Track Chairs

We've organized our classes by track to help you plan your schedule and find the subjects you need to know. Each track was built by industry leaders, our ESC Track Chairs, to ensure the fundamentals of embedded technologies and the most current solutions are covered.

Designing for Embedded Linux (and Android)
Dave Stewart

Director of Software Engineering
InHand Electronics, Inc.

Dave Stewart is the Director of Software Engineering at InHand Electronics, a developer of small, low-power electronics solutions for handheld and wireless device designers. He has over 20 years of experience in embedded systems development. Prior to joining InHand, he co-founded and served as CTO of ERS, Inc. His experience is diverse. Currently, he is leading the development of advanced power management software for wireless and battery-powered devices. His main areas of expertise include the full software life cycle, requirements generation, system architecture, real-time operating systems and executives, device drivers, hardware-software co-design, component-based software engineering, real-time design and analysis, and debugging techniques for embedded systems. He has significant experience in numerous market segments, including mobile computing, wireless sensor networks, aerospace, industrial control, consumer electronics, transportation, physiological monitoring, and environmental monitoring. Stewart earned his PhD in computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to 2000, Stewart was a computer engineering faculty member at University of Maryland.

Medical
Mike Barr

President
Netrino

Michael Barr is an internationally recognized expert on the design of embedded computer systems. In that role, he has provided expert witness testimony in federal court, appeared on PBS’ American Business Review, and been quoted in various newspapers. He is the author of two books and more than forty articles on related subjects. For three and a half years Michael served as editor-in-chief of Embedded Systems Programming. In addition, Michael has been a member of the advisory board of the Embedded Systems Conference. Software he wrote continues to power millions of products, ranging from consumer electronics to medical devices. Michael holds BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering and has lectured in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland.

Medical
PJ Tanzillo

Embedded Software Product Manager
National Instruments

P. J. Tanzillo is the Biomedical Segment Lead at National Instruments. Tanzillo started his career at NI as an applications engineer in the Engineering Leadership Program focusing on embedded and FPGA based applications. He later joined the NI LabVIEW Embedded R&D team taking on the role of product support engineer. In 2005, Tanzillo became the Embedded Software Product Manager.  In that role, he presented at numerous industry events including numerous Embedded Systems Conferences and Embedded World Germany. His articles have been published in EDN, Electronic Design, RTC, and regularly contributes to the EDN guest blog “How We See Embedded Processing”.  He holds a BSECE from the Ohio State University.

Networking and Connectivity
Christian Legare

Vice President
Micrium

Christian Legare has a MS degree in electrical engineering from the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. In his 22 years in the telecom industry, he was involved as an executive in large scale organizations as well as start-ups, mainly in engineering and R&D. He was in charge of an Internet Protocol certification program at the International Institute of Telecom (IIT) in Montreal, Canada as their IP systems expert. Christian joined Micrium in 2001 for the development of TCP/IP stack where he is presently vice-President. Micrium is the home of uC/OS-II, the real-time kernel.

Open Source Software
Jason Kridner

Chief Software Technologist
Texas Instruments

Jason Kridner is the open platforms principal architect for Texas Instruments' DSP systems catalog processors. Jason was drawn by the allure of digital signal processing to Texas Instruments in 1992. He began to establish himself as a hardware developer, working on board, FPGA, and ASIC designs. Using his software experience prior to TI, Kridner transitioned to lead software development of low-power media software, audio processing, file systems, USB drivers, digital rights management, and video codes.

Project Management
Jack Ganssle

Chief Engineer,
The Ganssle Group

Jack Ganssle writes for Embedded Systems Design and has written six books on embedded systems and one on his sailing fiascos. He started developing embedded systems in the early '70s using the 8008. Since then, he's started and sold three electronics companies, including one of the bigger embedded tool businesses. He's developed or managed more than 100 embedded products, from deep sea navigational gear to the White House security system. Ganssle now gives seminars to companies worldwide about better ways to develop embedded systems.

Real-Time System Development
Mark Kraeling

Product Manager
GE Transportation

Mark is a return speaker to the Embedded Systems Conference. He is currently a product manager at GE Transportation in Melbourne, Florida. At GE he is involved with advanced product development in real-time controls, wireless, and communication systems. He has been developing embedded software for the automotive and transportation industries since the early 1990s. Mark holds a BSEE from Rose-Hulman, an MBA from Johns Hopkins, and is working on an MSE from Arizona State.

Robotics, Motor Control, and More Industrial Change Makers
Patrick Mannion

Editorial Director
EETimes' TechOnline Network

Patrick is Editorial Director of EETimes' TechOnline Network where he is responsible for guiding the editorial direction of TechInsights design franchise. Prior to joining TechOnline, Patrick served as the Editor of EE Times, where he ran the day-to-day editorial and production operations of the leading industry news weekly. He has also served as an executive editor on EE Times; communications editor at Electronic Design magazine; and as a staff editor with Electronic Products magazine. Mannion holds electronic engineering degrees from the Sligo Institute of Technology and Dundalk Institute of Technology, both of Ireland.

Safety and Security
Dave Klediermacher

Chief Technology Officer,
Green Hills Software

David Kleidermacher is Chief Technology Officer at Green Hills Software where is responsible for technology strategy, platform planning, and solutions design. Kleidermacher is a leading authority in systems software and security, including secure operating systems, virtualization technology, and the application of high robustness security engineering principles to solve computing infrastructure problems.

Software Debugging Techniques
Rob Oshana

Director of Global Software Research and Development
Freescale Semiconductor

Rob Oshana has over 28 years of experience in the real-time embedded industry in both applications as well as tools technology development. He is currently Distinguished Member of Technical Staff and Director of Global Software Research and Development for the Networking and Multimedia group at Freescale Semiconductor. He is widely published in the industry and speaks regularly at the embedded systems conference. Rob has chaired international standards committees in the embedded space and is a licensed professional engineer. He is also an adjunct lecturer at Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas.