National Instruments and The Engineer Celebrate the Best of British Engineering at the 2008 Technology & Innovation Awards

New Sensor that could Revolutionise Kidney Stone Therapy Wins Medical & Healthcare Category, Sponsored by NI

Newbury, UK, Oct 27, 2008 – National Instruments UK & Ireland congratulates Precision Acoustics, Southampton University and Guy’s & St.Thomas’ Trust for winning the Medical & Healthcare Category, sponsored by NI at The Engineer’s Technology & Innovation Awards 2008.  The winning collaborative team designed a new sensor that uses acoustics to measure the impact of kidney stone treatment, which has the potential to improve the care of thousands of patients.

Extracorporeal shock wave lothotripsy (ESWL) is used in the treatment of kidney stones to deliver shock waves from outside the patient’s body to break up the stone.  To be effective, the shock waves must hit the stone repeatedly, although currently there is no way for doctors to monitor this during the treatment process.  Professor Timothy Leighton of Southampton University, an acoustics and ultrasound expert, worked with Dr Andrew Hurrell from Precision Acoustics to design a passive acoustic sensor to solve this problem. 

Robert Morton, National Instruments UK & Ireland Managing Director presented the Award to the team at the Awards luncheon.  Morton said: "National Instruments is pleased to be associated with the 2008 Technology & Innovation Awards, hosted by The Engineer.  Technology and innovation have always been at the heart of our business, and the same is true for many of our customers.  Engineers and scientists make enormous and vital contributions to the world around us, as well as to the economy, and these awards celebrate and recognise that.  NI also has a proud tradition of working closely with academia, and these awards also applaud the benefits of close collaboration between engineers and scientists in industry and those in academia."

"Promoting the good work done by engineers and scientists in improving everyday life today also serves to inspire the future engineers and scientists of tomorrow, which we should all feel a responsibility to do", added Morton. 

The Technology & Innovation Awards recognise the excellent work that is undertaken by engineers and scientists in the UK, by innovative companies who collaborate with universities on ground breaking projects.

The Awards, held at The Royal Society, London, were preceded by a round table discussion, hosted by The Sainsbury Management Fellows.  National Instruments, together with other leading companies and universities, participated in a lively discussion on the subject of manufacturing in the UK.

About National Instruments
National Instruments (www.ni.com)is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 25,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 10 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 4,800 employees and direct operations in nearly 40 countries. For the past nine years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. In the UK & Ireland, NI is headquartered in Newbury, Berkshire, providing local sales, marketing and support, and has been named in the Financial Times 50 Best Workplaces for the past three years.

For More Information
Contact NI Tel : (01635) 523545  Fax : (01635) 523154  e-mail : info.uk@ni.com  Web:www.ni.com/uk

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