LabVIEW Champions Directory
Name:
Casey Lamers
ni.com/forums name:
CaseyLamers1
Home:
Madison, WI
Programming Languages:
Exclusively LabVIEW, unless you count functions in Excel
Certification:
CLA
Used LabVIEW Since:
2008
Applications Areas:
Embedded Machine Control, Scientific Instruments, System Integration
Biography:
Let me start off by saying that I have a cool job as the head software engineer on a nuclear fusion particle accelerator at Phoenix Nuclear Labs. I get to work with a lot of smart people. I get to challenge myself daily. And I get to do it all while playing on the computer! LabVIEW is my full time video game.
I didn't start my career as a software engineer. I have had jobs where I had to "wear many hats". Initially LabVIEW allowed me to solve some small problems. Gradually the problems got bigger and bigger. I graduated to embedded control while building a custom laser welder. At the time I was responsible for CAD design, parts specification, building, controlling, programming and running the machine. These days I am surrounded by talent that takes care of the surrounding activities and I am left to "solving" the controls.
I have grown as a programmer, and NI and LabVIEW offered tools to meet the growing scope of the challenges. I specialize in Object Oriented Programming, specifically Actor Framework on Compact RIO (cRIO). I was the first customer to deploy an Actor Framework (AF) project to a cRIO. To my knowledge, I still have the largest AF project deployed to cRIO.
I believe in Continuous Improvement. I am frequently reading on software engineering practices and tools like Continuous Integration (CI), Unit Testing, Design Patterns, etc.
As the software team has grown I have also taken to studying Agile project management and Scrum. I have also implemented CI at Phoenix Nuclear Labs.
I like to have conversations regarding best practices and what people are doing to be successful. Feel free to ask me a question, especially with regards to AF on cRIO or general development practices.
I believe the solutions to the big problems always boil down to lots of small easy to solve problems. Small easy problems, now that is something I can handle! Note: I don't take myself too seriously.
Discussion Groups:
Actor Framework
Continuous Integration (started by me)
Actor Framework on cRIO (started by me)
Certified LabVIEW Architects
LabVIEW Architects Forum
Big Physics
Madison LabVIEW User Group Communitiy
LabVIEW at UW-Madison
Articles:
LabVIEW, cRIO and FPGA technology provides a flexible development platform for bringing a particle accelerator to market
2012 Big Physics Summit Poster Presentation
Controlling a Nuclear Fusion Particle Accelerator
2013 NIWeek Conference Presentation
https://forums.ni.com/t5/Past-NIWeek-Sessions/NIWeek-2013-Controlling-a-Nuclear-Fusion-Particle-Acce...
Object Oriented Programming, Design Patterns and Actors in LabVIEW
2014 CLA Summit Presentation
Software Engineering Using the Actor Framework and Object-Oriented Programming to Solve Big Problems
http://www.ni.com/newsletter/51856/en/
Continuous Integration in LabVIEW Using Agile
2015 CLA Summit Presentation
