Hot topics at the embedded world: European Chips Act, Smart Service Maturity Index and AI ethics

The conference programme at the embedded world Exhibition&Conference is bursting at the seams: over 200 hours of concentrated embedded expertise in just three days. Trade visitors are spoilt for choice. We have put together some programme highlights to help with the decision-making process.

A group of people listening with interest to a lecture at a conference — Every year, the keynotes are among the highlights of the embedded world Exhibition&Conference

What moves the embedded industry in 2023?

Cloud-connected embedded computing

The first programme highlight of the embedded world Conference is the keynote “Charting the Connected Future”, given by Daniel Cooley, CTO and Senior Vice President of Silicon Labs, on Tuesday 14 March, 10-11 a.m. Cloud connectivity transforms devices. We saw it first with PCs, then phones, and now, embedded devices and the IoT.

Daniel Cooley will discuss the final steps needed to achieve the full potential of cloud-connected embedded computing.

Assessment and certification of AI ethics

On Wednesday 15 March, 10-11 a.m., the keynote will be dedicated to the topic of “Advances in the Assessment and Certification of AI Ethics”. Keynotespeaker Prof. Ali Hessami, currently the Director of R&D and Innovation at Vega Systems and the Chair of IEEE 7000 standard: “Algorithmic embedded systems have social impact. We provide a forum for understanding, debating and emerging practice on ethics trustworthiness and certification of autonomous intelligent systems”.

His keynote will cover the latest advances on technology ethics and two IEEE initiatives namely IEEE 7000 standard and the Ethics Certification Programme for Autonomous and Intelligent Systems (ECPAIS), of which he is Vice Chair and Process Architect. These two initiatives provide a basis for raising awareness and providing a systematic framework for the innovators, researchers and technologists as well as small and large enterprises involved in AI and technology innovation and development.

European Chips Act

Whether in the workplace or in everyday life, to combat climate change or to gain resilience: digital technologies offer solutions to the major challenges of our time. The only way Europe can win is if we follow a resource-saving and trustworthy path; if we guarantee opportunities for collaboration and use our uniqueness as a competitive advantage. This exciting topic will be the subject of the keynote “Chip Design and Production: Perspectives and Role in Europe’s Competitiveness” by Prof. Dr. Albert Heuberger, Executive Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, on Thursday 16 March, 10-11 a.m.

„In the process from the idea to silicon, chip design is the engine of product innovation and thus the key to Europe's competitiveness“, says Prof. Dr. Albert Heuberger. His keynote will highlight
the strengths of the microelectronics industry in Germany and Europe and show perspectives on
how the European Chips Act will reduce dependence on semiconductor fabs in Asia.

Exclusive presentation of the acatech Smart Service Maturity Index

A special highlight of the embedded world Conference programme this year is the acatech session on Wednesday 15 March at 4 p.m., which will focus on supporting the transformation to an “as-a-service” organizations.

After creating the foundations for the digital transformation of industry and initiating the “servitisation of manufacturing“ with the acatech future projects Industrie 4.0 and Smart Service Welt, networked devices now provide a multitude of data, from which customizable, data-driven business models can be derived. It is now up to companies to transform their portfolio and their organization to be capable to offer attractive Smart Services to customers.

In three presentations held by Prof. Dr. Henning Kagermann, Chair of acatech Board of Trustees, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Roman Dumitrescu, Director Fraunhofer IEM, and Dr.-Ing. Martin Rabe, Business Development Manager at Fraunhofer IEM, the Smart Service transformation of companies is examined from various angles culminating in the first-time presentation of the “Smart Service Maturity Index”, a supporting toolkit for transformation-willing companies.

Professor Albert Heuberger — Prof. Dr. Albert Heuberger, Executive Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS

Panel Discussions in the Exhibitor Forum

"With the claim 'embedded. responsible. sustainable.' we will be focusing in 2023 on key issues for the future of the embedded industry," explains Executive Director Benedikt Weyerer with a view to the embedded world programme.

Where can embedded systems help to make the digital world more sustainable and how can the embedded industry operate more sustainably? What are the issues that define a responsible approach to AI? What is behind the EU Cyber Resilience Act? How do you counter the shortage of skilled workers and the challenges in terms of the supply chain? The panel discussions at the embedded world Exhibition&Conference 2023 will provide material for intensive discussions.

On Wednesday, 15 March 2023 at 4.30 pm, Keith Kreisher, Executive Director IoT M2M Council (IMC), invites interested IoT experts to a discussion on solutions from all areas of the global IoT/M2M ecosystem in Exhibitor Forum 3. IMC’s own 2022 research projects that roughly 40 per cent of IoT adopters are sourcing connectivity data plans at the same time that they source hardware, which was certainly a much higher number than anticipated. The number speaks to a certain maturity in the IoT sector, where buyers are realizing that taking this holistic approach to technology has advantages. This panel discussion will cover how this is currently working – with use-cases – and identify the advantages IoT buyers.

Panel discussion at embedded world — Exciting discussions in the exhibitor forum at embedded world

Would you like to delve deeper into the topic?
At embedded world Exhibition&Conference 2025 from March 11 to 13, 2025,
you will have the opportunity to exchange ideas with industry experts.

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Display markets and trends

The keynote session of the electronic displays Conference on 15 March at 9.50 a.m. will focus on "Display Markets and Trends".

Revenues for flat panel displays reached an all time high in 2021, but the industry now has to deal with falling demand, overcapacity and a decline in panel prices. Dr. Guillaume Chansin, DSCC, shows, how advanced display technologies, which offer new features and superior image quality, are now driving the growth in the industry.

Subsequently Paul Gray, Omdia (part of Informa Technology), surveys the post pandemic display landscape. The talk will examine the new realities, investigate where growth opportunities lie especially on new display technologies and offer a viewpoint on future commercial and technical developments.

In the next lecture of the keynote session Ian Hendy, Hendy Consulting, will profile the top 6 display companies, BOE, CSOT, LGD, SDC, AUO and Innolux and talk about their current and future display priorities and agendas. Useful for anyone who wants to understand the 6 leaders in the business.

Lisa Li, Sigmaintell Consulting, speaks on the subject “Refresh – Global Display Industry Outlook”. With global economic and consumer environment turning unbalance and disorders, the display industry is suffer to refresh from the perspective of competition landscape, technology portfolio, supplychain dynamic and company strength.

The last block of topics in the keynote session will be taken over by Cameron Graham, GfK, with his presentation on “Consumer Demand Trends & Outlook for TV and Other Display Technologies”.

Exchange ideas with display experts from all over the world. Click here for the programme and the ticket shop for the

electronic displays Conference

Internet of Things

From over 360 submissions, the Steering Board of the embedded world Conference curated 65 sessions in nine tracks and 19 classes. 200 speakers from 26 countries will share their knowledge. We give a brief overview of the topics.

The Internet of Things is one of the most important application areas for embedded systems. That's why track 1 of the embedded world Conference will present IoT architectures, management systems and applications and take up trend topics such as smart city applications and predictive maintenance.

Connectivity

Communication protocols are an essential foundation for the Internet of Things. Building on the multiple developments of the past years, protocols are now gaining market access that reach a new level of quality and start to penetrate the domains of the traditional special standards.

Track 2 is dedicated to current connectivity topics such as Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) or Matter.

Operating Systems

In track 3 on operating systems, the topic of open source will take up a lot of space. At the beginning of the second day of the conference, for example, there will be an update on current developments in the open source area – especially from the point of view of regulations and licensing policy.

Safety & Security

Current legislative initiatives such as the European Cyber Resilience Act, but also attacks on IT infrastructures and networked embedded systems make it clear: the topic of embedded safety & security has lost none of its explosiveness and continues to be a thematic focus of the conference in track 4.

Board-Level Hardware Engineering

The multifaceted nature of the field of board-level hardware is reflected in the diverse topics of the presentations and classes in track 5. The first day is predominantly focused on MIPI (Mobile Industry Processor Interface Alliance). The MIPI Alliance, an association with the participation of practically all well-known electronics manufacturers, is engaged in the development of hardware and software interfaces between all parts of embedded systems.

Systems & Software Engineering

The first day will begin in track 6 on systems & software engineering with a session on RUST, a programming language that is gaining a growing fan base – not only in safety and security projects – due to its built-in memory security. The second day will focus on clean code.

Embedded Vision

Track 7 on embedded vision is worth a closer look ... Why is this topic so exciting? The reasons are manifold. For example, a significant cost reduction compared to PC-based systems is leading to ever broader fields of application. Embedded vision systems also contain components that correspond excellently to the comprehensive system approach of embedded world. And the high data volumes and data rates place much higher demands on the components and their connections. Embedded vision is thus driving the entire industry forward.

Embedded Intelligence

Embedded vision is a very good example of how the algorithms of artificial intelligence and machine learning can be implemented on embedded systems.

But even beyond image processing, embedded AI approaches can be found in many applications of sensor data analysis, e.g. for state detection or prediction. In addition to the classic architecture "learning in the cloud – decision-making in the edge", learning is increasingly taking place in the edge computer, in the embedded system. The platforms for their development, such as tinyML, are one of the focal points both in the lectures and in the dedicated class of track 8 on embedded intelligence.

System-on-Chip (SoC) Design

Track 9 is dedicated to one of the most challenging disciplines in embedded computing: the design of system-on-chips (SoCs). A trend in SoC design is to implement special logic units for the realisation of artificial intelligence (AI) in hardware, also called embedded AI. This means that the algorithm no longer has to run through an edge computer or a server. To meet the call for ever more powerful and sustainable products, there is a constant challenge to design SoCs that are even more energy-efficient than they already are.

In addition to proven programme points for knowledge transfer, the conference programme sets important impulses. "At embedded world, we bring together the different and forward-looking facets of system development. The lectures and the class on embedded Rust or tinyML are proof of this for me", emphasises Chairman of the embedded world Conference Prof. Axel Sikora.

Exchange ideas with international embedded experts. Click here for the programme and the ticket shop for the

embedded world Conference

Please note: The embedded world ticket includes admission to the exhibition halls and also entitles you to attend the three public keynotes at the embedded world Conference. For full participation in the two conferences taking place in parallel, the embedded world Conference and the electronic displays Conference, you need separate tickets.