What Are NI miniSystems?

Inspired by customer applications and developed in collaboration with leading educational suppliers, NI miniSystems are small-scale replications of real-world systems that connect with NI educational hardware and software to create science and engineering systems like the ones that attracted students to the engineering field in the first place. NI miniSystems deliver the following:

• Instant Relevance in Science and Engineering Education
• 24-Hour Access to Real-World Systems
• Flexibility to Immediately Run or Customize Lab Exercises
• Industry-Standard Tools and Methodologies

Instant Relevance in Science and Engineering Education

The road to a degree in science or engineering is daunting for students, especially when the concepts they learn in the classroom are removed from the context of real-world applications. Few students continue to study engineering after the first year of school because they are so overwhelmed with theory and simulation and don’t have the chance to “do engineering.” NI miniSystems give students the chance to work on the challenges that attracted them to the engineering field in the first place.

Browse NI miniSystems by application

24-Hour Access to Real-World Systems

NI miniSystems are add-on boards that plug into the NI myDAQ hardware device to interface with real-world sensors and signals. Because NI myDAQ is pocket-size, portable, and completely USB-powered, students can take these systems anywhere a laptop can go, giving them the ability to set the pace of their learning and experience relevant engineering systems regardless of where they are.

What is NI myDAQ?

Flexibility to Immediately Run or Customize Lab Exercises

All NI miniSystems are developed for use with NI LabVIEW system design software so that educators can use both ready-to-run exercises or customized applications to fit the needs of the classrooms and labs. With LabVIEW, students have the tools to tinker and explore concepts and are limited only by their own creativity and imaginations. 

Analyze measurements on a system of multiple temperature sensors

Understand accelerometer principles by creating a small-scale earthquake

Introduce flight dynamics with a miniature helicopter system

Industry-Standard Tools and Methodologies

Because NI miniSystems use industry-leading NI technology that equips the innovation and discovery of engineers in more than 30,000 companies worldwide, students build resume-ready skills that they can carry with them long into their careers, while developing the problem-solving skills to better prepare them for the challenges of the future. NI miniSystems adhere to the graphical system design approach with LabVIEW by integrating hardware and software into a single platform. This means that all students can access the innovations of scientists, engineers, and educators from around the globe through the same platforms that unify thousands of professional science and engineering applications worldwide.

What is graphical system design?