2011 Performance Summary: Empower Engineers and Scientists

This section provides a summary of the results for the 2011 National Instruments corporate responsibility 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 efforts in 2011.

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

Legend

	Fulfilled commitment
	Partially fulfilled or currently in progress
	No progress

Area	2011 Commitment	2011 Performance	Status
Improve Everyday Life	Invest 16% of revenue in R&D to further empower engineers and scientists to develop world-improving technologies.	Invested more than 19% of revenue in R&D.
	Develop new products that leverage the latest technologies for structural measurements and educate the structural engineering community on their benefits.	Released a new wireless sensor network node for strain measurements, updated software for NI optical sensing interrogators, and developed a new 3-channel C Series module for vibration measurements.
	Give more engineers in developing countries access to technology by expanding the Planet NI program.	Expanded from 20 participating countries in 2010 to 34 participating countries in 2011.
Enable Green Engineering	Develop and release innovative products to aid customers in creating smart grid technologies.	Partnered with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) to develop a General Purpose Inverter Control board so customers can easily develop the inverters and power electronics that provide the foundation for many renewable energy technologies.
	Create resources on engineering best practices for wind turbine monitoring, inverter technologies, and smart grid development.	Hosted the two-day Energy Technology Summit at NIWeek 2011 with three keynote speeches, a discussion panel, and 10 technical sessions.
	Teach green engineering principles to 5,000 engineers through free virtual and on-site events.	Held green engineering seminars around the world, hosted the NIWeek Energy Technology Summit, and created an Earth Day webcast series.