National Instruments, co-founded by Jeff Kodosky '70, made the university a gift of LabVIEW software valued at $5 million. The campuswide agreement that put the software into the hands of Rensselaer students and faculty was the first such agreement between National Instruments and a university.

Students and faculty researchers use LabVIEW software to control test measurement equipment. Using LabVIEW, a researcher can feed experimental data being collected by measurement equipment directly into a computer for calculation and modeling. In addition, LabVIEW software allows a researcher to preprogram a whole sequence of steps in an experiment, making it possible for the computer to run the experiment.

"LabVIEW has become the industry-standard software, and its creation is a tribute to Rensselaer," said Kodosky, the inventor of LabVIEW. "The high-quality training I received here equipped me for success in the technological workplace."

The three-year campus license enables all students to acquire National Instruments software and upgrade it annually, such as LabVIEW, HiQ, G-Math, and an Internet developer toolkit. LabVIEW, the industry-standard graphical programming environment for measurement and automation, is used by a wide variety of organizations, such as Kodak, Ford, Motorola, and NASA.