embedded world 2019 Begins in Nuremberg, Focuses on “Embedded Intelligence” for AI

The embedded world conference 2019 runs from February 26th to February 28th, highlighting the rapid advances made in this dynamic technology.

What Is embedded world?

For 17 years, embedded world has been a place for companies and engineers to discuss advancements in embedded design, showcase new embedded products, and how embedded systems are entering new industry applications over time.

2019 has a reported 1100 companies exhibiting and is slated to beat its 2018 record of over 32,000 attendees.

 

 

This year's event is focused on the concept of "Embedded Intelligence"—a theme they say they borrowed from another conference that occurred back in the 1990s. This fact highlights how long the concept of "embedded intelligence" has been present in the industry, even as continuously emerging technologies such as machine learning and AI change its meaning.

Here's a brief overview of the show's goals and events, especially how the show aims to help engineers meet the challenges of change and opportunities that these changes afford.

Keynote Addresses

Embedded Intelligence on the Edge

One of 2019's Conference Keynote is "Embedded Intelligence for the Next Wave of Smart Systems – Opportunities and Challenges on the Edge".

This address, delivered by Jean-Marc Chery of STMicroelectronics, talks about what can be thought of as the localization of AI. Embedded systems have made it possible for AI to gradually move from cloud-based data centers down to where the electronics of a system meets the real world. This may be the floor of a smart factory robot or an automotive safety system.

The obvious corollary is that local AIs can make decisions locally, where the rubber meets the road. Waiting through an otherwise necessary time period, during which information reaches across the cloud to a data center and results filter back down will no longer be necessary. The result is that, thanks to embedded AI electronics, control will be faster, tighter, and far more immediate.

As described by conference program, “This talk looks at some of these opportunities and challenges, including the different approaches to distributing processing across a system and the role AI can play down to the smallest smart system nodes.”

Practical Embedded Design for AI

Another keynote delivered today was "Developing Game-Changing Embedded Intelligence", presented by MathWorks fellow Jim Tung. In this address, he cut through the buzz about artificial intelligence directly to how engineers can work with AI. As Jim puts it, “teams that combine specialized knowledge, domain expertise, and business objectives must navigate through numerous choices—algorithms, processors, resource location, architectural allocation, communications, and more.”

 

Jim Tung at his 2019 Conference Keynote. Images used courtesy of NürnbergMesse

 

Tung's focus on “the promising opportunities and practical challenges of building AI into our systems and services" represents a great deal of the interest that EEs have in embedded design and in embedded world in general.

Sessions and Classes

Because embedded world markets itself as a "trade fair", there are multiple opportunities for engineers to attend topic-specific events led by industry experts. 

The sessions and classes each fall into one of the ten following categories:

1. Internet of Things—Platforms & Applications
2. Connected Systems
3. Embedded OS
4. Safety & Security
5. Hardware Engineering
6. Software & Systems Engineering
7. Embedded Vision
8. Autonomous & Intelligent Systems
9. Embedded GUI & HMI
10. System-on-Chip (SoC) Design & Development

If you want to check out the complete syllabus of the sessions and classes, note how the first number of the session or class corresponds to which of the ten categories listed above it falls under.

A perusal of the syllabus reveals that the attendee can take part in every class offered in one category, such as Hardware Engineering. However, while some classes are offered twice in different time slots, there will inevitably be time conflicts if an attendee wishes to attend classes or sessions in different categories.

Exhibitors and Product Announcements

At the time of this writing, there are 1168 companies exhibiting products. This makes careful budgeting of floor-time even more critical for attendees. A complete list of company exhibitors will be found here.

There will also be fully 452 new products displayed, listed here.

embedded world Speakers

While there are many speakers at embedded world, there are some highlights that may be especially interesting to the typical EE.

The list below is a sampling of speaker sessions, listing the speaker's name, their company, and the topic they will be covering:

• Jason Andrews, ARM: Automotive software development
• Kay Annamalai, Diodes Incorporated: USB Type-C connectivity and charging solutions
• Tony Armstrong, Analog Devices: Silent switcher and micromode regulator products
• Richard Barry, Amazon Web Services (AWS): The future of FreeRTOS
• Kriss Chaplin, Intel: Quantum computing
• Saurin Choksi, NXP: (Two talks) Security
• Anton Krug, Microchip: An open source framework for rapid application development for complex SOCs
• Nick Lethaby, Texas Instruments: "Designing a Secure and Reliable OTA Update Mechanism for IoT Endpoint"
• Patric Nanz, Siemens: "Embedded Systems Development using Iterative and Agile Methodologies"

As always, some speakers and companies may drop out, but there may also be last-minute additions, so keep your eyes peeled.

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Are you attending embedded world this year? What sessions would you attend if you could? Share your thoughts on the conference in the comments below.