Last week Imagimob’s Sales Manager Andreas Nimmerfroh and Infineon’s tinyML-focused Field Application Engineer Gioele Mombelle attended tinyML Innovation Forum in Milan. We talked to Andreas about what the event was like, what he learned there, and more!
What were your expectations going into tinyML?
Before attending the tinyML Forum, I was looking forward to industry exchange within the tinyML community, learning about new topics, listening to some interesting talks, and networking.
What was Imagimob’s involvement in the event?
Imagimob had a booth at the event, where we demoed CAPSENSE™ with on-device learning and anomaly detection. We also presented some projects in our AI development platform, Imagimob Studio, and its integration with Infineon’s tinyML-enabled MCUs.
Tell us about your time at the event, what was it like?
The atmosphere at the forum was great; it was buzzing with lots of people engaged in different topics. Beside the Keynote speeches and presentations, there were many companies exhibiting their unique solutions in the AI sector, as well as students and individuals with great ideas and scientific approaches presenting in the poster alley. All in all it was a great opportunity for knowledge sharing, in a lovely setting with delicious Italian treats and espresso :)
What topics were discussed during the tinyML Forum?
There were many varied discussions with a multitude of different people from different sectors. It is great to engage in topics as general as ”what is Edge AI” to more concrete questions about ”where do Edge AI applications fit into different areas” to very specific questions about the architecture of Imagimob Studio. For example, I had a great conversation about the desire of users to integrate their own layers, which is a capability I was happy to let them know we offer in Imagimob Studio.
It was also great listening to the panel discussions and presenations on the future of AI, and what direction Edge AI will develop into. Not only are these topics very interesting, they are also important for us as a company and for me as Sales Mnager, to dicuss with other players in our area about the developments that are being made, and to of course make sure our development efforts let us maintain a leading market position.
What parts of the event really stood out?
More than any specific keynote or discussion, the opportunity for people with significant interest in the area of tiny Machine Learning to gather together was what really stood out. There were experts in different domains, people doing research in AI, people with products to showcase, or with problems they want to use AI to solve. The event served as a melting pot of ideas and technologies, and in my opinion opened up horizons for different approaches.
When it comes to specific parts of the event, the panal discussion held by leaders within the AI and Machine Learning industry was interesting and brought awareness to the challenges of tinyML applications. The tinyML community still has to struggle with a misperception of AI being solely found in Models like OpenAI´s ChatGPT or Google´s Bard. Already today though tinyML covers so much more use cases then large language models, and the future holds even more potential.
It is great that these events exist, and I believe they are crucial for the growth of the tinyML community and their diversity in how to approach challenges with different ideas. Having said that, I want to thank the tinyML Foundation for having me and Imagimob as a silver sponsor and for organizing that beautiful event. I hope this series will continue for a long time and won´t stop shining a light onto the strong tinyML community.
