Leading Engineers from Intel, Mayo Clinic, and AEye to Keynote DesignCon 2021

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

DesignCon, the nation’s largest event for chip, board, and systems design engineers, announced the following speakers will keynote the 2021 conference and expo, taking place August 16-18, at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California.

To attend, visit the official DesignCon event site.

Keynotes

• Mike Fitton, VP, Data Platforms Group & GM, Network Business Division, Intel
• Mark Wehde, Chair, Division of Engineering, Mayo Clinic
• Indu Vijayan, Director of Product Management, AEye

Each keynote presentation will provide timely insights into DesignCon’s communities of electrical engineering and executive attendees, part of the important semiconductor and integrated circuit industry set to boom 24% globally this year. Touching on such growth, Mark Wehde will speak to the accelerated transition from society’s traditional hospital-centric medical care system to a more virtual, distributed care following the pandemic, while Intel’s Mike Fitton will reveal how networks will need to adapt to meet AI and IoT data demands driven by 5G and 6G innovations.

In alignment of this year’s event being joined by Drive World and the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) program, attendees of the third-day keynote, focused on autonomous and automated vehicles, will experience a real-time, interactive driving demo conducted live from the keynote stage by Indu Vijayan, AEye's head of product management for ADAS solutions. “I look forward to connecting with my peers throughout the industry at the upcoming DesignCon event,” states Indu. “I hope to inspire engineers of all levels and sectors by not only speaking to, but showing the perception advances we are making that enable higher levels of autonomy and safety.”

“Across markets, it’s an exciting and pivotal year for electrical engineers,” said Suzanne Deffree, Group Event Director, DesignCon. “DesignCon will serve as the first opportunity for many of our attendees to reconnect after the pandemic-forced hiatus. We are thrilled to welcome such distinguished leaders from influential companies as we return to in-person events to further education and the advancement of innovation across industries.”

Keynote details can be found below.

Monday, August 16

Beyond 5G: The Need for End-to-End Programmability

Speaker: Mike Fitton, VP, Data Platforms Group & GM, Network Business Division, Intel

Abstract: 5G has tremendous potential to enable revolutionary services as technologies come together — from the rise of AI, to the emergence of the edge, to a tsunami of Internet of Things data, and transformed 5G networks. As we look to what is coming beyond 5G, we will see some of the same trends written large as well as new requirements. The emergence of vertically targeted and private networks could revolutionize how adjacent businesses operate (industrial, government, medical, etc.) but will also exert stringent requirements in terms of latency and reliability. 6G will see the convergence of compute and communication and will continue to stress our ability to deliver increasing performance within constrained power envelopes.

Furthermore, deployment models have changed from only dedicated appliances to also encompass virtualized and now cloud-native implementations. This keynote will explore how the plethora of solutions and emergence of new demands will drive the dual requirements of scalability and programmability to address the necessary portfolio breadth in a timely and power-efficient manner.

About Mike Fitton: Mike Fitton is vice president and general manager in the Programmable Solutions Group (PSG) and general manager of the Network Business Division at Intel Corporation. He sets the strategic direction of this group and operationally manages the Network Business, which includes wireless and wireline infrastructure within PSG, which services customers both internal and external to Intel. With over 25 years of experience in the telecommunications and semiconductor industries, Mike’s depth of technical, market, and business acumen makes him a key part of Intel’s strategy to enable the key transitions that underpins the transformation of the Network.

Mike began his engineering career in algorithmic design for 2G wireless handsets, and variously provided input to 3G standards definition/selection, capacity analyses for 3G spectrum auctions, as well as driving early adoption of Wireless Personal Area Networks, including serving as the chair of the Bluetooth Radio Working Group. Mike has previously held senior Engineering and Business leadership roles with Altera and Intel PSG’s Wireless and Access Business Unit, amongst other companies.

Mike received his bachelor’s and doctoral degree in Electronics and Communications from the University of Bristol, UK; his Ph.D. thesis related to the air interface selection for 3G UMTS Radio Access Network and was funded under a UK EPSRC Research Grant. He was a post-doc researcher with the British Telecom Virtual Universities Research Initiative during the ETSI evaluation of candidate radio access schemes for UMTS. Mike is the author/co-author of 45 patents across networking, semiconductors, and machine learning; he has had papers published in excess of 20 international conferences and journals.

Tuesday, August 17

The Future of Healthcare is at the Edge

Speaker: Mark Wehde, Chair, Division of Engineering, Mayo Clinic

Abstract: The recent pandemic has accelerated the transition from our traditional hospital-centric medical care system to a more virtual, distributed care. Customer expectations, rising costs, and value-based care reimbursement models create an environment ripe for disruption. This shift is being enabled by advances that heavily leverage the latest technologies around AI, deep learning, data analytics, genomics, home-based healthcare, and robotics. And none of that is possible without incredible advances in computational power, communications, and data storage. Conventional wisdom implies that the cloud is the future of healthcare – and for much of healthcare innovation maybe – but the future of medical device innovation is really at the edge.

About Mark Wehde: Mark Wehde is chair of the Mayo Clinic Division of Engineering, assistant professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, a fellow in the Mayo Clinic Academy of Educational Excellence, and associate lecturer for the University of Wisconsin MBA Consortium program. Mark is the executive leader of a team of engineers, software developers, and project managers providing development and integration of technology solutions across Mayo Clinic.

Mark is on the board of governors for the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society and the IEEE Systems Council, is an affiliate for the University of Minnesota Medical Industry Leadership Institute, and is a member of both the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health Network of Digital Health Experts and the Medical Device Innovation Consortium 5G-enabled Medical Device Workgroup.

Mark is a juror for the Medical Design Excellence Awards, the R&D 100 Awards, and the Edison Awards. He is also a member of the South Dakota State University Electrical Engineering Industry Advisory Board, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Biomedical Engineering Advisory Board, and an Advisory Board Member for the Clinician Engineer Hub at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Imperial College London, and King’s College London.

Wednesday, August 18

Autonomous Vehicle Technology: Sensing What Matters

Speaker: Indu Vijayan, Director of Product Management, AEye

Abstract: Autonomous and automated vehicles are coming to a road near you, and whether it’s a truck, car, train, or delivery bot, it’s a moving machine that will need to intelligently sense and safely navigate its surroundings. What is the current market for autonomous vehicles, what are the growth drivers, and how does the industry solve the most challenging edge cases inhibiting broader rollouts?

AEye Director of Product Management Indu Vijayan will discuss AI-driven sensing and showcase — via a real-time, interactive driving demo conducted live from the keynote stage — how that technology is helping vehicles see smarter, respond faster, and accelerate the adoption of autonomous features.

About Indu Vijayan: Indu is a specialist in systems, software, algorithms, and perception for self-driving cars. As AEye's head of product management for ADAS solutions, she works hand-in-hand with the company’s business and technical side on AEye’s ADAS product roadmap and development while collaborating with Tier 1 partners to ensure timely delivery and automotive-grade reliability of AEye ADAS components. Prior to AEye, Indu spent five years at Delphi/Aptiv, where, as a senior software engineer on the Autonomous Driving team, she played a major role in bridging ADAS sensors and algorithms and extending them for mobility. She holds a BS in Technology in Computer Science from India's Amrita University and an MS in Computer Engineering from Stony Brook University. Indu is also the founder of Women in Autonomy, an organization formed to educate, equip and empower women in the automotive and autotech space to become leaders and change-makers in the industry.