Thinking about this in terms of what low-level actions are being performed by the Arduino (relay closures, sensor readings, basic I/O), it strikes me how this can be an alternative/complement to platforms like LabView. I feel this is significant due to the prevalence of these platforms in engineering education as well as in industry R&D, test labs, etc. - in my opinion, the more (different) tools that are available and to which people are exposed, the more likely these people will be engaged (in the case of engineering education) or able to get their jobs done.