Home » Blog » August 2019 North West LabVIEW User Group: Agenda

August 2019 North West LabVIEW User Group: Agenda

David Maidman – Control Software Solutions

August 14th 2019
University of Manchester, Ferranti Building, Room C30, M13 9PL

Control Software Solutions are please to confirm the agenda for the August North West LabVIEW User Group. If you are interested in attending please register here.

Confirmed Agenda

12:30
Registration & Lunch

13:00 – 13:15
LabVIEW User Group Introduction
David Maidman, Control Software Solutions

13:15 – 14:00
A Detailed Look at State Machines; States, Actions and Transitions
Louise Bonner, Control Software Solutions

State machines are one of the first architectures that the LabVIEW developer is introduced to, however beyond implementing simple sequences they are often overlooked and not fully understood or exploited.
In this presentation Louise will look beyond simple sequences, separating a modules state from its actions and state transitions. She will model a systems behaviour using UML State Diagrams, and then show how the design can be realised in LabVIEW.

About Louise
Louise is a Senior Systems Engineer at Control Software Solutions, who has been working with LabVIEW since 2012 and is CLA and CTA certified.
Specialised in developing bespoke test and automation systems, Louise has worked in many sectors; including manufacturing, military and aerospace programs.
Her case study on a system to monitor home energy efficiency was a finalist in the 2014 NI Impact awards, and she has continued to take an interest in using LabVIEW in connected devices and ‘Internet of Things’ applications.

14:00 – 14:15
Coffee Break & Networking

14:15 – 15:00
Design of a Raspberry Pi Based Control System
Phil Donovan, Rawwater Engineering

After watching his own project slowly turn to chaos due to poor planning and bad development practices, Phil embarked on a more structured approach in his most recent project. His presentation outlines the lessons learned during this process and how it’s enabled him to build more flexible and robust software.

About Phil
Phil is a scientist and engineer who has worked in R&D roles since 2010 in both academic and industrial environments. He started his LabVIEW exploration in 2011 by building a Vibration Data Acquisition and Analysis system for a manufacturer of scientific instrumentation. LabVIEW quickly became a hobby for Phil but having kids has meant there’s only time to write a couple of unit tests in a week so he’s had to find work where he can code. Fortunately, he now employs an ever-improving software development capability supporting Rawwater Engineering’s efforts to develop novel applications for low-melting-point alloys.

15:00 – 16:00
Improving the LabVIEW Developer’s Experience
Thomas McQuillan, Scientifica

When I develop code, I want the process of converting an idea to code to be as streamlined and convenient as possible. This protects against context switching (and in my case: forgetting). With this in mind, I have been working on introducing tools to the LabVIEW environment to better workflows and improve the development experience. Take for example Object-Oriented Programming, we spend a lot of time switching between the project explorer and the block diagram, but as programmers, we want to stay in the block diagrams where the code lives. In this presentation, I will take you through how to extend the LabVIEW IDE in multiple ways and pinpoint exactly where and how to implement scripting to improve the LabVIEW developer experience.

About Tom
Tom is a full-time software developer at Scientifica where he designs and develops software for neuroscience research. He also runs a LabVIEW YouTube channel (Tom’s LabVIEW Adventure) and regularly teaches all of the LabVIEW, TestStand, VeriStand and DIAdem training courses as a Certified Professional Instructor. Prior to working at Scientifica, he spent two years working at National Instruments, where he supported hundreds of unique applications to solve engineering challenges and qualified as a Certified LabVIEW Architect. Before working at National Instruments Tom also worked for two NI alliance partners where he developed custom software and designed automated test equipment.