Three finalists were announced for the inaugural LEAP Awards’ Embedded Computing Category, comprising innovative products and technologies. The competition was scored by a panel of independent technical/engineering-oriented judges. Responsible for the Embedded Computing category were these four judges:
Plamen Doynov
Research Professor
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Plamen Doynov became a research professor in physics last year, after a long and storied career that included stints as the Principal Engineer at MRIGlobal, a Biomedical Engineer at Flint Hill Scientific, and VP of Electrical Engineering at Aviation Simulation. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from The Catholic University of America.
Doynov has been active in and a local board member of the IEEE and has won numerous honors and awards from the MRIGlobal Council of Principal Sciences, Boeing and the Bulgarian Society for Biochemistry and Biophysics. He has experience in electronics, electrical and biomedical engineering, as well as research and development of specialized scientific systems.
Geoffrey T. Haigh
Principal/Senior Partner
Haigh Consulting LLP
Geoffrey Haigh holds a BS in Physics and Instrumentation from Drew University and is a Principal Partner and Senior Scientist form Haigh Consulting, which creates IP and solves problems for clients. Haigh has 31 patents issues worldwide and was the originator and inventor of the ADI ICoupler technology during his time working for Analog Devices Inc. Devices he has designed and patented are on Mars rovers.
He also previously worked for Analogic Corporation on factory automation systems and nuclear measurement instrumentation.
Kristin Morris
Lead Electrical Engineer
Pacific Diabetes Technologies
Kristin Morris is the Lead Electrical Engineer at Pacific Diabetes Technologies, a Portland-based startup developing an integrated solution for glucose sensing and insulin delivery. She is involved in every level of design, from the low-level PCB and firmware, to mobile applications and data processing.
Morris holds a Master’s of Engineering Degree in Computer Engineering from Portland State University. During her studies, she also received valuable work experience via internships at large corporate companies such as Intel, Mentor Graphics and Electro Scientific Industries (ESI). She then kicked her career off by continuing on at ESI full time, before making the leap into the startup world in 2013, where challenges, inspiration, failures and successes awaited.
Michael Torres
Chief Avionics Support Equipment Engineer
Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Div. Point Mugu
Michael Torres’ technical expertise is the design, development, and testing of advanced avionics (flyable electronics) that meet speed, size, weight, and power requirements of these systems. He focuses on the development of software mathematical algorithms to facilitate design solutions that meet these requirements.
Torres has developed and patented automated test systems for avionic systems and their test equipment. He holds nine Navy patents and is an expert in the development of manufacturing fixtures that simply the manufacturing of components, reducing the manpower requirements and producing better and more repeatable results.
Torres holds a Master’s of Science in Electrical Engineering specializing in Electronic Warfare from the Naval Post Graduate School, a Master’s of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of California at Santa Barbara, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from UCLA.
Below are descriptions of the four finalists. The overall winner of the Embedded Computing category will be announced at an awards dinner on December 11th in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Mentor, A Siemens Business
Mentor Embedded IoT Framework (MEIF)
The Mentor Embedded IoT Framework (MEIF) is the industry’s first comprehensive, cloud vendor-agnostic embedded software framework designed to help developers create, secure and manage “cloud-ready” smart devices for Industrie 4.0 applications. Featuring well-defined interfaces engineered to complement and extend cloud vendor embedded software development kit (SDK) APIs, MEIF streamlines the integration of Industrie 4.0 networks with virtually all leading cloud service backends, (Amazon Web Services (AWS), Eclipse IoT, Microsoft Azure, and Siemens MindSphere).
MEIF is OS-agnostic, supporting any processor architecture, and scales from resource-constrained end-nodes up to IoT gateways and edge/fog devices powered by the highest-performing multicore processors. It’s a complete solution that reduces the cost and risk faced by IoT device manufacturers related to device porting, scaling, code re-use, and backend integration.
MEIF supports backend communications and applications, including: device authentication and provisioning; configuration and control; monitoring and diagnostics; and software updates and maintenance. Advanced capabilities include OS health monitoring and diagnostics, available memory and CPU utilization reporting, system profiling and support for alarms and events. Manufacturers can integrate and enable their own diagnostics.
MEIF comprises Mentor runtime platforms which support security from device power-on with a hardware-based root of trust and a complete software chain of trust. MEIF extends this security to the cloud, enabling secure device onboarding and bulk data upload, secure device software updates and device management. Its GUI-based utility lets users sign, encrypt, and package artifacts which are then delivered to the devices for secure validation and authentication before being applied to the embedded device.
Microchip Technology Inc.
SAM L11
The SAM L11 combines leading security features with best-in-class low power consumption and water-tolerant, noise-immune capacitive touch. As the industry’s first Arm Cortex-M23 with robust chip-level security features and Arm TrustZone for Armv8-M, the SAM L11 is designed to protect customer applications from both remote and physical attacks. TrustZone provides hardware isolation between certified libraries, IP and application code, and the SAM L11 integrates hardware security with chip-level tamper resistance, secure boot and secure key storage. Additional SAM L11 security features include an on-board cryptographic module supporting Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Galois Counter Mode (GCM) and Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA). The secure boot and secure key storage with tamper detection capabilities establish a hardware root of trust. It also offers a secure bootloader for secure firmware upgrades. Microchip has partnered with Trustonic, a member of Microchip’s Security Design Partner Program, to offer a comprehensive security solution framework that simplifies implementation of security and enables customers to introduce end products faster.
The device offers the industry’s lowest power in its performance class with more than two times better EEMBC certified performance score than the nearest competitor. The SAM L11 features Microchip’s latest-generation Peripheral Touch Controller (PTC) for capacitive touch capabilities, enabling designers to easily add touch interfaces that provide an impressively smooth and efficient user experience in the presence of moisture and noise while maintaining low power consumption.
RelChip, Inc.
Extreme Operating Microelectronics (EOM)
Current sustained high-temperature operations of digital technology are limiting the performance of critical systems that provide everything from security of the Homeland to Energy development, as well as Medical and Commercial (COT) Technologies. The RelChip micro-electronics provide a high ROI in complex applications of Aerospace & Automotive Systems, Energy Oil, Geothermal, Exploration/Development, and supports critical government infrastructure systems of Utilities, Power & Water.
There are recent component technology offerings so this imperative can now significantly benefit from the advent of a new line of Microelectronics specifically for extreme/harsh environments, starting with the 300C Micro and SOI components, at a low cost of entry. These new operating conditions will increase life & reliability of the systems up to 4 times. An example is a tool with up to four spinners (fluid flow measurement), four analog inputs (for pressure, temperature or other sensors), EEPROM storage (program and data), FSK logic (wireline data transmission), and a high-speed UART (tool communication). Additionally, this has the capability of field updates of code, and persistent calibration.
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