NI Korea Country Manager Lee Dong-kyu Announces 2018 Vision Strategy
"We need to target because the domestic market isn't expanding noticeably."

As 2017 wrapped up, National Instruments (NI) held NI Days and announced technology trends to watch in 2018.

The 2018 vision strategy (Trend Watch 2018) announced by NI includes changes and responses in the semiconductor market, management of the Industrial Internet of Things, 5G testing, issues to consider in the electric vehicle market, and machine learning to help shorten engineers' development time by assisting with data analysis.

Lee Dong-kyu, General Manager of NI Korea, stated, “Boundaries between industrial sectors have blurred and converged. Engineers are now considering aspects they previously did not think about.” For example, while automotive manufacturers' engineers consider ‘safety,’ noise has also become an indispensable factor.



With the rise of the Industrial Internet of Things, everything in the analog environment has become data. President Lee mentioned remote system management, software configuration management, and data management as three essential elements.

Collecting data for the Seohae Bridge begins with installing sensors on-site. The sensors indicate factors such as how much the bridge has expanded and whether it is swaying. The administrator collects data centrally and manages the system remotely for maintenance.

This year, NI released System Link, which centralizes and manages sensor data, and the Data Management Software Suite, which searches, manages, analyzes, processes, and visualizes vast amounts of data.

Reporters' questions continued. Regarding the target of "double-digit growth" set at NI DAY 2016 last year, Branch Manager Lee stated, "It looks like we will exceed the target" (although the quarter has not yet ended).

Regarding NI Korea's core business areas for 2018, the company answered in the order of "semiconductor testing, automotive, defense and aerospace, and academy-related education markets," while also stating, "Since the domestic market is not expanding significantly, targeting is necessary. In particular, the goal is to make a leap forward by focusing on the ADAS and electric vehicle sectors."

NI provides Hardware-in-the-Loof (HIL) solutions that enable real-world testing of components ranging from automotive power sources and power synchronous motors to inverters connecting engines.