‘Safe for the Future’ at embedded world 2019

Following the major success of the event in the last three years, the panel discussion on 27th February, the second day of the embedded world Exhibition & Conference 2019, will enter its fourth round. Under the theme ‘Safe for the Future’, Exhibition Centre Nuremberg will once cover all aspects of the safety and security of embedded systems and the protection of computers and communication channels.

The key topic is the protection of networked embedded systems in the Internet of Things. A particular focus of the discussion will be how the differing requirements of data protection (security) and functional security (safety) can be combined with one another and the measures that can be taken to achieve both objectives.

The panel discussion on this topic, moderated by Professor Peter Fromm from the University of Darmstadt, will hear from three outstanding experts: Professor Peter Liggesmeyer, Scientific Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Development (IESE) in Kaiserslautern, Thomas Pilz, Managing Partner of safety specialists Pilz in Ostfildern, and Nigel Stanley, Chief Technology Officer, Operational Technology and Industrial Cyber Security CoE at TÜV Rheinland.

“Safe for the Future, the discussion panel at the heart of the trade fair action, has become a permanent fixture at embedded world. We are delighted that we were once again able to get renowned experts on board for this first-class discussion in 2019. It will certainly be exciting to hear again what the safety and security experts have to say on this issue,” said Benedikt Weyerer, Executive Director embedded world at NürnbergMesse.

Professor Axel Sikora, chair of both the embedded world exhibition advisory committee and the embedded world conference, added: “I am looking forward to an interesting discussion that will in particular shed light on the struggle to reconcile functional security, such as safety, with its often rigid testing and approval procedures, with data protection, i.e. security, which needs updates to ward off attacks. Even now it is clear that without security there is no safety!”

Brief details of the experts

Professor Peter Fromm studied electrical engineering in Aachen. After completing his doctorate at the European Centre for Mechatronics in 1999, he built up the software and system engineering division at Continental. The focus was on establishing and optimizing globally standardized development methods and tools. In 2008 he became professor for microcontroller and information technology at the University of Darmstadt, where he is responsible for the integrated degree and international master’s degree programs. Since 2017 he has been a member of the Steering Board of the Embedded World Conference.

His current research interests are in embedded safety, in particular the modeling and development of secure architectures on complex multicore processors.

Professor Peter Liggesmeyer is the Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE in Kaiserslautern and has headed the research group Software Engineering: Dependability in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Kaiserslautern since 2004. Since 2017, he has been in charge of the Innovation Center ENARIS, a joint institution of Fraunhofer IESE and Fraunhofer ESK. He is the founder of the Fraunhofer Alliance Embedded Systems, whose spokesperson he was from 2010 to 2013. From 2014 to 2017, he managed the affairs of the Gesellschaft für Informatik GI, e.V. (German Informatics Society) as its President.

Thomas Pilz was born in Esslingen in 1967. He studied business management at the University of Passau. From 1996 to 2005 he was the managing director of Pilz Automation Safety L.P. in Canton, Michigan (USA), the subsidiary of Pilz in North America. Since 2005 he has been managing partner of Pilz, where he is responsible for IT, Procurement, R&D, Quality Management and Production.

Among other positions Thomas Pilz is a member of the board of the Electrical Automation Association within the VDMA, chairman of the advisory board of DFAM (German research society for automation and microelectronics) and a member of the supervisory board of the Technical Academy of Esslingen (TAE).
Nigel Stanley is Chief Technology Officer, Operational Technology and Industrial Cyber Security at TÜV Rheinland. Nigel is a specialist in cyber security and business risk with nearly 30 years’ experience in the IT industry. He is a well-recognized thought leader and subject matter expert capable of delivering complex cyber security projects across small, medium and large scale enterprises. He is part of the $2bn technical services company that operates across multiple industrial and operational technology sectors including oil, gas, nuclear, transportation and autonomous systems.

He has an MSc in Information Security from Royal Holloway, University of London where he was awarded the Royal Holloway University Smart Card Centre Crisp Telecom prize for his MSc research dissertation into mobile radio systems security and smartphones.

Safety and Security Area 2019

The issues of safety and security do not just play a major role in the panel discussion and congress but are also at the heart of the trade fair action. In the special ‘Safety & Security Area’ in Hall 4A, visitors can find out how embedded systems can be protected from attack, how attack-proof hardware and software for embedded solutions are designed and how attack routes are monitored in the embedded sector.

Free entry to embedded world 2019

Using the voucher code ew19PR, trade fair visitors can already secure their free ticket to embedded world 2019. The code can be redeemed here.