HERE'S THE CHALLENGE: Every 250 milliseconds, reconfigure a machine with 300,000 potential settings so that it pulls particles from one of three ion sources, tickles each of 500 quadrupole magnets to boost the particles (moving as fast as 80 percent of light speed) to within 0.1 percent of a precise energy, then hurl them down one of four delivery paths so they irradiate exactly the millimeter-sized volume of a tumor buried deep in a patient’s brain.

Do that and you, too, can win triple honors at this year’s National Instruments Graphic Design System Achievement Awards.