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Thoughts on Hands-On Programming Topics at User Group Meetings

Grant and I were just discussing some new technical presentations that we'll be adding to the UGRC in the next couple of weeks and the topic of hands-on content came up. We want to know your thoughts. Here are a couple of questions we have:

1. Would most attendees be able to bring their own laptops for these topics?

2. Do most of them have LabVIEW installed on those machines?

3. Do you think attendees would find value in these hands-on programming concepts?

Please let us know your thoughts,

Thanks,

Matt

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Our user group is specifically an advanced LV user group, so our experiences may not apply to the more general case.  At any rate, we have done this type of thing in the past.  Given enough advanced warning, my recollection is that laptops with LabVIEW installed were generally available in sufficient degree.  I think there is definitely value in this approach, and that users woudl appreciate it.  We haven't attempted this lately, but that is probably because we haven't found a good topic or problem definition that we could use.  Hence I look forward to your suggestions!  I think it is difficult to find something with a small enough scope to allow it to be accomplished within an hour or so, but with sufficient complexity to hold interest.  Again, that may be a bit different for an advanced user group than for a beginners user group.

DaveT

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David Thomson Original Code Consulting
www.originalcode.com
National Instruments Alliance Program Member
Certified LabVIEW Architect
Certified Embedded Systems Developer
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There are 10 kinds of people: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
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Of our group of regular attendees, I estimate that half would have access to a laptop (with LabVIEW installed) and be willing to bring it to a UGM if they saw a benefit to doing so.  If that was the case, people without laptops could buddy-up with those that have them.  I think it would work out fine.  Some users who are not as advanced may benefit more from watching someone else do the hands-on content, be it their laptop buddy or a presenter who is working through the content on a projection screen (if practical).  I venture to say that it would depend on the content and the type of interest it would pull.

Ed DeWitt

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My UGM in Calgary is held in an on-campus lab at one of the colleges.  They already ahve all of our software installed on all the desktop machines (17 in the room) plus a PXI chassis with digitizer, daq card, and I2C/SPI on each desk.  We have our meetings quarterly and would welcome more hands-on content.

ANY form of intermediate LV hands-on content is greatly appreciated as it can follow from our Intro to LV seminars.

Rishi L
National Instruments
Applications Engineer
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Thanks for the feedback.

Dave - Did NI supply the laptops for your group in the past?

AlphaTreo and iRish - We're currently offering the following hands-on as an option at our NI technical Symposiums.

https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-17005

For user groups hands-on topics, I was thinking of something along these lines. Thoughts?

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No, we asked users to bring laptops with them.

Could NI supply laptops?


DaveT

-------------------------------------------------------------
David Thomson Original Code Consulting
www.originalcode.com
National Instruments Alliance Program Member
Certified LabVIEW Architect
Certified Embedded Systems Developer
-------------------------------------------------------------
There are 10 kinds of people: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
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Hi Dave,

We currently don't have dedicated laptops for user group meetings, but some of our regions have been creative in the events they host and in the ways we support it. I was curious if one of our local guys or you worked with Corey S. to obtain some of our public seminar  or training equipment for the meeting.

Matt

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