One of the Dumbest Contests Ever

[kfnight]

Enter to win an Undergraduate Lab Assessment from Keysight Technologies

TestEquity and Keysight have teamed up to provide a unique opportunity for one lucky winner as part of our ongoing efforts to equip higher learning institutions with state-of-the-art labs. What’s the prize? Keysight's Director of America's University Development will visit the winner to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of their undergraduate teaching lab. He will provide a report ranking their lab against similar labs at other universities and colleges. The winner can leverage this report to develop future improvements, making their program more attractive to students, and ensuring their curriculum gives students the skills they need to make them more attractive to prospective employers! To learn more and enter to win, click the “Enter to Win” button above.

So rather than providing the "winner" with the equipment needed to make their lab successful, Keysight and TestEquity are going to tell them how much their lab equipment sucks so that they can shame administration into buying equipment from Keysight and TestEquity. 

[ciccio]

It really one  of the dumbest offers I've heard.
They want to use the students as unpaid sales reps..
Shame to Keysight. I remember when Hewlett-Packard was giving free instruments to Schools and Universities.

[BillB]

Wait, wait, wait. 

It's not just any old putz that's coming around to tell them how crappy their lab is, it's none other than the Director of America's University Development.  Not the Assistant to the director, but the Director himself!

[metrologist]

But...these kinds of consulting services are rather expensive... 

[tpowell1830]

Again, let's take another look at this, although I agree with the statement that is is a marketing ploy. The upside is that the lab will get really good and up to date equipment. I know that when I went to lab in college, the equipment was older than I was and soooo far from up to date.

Also, the other plus side of this is that many large companies provide the lab equipment free to a uni lab and makes it a win-win-win because the uni would get new lab equipment at no cost which, will allow the students to learn on up to date equipment, which then would skew the mindset of students to want the company brand equipment later on in a job environment because that is what they learned on, and that sells more of the same equipment.

Hmmm, I think I like the latter scenario better.

Just my 2 cents...

[thm_w]

Again, let's take another look at this, although I agree with the statement that is is a marketing ploy. The upside is that the lab will get really good and up to date equipment. I know that when I went to lab in college, the equipment was older than I was and soooo far from up to date.

If the school has a budget for it in place already, which seems unlikely.

Also, the other plus side of this is that many large companies provide the lab equipment free to a uni lab and makes it a win-win-win because the uni would get new lab equipment at no cost which, will allow the students to learn on up to date equipment, which then would skew the mindset of students to want the company brand equipment later on in a job environment because that is what they learned on, and that sells more of the same equipment.

They make a lot of money off of selling test equipment to schools, I don't think they would give it away for free.
Maybe you are thinking of free/discounted software licenses, which is very common (microsoft, solidworks, altium, autocad, etc.).

[abraxa]

Again, let's take another look at this, although I agree with the statement that is is a marketing ploy. The upside is that the lab will get really good and up to date equipment. I know that when I went to lab in college, the equipment was older than I was and soooo far from up to date.

Where does it say that the lab will receive equipment? As far as I understand, the lab receives a letter saying "We from Keysight hereby certify that your lab sucks in comparison to other labs. Please buy Keysight gear to stay up-to-date."

[splin]

What's the betting that *all* entrants "win"? 

[EEVblog]

LOL

https://www.testequity.com/static/584/

T&C:

https://www.testequity.com/static/585/

http://

[Bud]

Wait, wait, wait. 

It's not just any old putz that's coming around to tell them how crappy their lab is, it's none other than the Director of America's University Development.  Not the Assistant to the director, but the Director himself!

That is what is weird. I'd be cautious about a technical assessment conducted by a top level manager and not by a technical personnel.

[Keysight DanielBogdanoff]

I know Art personally, and he's put together some great programs & helped a lot of schools in the US get the gear they need for ABET stuff - he's not just a sales guy/high level manager type. Higher level academia folks also tend to respond well to loftier titles.

That being said, this does seem unusual to me... I (and this forum) are definitely not the target audience. I like Wave 2018 better 

[CatCow]

I like Wave 2018 better 

Well at least you guys are having fun with the videos! I’ve been laughing way too much.

[ArdWar]

Jeez, so Keysight get the publicity from this "contest"; get to shit on whatever equipment happens to be owned by said institutions, and I guess get to promote their "equivalent or better" offerings; probably get sales deal too.

What the "winner" really won here? 

[Porcine Porcupine]

Perhaps the lucky winning institution will take Keysight's assessment into consideration and then use it as guidance to outfit its lab with comparable Rigol or Siglent equipment. The only hard part will be deciding what to do with all the leftover money.

[ebastler]

"Win a visit by our sales rep!!"

Great idea. And the audience will already be pre-filtered; a select group of naive/easily impressed/gullible lab heads... Even if they only get a few participants, those will certainy be worth visiting, from Keysight's perspective.