Change is the norm

4/5/2006 1:30 PM EDT

The Embedded Systems Conference is all about change - and helping you keep up with it. Just look at all the sessions that are vying for your attention (there are hundreds). One that is near and dear to this editor is the power management track that has certainly become the darling buzz word for portable equipment but has become just as important for point-of-load power supplies, uninterruptible power supplies, microcontroller-based power control and digital/analog control of power.

Keeping up technically is certainly one of the strong suites of the conference but what about keeping abreast of the more subtle changes like the drop in technical education in the US. EE Times Publisher Brian Fuller hosts a session Thursday (April 6, 2006) on this silent crisis. Another part of this brain drain is an undercurrent that I have been hearing at trade shows (Portable Power Developer's Conference for one). It is about the slow loss of engineers born and raised in other countries, mainly India and China, and who received their advanced degrees here in the US. What we are now seeing is opportunities to move back "home" to good paying jobs, advantageous positions and the added bonus of being near family. That's something unheard of just five years ago.

Should we in the States be concerned? Yes, but we need to wake up to meet this challenge and the Embedded Systems Conference has stepped up to help you and I meet this challenge with panels like IEEE Win-Win Partnership of Academia and Industry: Why should we care? Where is our common future?

Find out what you can do to keep up with change - the only norm.

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