ESC Theater

ESC Chicago Theater Schedule

Tuesday, June 7

Speed Training: Debunking Myths about Using C++ for Embedded Systems
Speaker: Dan Saks, President, Saks & Associates
Date: Tuesday, June 7
Time: 11:00am — 11:45am
For a decade or more, programmers have successfully used C++ to develop embedded systems. Yet myths about C++'s unsuitability, particularly as it compares to C, just won't go away. This session looks a some of the most popular myths about using C++ for embedded systems, and explains why they just don't hold up against actual evidence.

Integrating MEMS with DSP/Microprocessors: Thoughts from the MEMS
Ecosystem
Speaker: Karen Lightman, MEMS Industry Group; Eric Pabo, EV Group; Sarah Boisvert, Potomac Photonics, Inc; Calin Miclaus, GE Energy Measurement & Control Solutions and Rob O'Reilly, Analog Devices, Inc.
Date: Tuesday, June 7
Time: 12:00pm — 12:45pm
Consumers are engaging with portable embedded systems in fundamentally new ways. They experience more realistic game play with Nintendo Wii and Kinect for Xbox 360, pinpoint their location on an iPhone with Google Maps (or find a restaurant on a city block), share videos and photos with friends via miniature pico projectors, and manage insulin delivery more accurately than ever with tiny insulin pumps. MEMS is an important enabling technology in these and countless other portable embedded devices.

As MEMS' implementations become more commonplace, embedded designers are increasingly called upon to integrate MEMS with DSP and/or microprocessors.

Our industry panel - featuring MEMS industry leaders from Analog Devices, EV Group, GE Sensing and Potomac Photonics - will explore the challenges and benefits of integrating MEMS with DSP and microprocessors? What do embedded designers need to know to be successful? What secrets can you unlock using MEMS as an enabling technology when integrating with DSP/microprocessors?

Speed Training: Android in 30-Minutes
Speaker: William Gatliff, Freelance, Consultant
Date: Tuesday, June 7
Time: 1:00pm — 1:45pm
Is Android right for you? Skip the hype and attend this fast-paced Android introduction, given by a distinguished ESC instructor with real-world Android and embedded deployment experience.

TimePilot Vetro Teardown: Sponsored by Microchip
Date: Tuesday, June 7
Time: 2:00pm — 2:45pm
TimePilot's Vetro Timeclock is the industry's first capacitive touch screen timeclock providing both a USB host port for data transfer and Ethernet connectivity for real-time data access. This gives the customer the option of using the timeclock as a standalone device or as a part of their local area network. The Vetro timeclock uses the Microchip PIC24FJ256GB110 to provide the USB host capability, real-time clock and capacitive touch sense technology for the products keyboard. The only external chips necessary outside of the power management is a 24AA1025 eeprom for external non-volatile memory so the product can hold up to 15,000 transactions, and the ENC28J60 Ethernet controller and the 24AA02E48 to provide a unique MAC address. The capacitive touch screen provides a clean look and is enhanced with the cool blue LED backlighting. All of this capability has allowed TimePilot to provide the most flexible and powerful time clock on the market at a very low price.

TimePilot Corporation, a 10-year-old company based in Batavia, Illinois, has three timeclocks in its product line: TimePilot Extreme, a ruggedized, weatherproof timeclock that also uses Microchip technology; TimePilot PC, a software-only product; and TimePilot Vetro, designed for indoor use.
*Microchip will give-away one (1) Microchip MPLAB Explorer 16 Development Kit during this Teardown session.

Speed Training: Test Driven Development
Speaker: James Grenning, President, Renaissance Software Consulting Company
Date: Tuesday, June 7
Time: 3:00pm — 3:45pm
Fixing bugs is a waste of time; but what else can you do? You can prevent bugs by systematically applying Test-Driven Development and at the same time deliver and develop better software designs. TDD is a predictable process helps you avoid tedious manual tests and build well designed code that tells you when it is wrong. Come and see for yourself.

Mind of the Engineer Study
Speaker: David Blaza, Vice President, UBM Electronics
Date: Tuesday, June 7
Time: 4:00pm — 4:45pm
For over a decade, EDN has conducted a survey examining the identity, motivations, work environment, and information needs of electronics engineers. This year's results are in, and offer a profound picture of the designer as a unique individual, and an engineering profession under siege from many directions. If you want to see your world through the eyes of a large group of your peers- trends, wants, needs, aspirations, and frustrations, be sure to attend this presentation of the data from the 2011 study. See how much you have in common with other designers, and in what ways you differ.

Wednesday, June 8

Embedded Study
Speaker: David Blaza, Vice President, UBM Electronics
Date: Wednesday, June 8
Time: 11:00am — 11:45am
ESD Magazine and embedded.com conduct this large-sample study of embedded designers every year. Who are the most-preferred microcontroller vendors? The most respected RTOS vendors? Trends in adoption of open-source software? Is C++ replacing C, or is JAVA taking over from both of them? Come hear solid statistics on what's going on in your design world.

Speed Training: Agile in 30-Minutes
Speaker: Bruce Douglass, Chief Evangelist, IBM
Date: Wednesday, June 8
Time: 1:00pm — 1:45pm
In less time than it takes to finish a triple-pepperoni pizza, noted author Bruce Powel Douglass (Real-Time Agility published by Addison-Wesley 2009) will tell you how to use the key practices that embedded developers use to deploy agile methods in their development environments. All the gain without the heartburn.