While attending the Embedded World summit, we had the opportunity to participate in several panel discussions and expert presentations that were both interesting and intriguing. Here are some key points from certain thematic events.
One topic that was discussed was the shortage of skilled labor, which is currently affecting many industries worldwide. In Germany, for example, a recent study by VDE, one of the largest ICT associations, revealed that there is a demand for electronic engineers that is twice as large as the total number of graduates in the country. This high demand is driven by megatrends such as digitalization, the energy crisis, Industry 4.0, autonomous driving, and others. Talented individuals are becoming more selective and often unaffordable for small and medium-sized enterprises. They expect flexible work arrangements and engagement in socially relevant challenges.
A panel of experts, including representatives from academia, start-ups, a family business, and a large international corporation, discussed these challenges and potential strategies to tackle them. The panel covered topics ranging from individual strategies to attract talent, the role of education, diversity, and the need for multi-stakeholder policies moving forward. We would be happy to provide further insights on these discussions
Speakers in the panel were Magdalena Daxenberger, Marketing and Innovation Manager at DH electronics, Adriana Gogonel, CEO at STATINF, Alexander Greie, Head of Talent Attraction Team at Infineon Technologies and the moderator was Professor Dr. Jeronimo Castrillon-Mazo, Head of Chair at TU Dresden.
Another noteworthy event was the keynote speech given by Lauri Piikivi from Nordic Semiconductor’s Oulu office. He spoke about connectivity and focused specifically on DECT NR+: Enabling high-speed and low-latency 5G mesh.
At this point is should also be mentioned that the Nordic Semiconductor had a really nice booth at the Embedded World introducing their devices and components on the theme:
Finally, we also attended an excellent presentation by Silicon Labs, titled ‘Charting the Connected Future.’ The main speaker was the company’s CTO, Mr. Daniel Cooley, and he was joined on stage by a few of his colleagues. The presentation focused on how everything will be connected in the near future.
During the presentation, the speaker discussed how everything, and we mean everything, will be connected in the near future. He gave the example of professional tools as a product category that will soon be connected online. This will enable improved security and safety, crime prevention, quality control, data collection, and more.
But new capabilities come with risks. There is huge need for further security development in this connectivity both from edge proseccing and cloud-based systems’ point of views. The next photo illustrates contents of the presentation nicely:
It is clear to us that the deployment of embedded systems on a larger scale presents incredible business opportunities for Finnish and Oulu-based companies. It makes no sense to limit ourselves to the national level; instead, it is advisable to break through to international markets.
Our ICTOulu team collected a significant amount of business intelligence from this summit. If you are interested in learning more, please do not hesitate to contact us!