Performance Summary

2010 Performance Summary: Inspire and Empower Customers

This section provides a summary of the results for the 2010 National Instruments citizenship commitments. To learn more about the company's performance and commitments, visit the sections linked from this summary. A letter from the company's CEO, Dr. James Truchard, also summarizes the company's citizenship efforts in 2010, and a summary brochure is available for download.

To locate a specific Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicator in this report, refer to the GRI Index.

 

 Inspire and Empower Customers

Area	2010 Commitment	2010 Performance	Status
Improve Everyday Life	Focus R&D efforts on developing products that take advantage of cutting-edge fiber-optic technologies for structural monitoring applications	NI invested more than 16% of total revenue in R&D, which resulted in the release of 438 new products including the NI optical sensor interrogator and SC Express products to enhance structural health monitoring capabilities for engineers and scientists.
	Maintain the company's 2009 level of investment in the NI Medical Device Grant Program	NI granted awards to 20 companies in an effort to provide more focused and individualized support to medical startups.
Enable Green Engineering	Develop products that will aid customers in creating smart grid technologies	The company kicked off R&D projects to develop an NI LabVIEW toolkit for smart grid power quality, flicker, and synchrophasor applications. Also released a LabVIEW driver for Distributed Network Protocol 3.0 (DNP3) communication for electrical substation equipment.
	Support 25 companies developing clean technologies by providing free software and services through the NI Green Engineering Grant Program	NI awarded nearly $900,000 USD in software and services to 40 clean-tech companies developing innovative applications in wind energy, biofuels, concentrated solar power, thermal energy storage, and more.
	Teach green engineering principles to 5,000 engineers and scientists through on-site and virtual events	NI hosted regional seminars at green engineering events and the first Energy Technology Summit at NIWeek 2010, training more than 2,600 engineers on the benefits and technologies behind solar, wind, and smart grid applications; did not host any on-demand or virtual events, which limited attendance.
Empower the Innovators of Tomorrow	Make educational learning platforms more affordable and accessible for educators and students in all regions of the world	The company released NI myDAQ, a portable, low-cost device for engineering labs and curriculum, to allow students to perform hands-on experimentation outside the lab. The device is currently available for students in the United States and Canada for $175 USD and educators for academic use worldwide.
	Enhance the experience of FIRST competitors through product development and support	NI maintained the same level of support for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) competitors in 2010; no progress toward developing new products specifically for FIRST competitions.
	Increase collaboration in engineering education at the NIWeek Academic Forum by more than doubling the number of submissions to the Student Design Showcase	NI received 83 submissions to the Student Design Showcase, achieving only 42% of the goal due to less global promotion for the contest. To increase submissions and student engagement, the company evolved the showcase to the LabVIEW Student Design Competition.