodosky invented NI LabVIEW system design software, the intuitive graphical environment that has revolutionised the way innovators design, prototype and deploy their applications. As NI has grown from a three-man team to a multinational organisation with more than 6100 employees, Truchard and his management team have created an award-winning corporate culture that has been recognised as one of the top 25 World's Best Multinational Workplaces by the Great Place to Work Institute. Truchard is an active supporter of the NI academic programme that focuses on growing students' science, technology, engineering and maths skills through hands-on, project-based learning. Truchard holds a Doctorate in electrical engineering, as well as a Master's degree and Bachelor's degree in physics, all from The University of Texas at Austin.

Dr Robert Mullins

Mullins is a Lecturer in the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow and Director of Science in Computer Science at St John's College. He is also a co-founder and trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a UK Charity that aims to promote the study of computer science and electronics at the school level. The Foundation created the Raspberry Pi computer with the hope of helping to inspire, enthuse and educate the next generation of scientists, designers and engineers.

NIDays 2012

NIDays, the annual graphical system design technical conference and exhibition, brings together more than 600 engineers and scientists from across the UK and Ireland. This free, one-day, multi-track conference features keynote presentations, interactive sessions taught by NI experts from industry and academia, hands-on workshops and an exhibition showcasing advancements in design, control and test. More details, including session details and the full agenda, can be found at uk.ni.com/nidays. Registration for NIDays is free online at uk.ni.com/nidays, by emailing [email protected] or by using the form on this page.