By Tiffany Sparks, Vice President, Marketing, RISC-V International
Like so many others, I am looking forward to summer travel, and I am certainly excited about my trip to Munich, Germany this month to attend the 2nd annual RISC-V Summit Europe. The in-person event runs Monday, June 24-28 at the MOC conference center, with the conference itself on June 25-27.
Why am I so excited?
Well, as a staff member of RISC-V International, I may be a little biased. But I am truly looking forward to this event, and I’ll share why.
RISC-V Summit Europe was unequivocally one of my favorite events last year. First, an impressive group of professionals from the European RISC-V community dedicated much of their time, energy and valuable insight into bringing to life an event that brought the entire RISC-V community together. I connected with RISC-V enthusiasts across industry, government, academia, research, and more. This year will only be bigger and better!
Having been privy to the planning and preparation, here are my top 10 reasons why you should attend RISC-V Summit Europe (in no particular order):
1) RISC-V Innovation Front and Center: RISC-V is enabling innovation on a global scale, and RISC-V-based solutions are disrupting many market segments, including AI, automotive, data center, HPC, space, and much more. Examples of the innovation will be on display throughout the show, but one new feature will be the new Innovation Showcase on Thursday (June 27), where select RISC-V organizations will get a chance to show off their disruptive solutions.
2) AI and RISC-V: Yes, AI is dominating news cycles, and industry analysts are predicting that RISC-V will be gaining meaningful market share in the next several years. Do you want to hear more about what RISC-V is doing in AI? Well, here is your chance. RISC-V Technical Steering Committee Vice Chair Philipp Tomish will present on Charting the Future of AI/ML with Open Standards and Global Collaboration, then moderate a panel on Accelerating AI Innovation with RISC-V with several industry experts.
3) Not-to-Miss Keynotes and Invited Talks: There are a lot of excellent keynote speakers you can see here, but a few that stand out to me are the keynote by Alexander Kocher, CEO of Quintaris. Quintaris was founded last year by Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG, Nordic Semiconductor ASA, NXP Semiconductors, and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., as a single source to enable compatible RISC-V-based products, provide reference architectures, and help establish solutions to be widely used across various industries, hasn’t shared a lot publicly about its plans. I’m certainly curious to learn more. Also, I’m very interested to see what Edward Wilford, senior principal analyst at Omdia, projects about RISC-V growth. Plus it is always interesting to get the perspective of Krste Asanovic, one of the founders of RISC-V, who present a RISC-V State of the Union.
4) Informative R&D and Industry Presentations: During the Call for Proposals, 180 proposals were submitted! Yes, that’s correct – an impressive 180 submissions. Competition for speaking slots was fierce as less than 15 percent were accepted for the main stage, so you know the accepted content is going to be strong, covering a variety of subject areas.
5) A Plethora of Posters: With so much important and useful work being done in the community, the organizers wanted many community members to have an opportunity to show off their innovation. As a result, more than 60 posters will be on display from Tuesday-Thursday (June 25-27), with new posters shown each day. Check out the list here.
6) An Expo Resembling a RISC-V World’s Fair: 40 organizations from around the world signed up as sponsors for this year’s Summit, and they will be exhibiting daily in the Expo Hall. I want to give a special shout-out to our platinum sponsors: Semidynamics, Codasip, Ventana, the Beijing Institute of Open Source Chip, lowRISC, and Siemens, and additionally thank all of our other sponsors (but the list is too long to mention everyone here). In the expo area, we will once again be having our Developer Zone, which will feature the latest RISC-V based development boards and products on display for all attendees to check out. We will also have our Demo Theater, with special talks during the breaks and lunches. There is so much to see and do – comfortable shoes are indeed part of my packing strategy.
7) New! On-site Hackathon: A new feature of the Summit this year will be the Hackathon on Monday (June 24) for students and early to mid stage enthusiasts. Participants will get to choose between the problems given onsite and utilize provided resources to develop unique solutions. They will have half a day to come up with a solution and will then have two days to create a presentation. Presentations will take place in the Expo Hall Demo Theater on Thursday (June 27).
8) Continental Case Studies in Collaboration: Collaboration is truly the cornerstone of the RISC-V Community, and in the program, experts will be going deep on critical collaborations for RISC-V. Wednesday’s program features several talks about ongoing projects in the EU as well as a panel on how Europe can engage even more in RISC-V. Wednesday, June 26 kicks off with the popular Collaboration Breakfast, where RISC-V community leaders will be talking about how they are collaborating across continents and leveraging the global power of community to drive new levels of innovation.
9) Bask in the RISC-V Community Spirit: There was a true sense of community in the single track format as speakers across different expertises and markets shared their perspectives and innovation breakthroughs. The single-track format enables attendees from different regions, different countries, in different roles to have shared experiences they could discuss during breaks, receptions and social events. One of my favorite things about last year was the community spirit and engagement, and I expect that to continue this year. And there is a special social event on Wednesday (June 26) where the community gets to celebrate together.
10) Show my Appreciation for our Volunteer Organizers!: Community members are truly the lifeblood of RISC-V, and the team behind the RISC-V Summit Europe has poured so much of themselves into creating an impactful, memorable event for all. I can’t wait to see and experience the culmination of their efforts. The list of volunteers is long, but I really want to give a special shout-out to Stefan Wallentowitz, Christian Fabre, Daniel Muller-Gritschneder, Teresa Cervero, Olivier Sentieys and so many others around the ecosystem. I simply can’t wait to see their vision realized.
There are so many great reasons to attend that I didn’t even get to mention the beer, the group stage football (well, soccer to my American colleagues) match of the UEFA European Championship between Denmark and Serbia that will be played in Munich, the special RISC-V giveaways… and I am just getting started. Do you really need more reasons?
I hope to see many of you there too. It will be quite the event. Don’t miss it!