AltiumLive 2020 Virtual Summit: Meet the Speakers

AltiumLive 2020: Virtual PCB Summit registration is now open...and for the first time, it's both virtual and free! While we're disappointed not to be meeting with you in person, we are very excited about offering AltiumLive in a format that enables everyone to attend without the barriers associated with time-off, cost, and travel. Read on to learn more about the speakers and topics we have in store at this year's event.

The backbone of every AltiumLive conference is the highly skilled experts we feature, and 2020 is no exception. We think we've put together an all-star team of presenters that will enrich your knowledge and engineering skills and allow you to interact with some of them virtually. 

The “Regulars”

You will be happy to learn that, back by popular demand, Dr. Eric Bogatin and Rick Hartley will be offering presentations.

Bogatin will be channeling his inner Yoda and teaching you why, like Luke Skywalker, "You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned". He will help you avoid some common pitfalls by challenging widely accepted design practices that were sound decades ago but are no longer applicable in current technologies.

Immediately following this talk, Bogatin will assume the role of an investigative reporter, moderating a powerhouse panel of experts talking about EMI, Power Integrity, and Signal Integrity. The panel will include Istvan Novak of Samtec, Steve Sandler of Picotest, Heidi Barnes of Keysight Technologies, and perhaps one additional guest that we are still working on. This panel represents well over a century of deep expertise and rich engineering wisdom. 

Rick Hartley will be talking about a subject he regularly encounters as a professional consultant. In his talk, Designing for Cost, he'll help you make meaningful decisions during the design process to improve your costs dramatically. Rick will offer some straightforward and practical solutions that will make a significant impact on your tight budget.
 

Another fan-favorite, Jeremy Blum, Director of Engineering at Shaper Tools, will be sharing his wisdom on how to work most effectively with your distributors and component manufacturers. Beyond design engineering, Jeremy manages all the sourcing and supply chain partners globally on behalf of Shaper, a successful start-up he helped develop and grow in Silicon Valley.

Following each session will be 15 minutes of live Q&A so you can get your questions answered directly by these experts. 

The Newcomers

Steve Sandler of Picotest is a newcomer to this year's conference. Sandler is the author of several technical books on power integrity and Spice Simulation. His most famous (and most massive scale) modeling and simulation project encompassed the entirety of the International Space Station. Combining his keen knowledge, blended with hands-on experience, he will offer Design Engineers practical principles and methods to use Spice simulation effectively.

Another newcomer to this year's conference is Eli Hughes of TZero. Eli's engineering background is in embedded systems, high-speed design, and has a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in Acoustics. He has spent the last four years launching TZero with his partners who have developed an acoustic sensor that measures real-time fermentation data for craft breweries remotely through the cloud and mobile app. His presentation title is Crossing the Chasm: The Road to Becoming a Full-Stack Hardware Engineer. He'll discuss how to learn and develop multi-disciplinary engineering knowledge to help you design in a broader, more cohesive manner. This presentation will help you make important informed choices about your board designs and how they impact corollary stakeholders.

From Altium and Friends

Once again, Lawrence Romine, VP of Marketing will be our Emcee at the event. Romine will be kicking off AltiumLive with a live demonstration of the new features coming in Altium Designer 21. Our team will also share updates on the direction and exciting future direction of Altium 365. 

Since this quarantine season finds all of us working remotely, Dave Pellarin from Amazon Web Services (AWS) has generously offered to be one of our presenters at AlitumLive to address your security concerns. As you may know, Altium 365 is hosted on the AWS cloud-based platform. Pellerin will share real-world use cases from some of the world's most sensitive applications in the semiconductor industry. These cases will help you better understand the security safeguards in place at AWS and why companies trust them with some of the highest risk IP. After this presentation, you will have a deeper understanding of AWS cloud security, and it will increase your confidence while designing your next board on the Altium 365 platform.

We will also have several on-demand sessions from our staff, friends, and partners to enhance your knowledge and design skills. Most notably, Dugan Karnazes will talk about his experience on the global Open Source Ventilator team and how he leveraged the collaborative power of Altium Designer and Concord Pro running on the Altium 365 platform. Karnazes was able to design a fully functional emergency ventilator in 30 days with the help of the global OSV Team.

Details on more sessions and virtual themed happy hours are forthcoming--so check the website for up-to-date information. Please register now to reserve your place. We look forward to being together (virtually) in October!