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MET presents award for high ability educational toys
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MET presents award for high ability educational toys

October 19, 2015
The MET Innovation and Talent Prize was awarded to a project that offers high ability education from pre-school age as part of a programme designed to raise a new generation of software engineers. The award was presented to NI Hungary Kft at the Figyelő Top 200 ceremony.

Under the NI Mentor Program, pre-schoolers are introduced to the mysteries of an engineer’s mind through toy monkeys, crocodiles and humanoid robots. Young children are assisted by special toys programmed via laptops in order to learn graphics language programming in an easy, playful way.

NI Hungary Kft mentors some 3,000 pupils at 94 educational institutions from pre-school to secondary school age. Specialized in measuring and automation, NI Hungary offers secondary school children a glimpse into the world of exciting technical solutions through its own products, the myDAQ and the myRIO measuring tools, and the LabVIEW software.

“We view the Mentor Program as our social responsibility. By the time these children grow up, they will have a thorough knowledge of programming. If others join this program, it may turn into a life-changing initiative,” said László Ábrahám, Managing Director of Texas-based National Instruments’ local subsidiary in Debrecen, east Hungary. Currently, thirty company experts work as mentors and a book has been published about the program, which can be downloaded from the internet. The company also organizes free mentor training.

The recently launched Innovation and Talent Prize has been awarded to NI Hungary by a panel of MET senior employees. The winning projects were selected by MET from weekly Figyelő’s Top 200 company list. “At MET, we believe that knowledge and innovation created by talented staff members are the greatest business asset. That is why we consider every initiative that helps Hungarian schools towards raising an open-minded, creative new generation an important effort. This prize-winning NI Mentor Program is a comprehensive, long-term initiative, which we instantly fell in love with,” said MET Hungary CEO Gergely Szabó at the award ceremony.

MET Group is an energy trading company established in Hungary in 2007, currently active in ten countries via subsidiaries. The company’s core business is natural gas trade with other activities including power and oil trade as well as power generation. MET currently trades in 19 national gas markets.