Top-level expert talks at embedded world 2020

The embedded world Conference will also offer a special highlight: the keynote by Hassane El-Khoury.

Boeing’s 737 MAX was an aeroplane that really should not have been released. A self-driving car operated by Uber was involved in a fatal crash because its software was defective. Embedded systems are taking over more and more control tasks that were previously entrusted to humans – and not always with a positive outcome.

Following the highly successful previous events in the series, the “Safe for the Future” panel discussion will move into its next round on Day 3 of the 2020 embedded world Exhibition & Conference, 27th February 2020, in Forum Hall 2, starting at 14:00 With the theme of ‘Safe for the Future – Qualification of Complex Solutions’, the focus at the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg will once again be on all aspects of the safety and security of complex and increasingly networked embedded systems.

Professor Fromm, member of the embedded world Conference Steering Board, will discuss the latest challenges involved in developing safe and secure systems in an age of rapidly expanding functions and complexity in the face of growing time-to-market pressure, together with Rudolf Grave, Chief Expert Product System Architecture at Elektrobit; Dr Josef Haid, Lead Principal embedded Security at Infineon; and Holger Lange, Expert Safety Standards at DKE/VDE.

Connecting embedded intelligence

Embedded Intelligence is becoming increasingly important and is characterising more and more systems, from self-driving cars to image recognition, embedded vision and preventive and needs-based maintenance in Industry 4.0 applications, and from small embedded microcontrollers to high-performance Cloud servers. These developments open up huge chances and business opportunities, but are also closely linked to many technical, financial, social and ethical questions.

Embedded Intelligence’ was already the byword for the embedded industry in 2019. For 2020, the focus has been expanded to ‘Connecting Embedded Intelligence’, since embedded intelligence is a further important driver for the Internet of Things and the Industrial Internet of Things.

The embedded community needs to discuss the question of when AI and machine learning are useful and when they are not. The importance of artificial and embedded intelligence, both now and in the future, will be the topic for discussion by the top-level panel participants in a session in Forum Hall 3A from 15:30 to 16:30 on 26th February 2020, led by Professor Axel Sikora, Offenburg University of Applied Sciences and Hahn-Schickard Institute Micro & Information Technology.

The panel guests will be Professor Jana Koehler, Scientific Director of the Algorithmic Business and Production Research Department at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI); Miguel Castro, Artificial Intelligence Group, Director STMicroelectronics; and Dr Rikard König, CTO of Ekkono.

Chinese embedded and its global role

In many areas of industry, China is not only a producer and the world’s largest market, but is also assuming a position of technological leadership. The German Chamber of Commerce in China recently carried out a survey of its 500 member companies that do business in China. About 50 percent of them considered it probable or highly probable that China will become a technological leader in their area of activity.

China also set itself the goal of manufacturing 40% of the semiconductors that are used in that country by 2020, increasing its share to 70% by 2025. At the moment, however, ‘only’ 16% of the semiconductors used in China are made there, and only about half of those are manufactured by Chinese semiconductor companies.

In addition to covering all aspects of production, however, strategic activities are also in train regarding development – for example, microcontrollers or programmable logic chips. This means that a highly dynamic system like China offers a whole raft of entry parameters.

A discussion on the status of embedded technologies, the Chinese economy and its global role will be held in Forum Hall 3A from mid-day on 26th February, with Professor Allan He, Deputy Director of the China Software Industry Embedded System Associations, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the ‘Microcontrollers and Embedded Systems’ Journal; Vincent Cui, T-HEAD Semiconductor, Alibaba Group; and Randall Restle, Vice President, Applications Engineering, DIGI-KEY ELECTRONICS. This round will be moderated by Professor Axel Sikora, Offenburg University of Applied Sciences and Hahn-Schickard Institute Micro & Information Technology.

Embedded vision everywhere

Many future applications are based on Embedded Vision: small, integrated image processing systems that offer smart functions directly from within devices, enabling them to see and understand. The topic of Embedded Vision has been discussed for many years, but where is the technology being used? What new developments and applications are available? What role will AI play in the future? What can the embedded sector learn from Machine Vision manufacturers, and vice versa? All these topics are part of the panel discussion on ‘Embedded Vision everywhere!?’ at embedded world, organised by VDMA Machine Vision.

The panel discussion will begin at 13:30 on Wednesday 26th February 2020, in Forum Hall 2. The participants are Arndt Bake, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), BASLER AG; Dr Christopher Scheubel, Executive Director, cubemos (a spin-off from FRAMOS GmbH); and Jan-Erik Schmitt, Managing Director, Vision Components. Moderation will be provided by Dr Peter Ebert, inVision.

Premium level conference keynote with Hassane El-Khoury

The next wave of convergence is the connection between human and machine. This has the potential to influence humanity even more than the Smartphone: it will change the way we interact with the world. The Internet of Things, driven by connectivity and Cloud-based analytics, will effectively become an extension of our minds and will drive forward applications in which computers will ultimately have emotional and social intelligence and be able to take decisions on our behalf.

The keynote, ‘How the IoT Will Drive the Convergence of Man and Machine’, will deal with Artificial Intelligence and discuss advances in IoT technology, from a purely analytical starting point, to ‘inspired by humans’ and finally ‘humanised’. The ‘converged’ human-machine combination will influence leading applications in the automotive, industrial, medical, Smart City and Smart Home areas.

Hassane El-Khoury is President, Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors of Cypress Semiconductor. He was previously the head of the Programmable Systems Division of Cypress, formerly the company’s automotive division. Entry to this keynote address is free of charge for all trade visitors. Venue: Sydney Hall, NCC Ost, from 13:30 on 25th February 2020.