High-calibre expertise for the embedded community

The embedded world exhibition & conference 2018 is coming along very well, while the prospects for the embedded world and electronic displays conferences are also excellent. The programme is already online. This year, the theme of the embedded world conference is “Embedded Goes Autonomous”. It means that the conference is putting the spotlight on one of the key issues for the sector. The electronic displays conference will explore current topics relating to OLEDs, touch technology and much more.

The capabilities of processors have grown so much that new technologies like machine learning and AI are close to being applied. This will enable completely new systems that will perceive the environment around them autonomously, draw conclusions from it and make decisions. The embedded world conference is reflecting this trend with its theme “Embedded Goes Autonomous”. As well as a separate conference focus on this topic, “Embedded Vision” – the computer-assisted processing of images – is also very strongly associated with autonomous applications. Consider autonomous driving, for example, or diagnostic imaging in medicine. Overall, the programme in 2018 is subdivided into seven conference clusters:

• Internet of Things
• Embedded Vision
• Autonomous Systems
• Security & Safety
• Embedded OS
• Hardware Engineering
• Software & Systems Engineering

The individual clusters are formed of sessions and classes. Sessions take a morning or afternoon and consist mostly of half-hour presentations. The classes are limited to smaller groups and have a training course format. Participants can address a topic in-depth and the classes often involve practical exercises on the computer or using microprocessor circuit boards.

Keynotes by industry experts

The highlights of the day are always the two keynote addresses on the first and second conference days. We managed to get two renowned industry experts on board: Mark Papermaster, CTO of AMD and Andrea Martin, IBM DACH CTO & IBM Global Markets Technical Executive.

On the first day, 27 February 2018, Mark Papermaster will speak about “Evolving embedded systems in a self-directed world”, exploring the technologies that will soon make genuinely intelligent systems possible. This is going to change the way in which embedded systems are developed and set up. What is important is the right choice of processor architecture and programming models, to generate successful solutions for intelligent systems.

On the second day of the conference Andrea Martin will hold the keynote “Industry Solutions with the Internet of Things”. She will describe how the Internet of Things is changing IT and industrial landscapes and will illustrate this with examples of typical applications. In such solutions, edge computing, the Cloud and popular APIs work in concert. From her insights into IBM's Watson IoT Center she will reveal what developments can be expected in the near future.

Topics in detail

The presentations in the various thematic clusters are highly topical and extend far beyond the seven conference clusters

• Internet of Things: Engineers can learn all about wireless connections for IoT systems. There will be a separate session on electronic payment mechanisms.
• Embedded Vision: This is currently giving rise to a completely new segment with new technologies and applications. Thanks to collaboration with the VDMA and the Embedded Vision Alliance there will be a lot of interesting presentations on this subject.
• Autonomous Systems: In the near future we will be increasingly coming across technical systems that will not only operate according to how they have been programmed, computed in a completely predictable context, but will also respond to situations. This means that machines will be making decisions in situations that have not been simulated beforehand.
• Security and Safety: For many embedded system, functional reliability on the one hand and protection against attacks on the system on the other are absolute prerequisites. Among other things the presentations will look at how both can be achieved despite limited computing resources. Especially intriguing will be progress reports on attacks and countermeasures that will be particularly instructive for developers.
• Embedded OS: In a session on basic principles, participants will learn how a real-time operating system works. In addition, this year there will be sessions dedicated to automotive operating systems, focusing on AUTOSAR and open-source solutions.
• Hardware Engineering: Alongside the traditional and yet still current issues like minimising energy consumption, increasing computing capacity e.g. through parallel operation in multicore systems or FPGA instead of programming, the RISC-V Initiative is creating something that can be the “Linux of Hardware”.
• Software & Systems Engineering: The trend from C to C++ brings a lot of advantages, but also much greater complexity and risks. Development methods, the tracking down of errors and the development of reliable systems are the key topics in this area.

The entire programme for the embedded world conference with contributions from international experts in 36 sessions and 13 classes, abstracts of papers and information on the speakers is now available online at www.embedded-world.eu. This is where you can also register directly for the congress.

All you need to know about electronic displays in a nutshell

“The electronic displays conference is the No. 1 think tank for international experts. It is the most important European B2B platform for display technologies and one of the key dialogue and industry platforms. It's where information is shared at the highest professional level, innovations are presented and new projects put on track. Even after 30 years, the conference continues to develop dynamically at a high standard. We are delighted by this outstanding development. This year too we once again received a large number of excellent submissions, showing the strong commitment of the display sector to our conference,” says Professor Karlheinz Blankenbach from the University of Pforzheim, who chairs the Congress Advisory Council. On 28 February and 1 March 2018, developers, scientists and users of electronic displays will once again conduct a dialogue and learn about the latest display technologies such as LCD, OLED or ePaper, flexible displays, 3D displays, GUIs, touch technology, the wide range of applications for these displays and the development of the market.

Highlights in 2018 are keynotes on display trends and OLEDs, three sessions on automotive displays and other high-calibre sessions on touch technology, measuring technology, AR/VR and applications and optimisations. The regular author interviews after each session offer a great opportunity to discuss the presentations in a small group. But it is not just in the conference that displays are a prominent topic; they also feature heavily at the trade fair as such. The electronic displays area in Halls 1 and 3A offers a platform for the latest technology relating to LCDs, OLEDs, ePaper, touch screens, interfaces and a whole lot more.

All information on the programme for the electronic displays conference 2018 and registration options are available from: www.electronic-displays.de.