IPC, FED Partner for New Design Conference in Vienna

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

IPC and its German partner FED have teamed up to create a new PCB design conference in Vienna, Austria. The Pan-European Electronics Design Conference (PEDC) is scheduled for Jan. 29-30 at the NH Danube City hotel in Vienna.

IPC’s Peter Tranitz, one of the show organizers, discussed how this new show came about, pointing out that, unlike many of the regional conferences in Europe, PEDC will host curated, peer-reviewed presentations, not promotional content or product pitches. Will PEDC become an annual event?

Andy Shaughnessy: Peter, tell us about the new design conference in Vienna, Austria.

Peter Tranitz: The idea for the Pan-European Electronics Design Conference came out of discussions that IPC and FED (Germany-based electronics design and manufacturing association) had with the PCB and EMS communities around our activities in Brussels. During those discussions, we learned that high-level scientific conferences are missing within the European landscape. In Europe, we have regional language conferences on electronic design organized by national associations. Often, little care is taken to avoid promotional and product pitches.

The PEDC is targeting the pan-European community for electronics design. We are transporting the model of the IPC APEX EXPO conference, which excludes commercialism and ensures a high level of technical content for the presentations. Our technical program committee is targeting content with a high technical and scientific level. This pure, technically scientific approach is the differentiator from other events happening in Europe. We prefer presentations that haven't been published before, so that attendees see the content for the first time.

Shaughnessy: Are the presentations in English? What does the program consist of?

Tranitz: Yes, it’s all English. We are open to engineers of all levels to academia and students, and we embrace diversity. We are seeking European participants as well as interested people from around the globe. Our Day 1 program consists of two keynotes. One is focused on electronic design and AI utilization, and the other keynote is around silicon-to-systems development. We have two panels: One tackles AI in electronics, and the other focuses on regulations and sustainability. These are big topics, especially in Europe.

On Day 2, we have two tracks with 12 presentations, each in parallel. One track focuses on silicon-to-systems and design techniques, and the other is around design for excellence, software, and tools. We’ve managed to engage professors from academia, top experts from research institutes, and companies that do a lot of research and development to help us set up a very attractive program. It is also worth mentioning that we have received far more presentation abstracts than we can cover at the conference.

To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the December 2024 issue of Design007 Magazine, click here.