Boston, MA — When Microchip started planning for the 2009 Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) held this week in Boston, it was delighted to find out that attendees could pre-register online for its in-booth educational sessions. Microchip’s game plan was to schedule 10 sessions in its booth, which is designed to accommodate a maximum of 20 people per session.

It didn’t quite work out that way, with five to six times more engineers than expected signing up for many of Microchip’s hour-long sessions called “custom bags” on topics ranging from Ethernet Solutions to RF. Some 161 engineers, for example, pre-registered for a session titled USB Solutions, causing Microchip to make a quick decision and move the in-booth sessions to a larger space within the convention center.

“We didn’t really put any cap on the registration, but clearly the online pre-registration was a factor. Another factor is that we are seeing a lot of uptake in USB and related topics,” says Eric Lawson, public relations manager.

Lawson says the Microchip courses offered here were designed to give engineers a taste of a hot topic, and clearly that’s exactly what some of the design engineers here were looking for. With a virtual explosion of technology to stay on top of, engineers are doing their best to learn when and where they can snatch the time. In all, they had a total of 85 sessions to choose from at this year’s ESC to do just that.

Andy Leech, a consultant who designs medical equipment, attended Microchip’s session on Human Interface Solutions. “I’m here getting the flavor of it so that if I have a requirement in the future that is in any way related to the technology, I have a base to build upon,” says Leech. Here on business from the UK, Leech says he pre-registered for a few of the sessions that looked interesting, basically in an attempt to try and keep up with it all. “Engineers are just getting bombarded with information, there’s just this constant need to climb the learning curve,” he says. “At this type of show you get to see all the things you don’t have time to keep up with and maybe learn something about a few of them.”

Paul, another consultant who attended the same session attended Microchip’s session on USB Solutions the day before, and said he was planning to take it again later in the day. “Microchip’s got this 8-bit technology with USB built right in, they’re being extremely aggressive,” he said. “Basically I’m taking the course twice to make sure I understand it.”

Consultant Chuck Lippmeier, an expert in LabVIEW (a graphical programming language from National Instruments) had not taken any of the Microchip courses at this year’s ESC, but says he has in the past. “Every little bit of information that you gather gets you a little closer to where you’re trying to go,” he says. “What I am trying to do now is get on board with microcontrollers, my level is pretty basic at this point,” he says. In the past, he has used training materials on Microchips’s site and attended Microchip’s annual Masters Conference for more intensive training.

In the end, education is part of a never-ending process for design engineers, a task that many regretfully say they now have less time to devote to. So every little bit helps. “It’s kind of like climbing Mount Everest,” says Paul. “One step at a time.”

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