“High up in an organization, you’re busy with keeping management at ease”

Ben Pronk gained fame as a system architect at several Philips divisions. A year ago, he decided to round off his career by joining a startup in robotic surgery. In the run-up to his keynote at the Bits&Chips System Architecting Conference, we ask him about his 30 years of experience as a system architect.

From Idea to Industry: conference program

How do inventors make the difficult step from a proof of concept or a first physical prototype to a minimal viable product? Learn more at From Idea to Industry. The first edition takes place in Eindhoven on 7 October 2020 with a live and an online event. Keynote by Mark Vaes (Additive Industries). Have a look at the conference program and sign up in time.

Headlines

Intel: we’re getting ASML’s first high-NA tool

TSMC mulls building a fab in Germany

Lightyear rides with Finnish manufacturing partner over VDL

Smart lens from Flanders sees €8M in Series A investment

Intel rumored to be interested in buying Globalfoundries

Dutch companies join hands to supply commercial quantum computers

New center for THz technology launches at TUE

Neuromorphic AI developer Innatera boasts new chairman of the board

Printed-electronics startup Keiron sees funding lift off with NWO grant

Robin brings Scarecrow into its nest for airport bird control

Comma interfaces open the door to reliable high-tech systems

Once a research project initiated by ESI (TNO) and Philips, the Comma framework is developing into a mature product for creating and managing software interfaces. Now, Thales is also looking to use it to streamline its software engineering, as are Thermo Fisher Scientific and Kulicke & Soffa.

In other news

First photonic quantum computer on the cloud (IEEE Spectrum)

German EUV developers nominated for Deutscher Zukunftspreis (Fraunhofer)

How Microsoft built its folding Android phone (The Verge)

Mastering complexity

Designing complex systems requires a comprehensive approach, from personnel selection to documenting the daily progress. Mastering complexity is foremost an exercise in discipline, a virtue desperately needed in today’s world.

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