[Malaysia] National Instruments Opens NI-AIN Lab In Technology Park

NI Managing Director for Southeast Asia, Mr. Chandran Nair (fifth from left), presented a token of appreciation to the Minister in PM Department and CEO of PEMANDU, Senator Dato’ Seri Idris Jala (fourth from right).

Automated test equipment and virtual instrumentation software provider National Instruments has announced the opening of National Instruments Academy & Innovation Nucleus (NI-AIN), a shared services lab facility in Technology Park Malaysia comprising over RM20 million (~US$6.25 million) worth of hardware and software technology tools that’s developed as an incubation center for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) working on high-value design and engineering services.

A private-public initiative between National Instruments and the government of Malaysia, the NI-AIN facility located in Malaysia’s industrial corridor at Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur is one of the Entry Point Projects (EPP) within the Electrical & Electronics NKEA under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP). The facility occupies close to 10,000 square feet of floor space that will be used for training and certification, talents development programs in science, technology and innovation, as well as enabling local SMEs to innovate across a wide range of industry applications such as control and instrumentation, radio frequency and wireless communication, green technology, renewable energy, transportation, oil and gas and agro-science. NI-AIN will also act as a knowledge hub for local SMEs, institutes of higher learning, multinationals, government-linked companies, research institutions as well as regional clients from ASEAN and OIC countries to utilise the hardware and software facilities, and also to tap into the knowledge network of NI LabVIEW certified users from all around the world. With this ecosystem, companies and users can leverage on the unified LabVIEW platform as the foundation to infinite designs and solutions in the measurement and control systems for a wide range of applications, and will assist the companies to accelerate productivity, innovation and discovery.

“NI-AIN aims to lower entry barriers and enable access to facilities for SMEs to nurture innovation, develop the talent pool, build capabilities and capacities; and promote intellectual property creation amongst SMEs and start-ups in Malaysia and the region,” says Chandran Nair, managing director for National Instruments in ASEAN. “In the long-term, our vision is to raise SMEs overall productivity and global competitiveness, by helping them create IP and scale up their business venture. Hopefully, this would also lead to greater economic and technological development in Malaysia as a whole.”

“NI-AIN houses eight unique technology laboratories that are fully equipped with the latest NI hardware and software in automated test, control and measurement. These include NI’s LabVIEW software, NI PXI, NI DAQ, and NI CompactRIO. NI LabVIEW is an award-winning graphical system design software that provides engineers and scientists with the tools to create and deploy measurement and control systems, allowing them greater productivity and ability to innovate,” shares Nair.

Nair says the success of NI-AIN will be based on the number of proof-of-concepts, prototyping designs developed in this facility, the number of SMEs that take part in the seminars and training courses, as well as the number of engineers trained and up-skilled. He adds that the NI-AIN facility is still in its early stages having just been officially opened, and right now they are focusing on raising awareness for the facility, working in partnership with SME Corp and Multimedia Department Corporation (MDeC).

“Over the coming weeks, we will be conducting seminar and training classes at NI-AIN,” says Nair. “We hope to attract a large pool of SMEs to sign up for these courses and take advantage of the technologies and training expertise that will be available for them so they could accelerate work on their products’ proof-of-concept and prototyping design applications.”