Bits&Chips Event 2025 - Bits&Chips Events

16:30-17:15

Bernhard Kneer (ZEISS SMT)

Systems engineering for lithography optics

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Lithography optics are fundamental to the semiconductor manufacturing process, serving as a cornerstone for the precise fabrication of microchips. This keynote will offer an overview of lithography optics, emphasizing their critical role within the semiconductor industry, with a particular focus on the current advancements in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography.
At the heart of the development and manufacturing of lithography optics lies systems engineering, a discipline that ensures optical systems meet stringent performance, reliability and cost-effectiveness criteria. Drawing on over 20 years of experience in this specialized field, Bernhard Kneer will elucidate the essential principles of systems engineering that underpin successful optical system design and implementation.
Moreover, the importance of social skills in the practical work of a systems engineer cannot be overstated. Kneer will share valuable experiences and insights gained from navigating the dynamics between a traditional German optics manufacturer and an opportunistic Dutch system integrator, highlighting how effective collaboration and communication can drive innovation and success in complex engineering projects.

Bernhard Kneer is head of product systems engineering at ZEISS SMT.

11:00-11:40

Petra Heck (Fontys)

What is an augmented engineer? Software engineering in the age of GenAI

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At Fontys UAS, we’ve been educating software engineers for many years. Since 2019, we also educate AI engineers: software engineers who know how to build production-ready AI systems. Recently, we saw a whole new combination of AI and software engineering: using LLM-based tooling to automate the software engineering process itself. We quickly adapted by adding new semesters to our curriculum, starting employee professionalization programs, building necessary infrastructure, but most of all by starting experiments. We educate the AI-augmented software engineer of the future. Working toward this moving target has given us valuable insights into how to transform your software engineering processes in practice and how the job of a software engineer might change. We’ll share our lessons learned both for individual software engineers and architects worrying about their jobs, as well as for engineering companies worrying about their future.

Petra Heck studied computer science at Eindhoven University of Technology and holds a PhD from Delft University of Technology on the topic of quality of just-in-time requirements. She’s been working in IT since 2002 and as a lecturer in software engineering at Fontys UAS since 2012. In 2019, she started a postdoc research on the topic of AI engineering and how to build production-ready AI systems. In 2025, she was appointed associate professor of AI and software engineering, which also includes research into how to use AI to build production-ready systems. She’s part of the Fontys-wide Center of Expertise AI for Society, involved in applied AI engineering projects as “Van sensoren naar zorg.”

9:45-10:30

Tanja Vos (Polytechnic University of Valencia/Open University)

From user story to tested system – scriptless testing at the GUI level with AI

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Software is getting smarter, but end-to-end testing often remains manual, slow and error-prone. In this keynote, Tanja Vos presents how generative AI and scriptless test automation come together in a powerful approach for testing interactive systems. At the heart of the talk is Testar, an open-source tool that explores graphical user interfaces, performs actions and automatically generates realistic test scenarios – all without writing a single test script. Starting from user stories, the tool derives meaningful tests that not only detect bugs but also provide deep insights into system behavior. While the focus is on GUI-based applications, the same principles can be extended to systems that expose technical APIs, such as those found in IoT and embedded domains. With real-world examples from research and industry, this keynote offers a forward-looking and practical perspective on how AI can make software testing smarter.

Tanja Vos is professor of software engineering at the Open University of the Netherlands and the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia in Spain. She leads the Software Testing group, active across both institutions, developing advanced scriptless GUI testing technologies such as the open-source tool Testar, which enables regression testing of desktop and mobile applications without the need for scripts. Her group also drives educational innovation, creating new methods for teaching software testing and coordinating EU-funded projects to improve programming education. In her 2023 TEDx talk, she highlighted the essential role of human reasoning in testing AI systems and advocated for a shift in educational paradigms. As Vice-Dean of Research at the Faculty of Science at the Open University, she helps shape the university’s research strategy. She also chairs Versen, the Dutch national association for software engineering, promoting the advancement of software research and practice. With 20+ years of experience, Vos is a leading voice in intelligent and responsible software testing.

11:45-12:25

Pascal Widdershoven (Kabisa)

Software engineering in the AI era: how to stay relevant

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AI is redefining software engineering, fast. This leaves us with urgent questions: Is our profession becoming obsolete? Can anyone build software with the help of AI? And what separates hype from reality? Drawing on practical experience from over fifty software engineers at Kabisa, this talk helps you cut through the noise. You will leave with a realistic view of AI’s current capabilities and limitations in our field, the latest tools and techniques to effectively integrate AI into your development processes and actionable advice for how the software engineer role must evolve to stay not just relevant, but become even more impactful than it is today.

Pascal Widdershoven is a CTO, software engineer and architect. He’s been in the industry for almost twenty years and is currently the CTO at Kabisa. In an attempt to master every possible domain of software engineering, he’s worked on back-end systems, web front-ends, mobile apps, cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines and more.

13:45-14:25

Sam Smetsers (ICT Group)

Finding the needle in the haystack – sifting through an enormous amount of sensor data

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In our data-driven world, from manufacturing floors to financial markets, identifying anomalous or abnormal behavior is crucial. But how do you detect critical equipment malfunctions or fraud when sensor data is noisy, high-dimensional and stochastic in nature? Traditional methods often fall short. Join our talk to see how we fuse the domains of digital signal processing and deep learning to accurately and efficiently tackle this challenge.

Sam Smetsers is a data scientist within the Center of Excellence of ICT High Tech. Together with his team, he combines cross-cutting technologies into disruptive solutions that solve challenges in the high-tech industry.

14:30-15:10

Iris Reitsma & Marten Rozema (Cimsolutions)

Multi-agent systems with small language models

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Imagine a development team always on standby, no salaries, no sleep, just power and cooling. Planning, coding, testing and documentation, all triggered by simple instructions at your keyboard. This is possible when we let language models collaborate as agents.
Large models like ChatGPT have shown they can reason and complete complex tasks. Using those proprietary models means giving up control over your data and IP. That’s no longer a trade-off you have to make. With small language models (SLMs) running locally and working together as specialized agents in a multi-agent system (MAS), you can build autonomous workflows securely, without compromising performance.
In this talk, we’ll show how multi-agent systems with small language models can be used to automate complex tasks while maintaining control over data and access. We’ll walk through real-world scenarios and practical tools, so you can stay ahead before multi-agent systems become the new standard.

Iris Reitsma has a background in physics and computational science and obtained her MSc degrees from the University of Amsterdam in 2022 and 2023. She currently works at Cimsolutions as a data scientist and software engineer, focusing on generative AI for reliable retrieval and extracting meaningful information from unstructured documents. She’s involved as a founding engineer of the Versadoc project within Cimsolutions’ AI division. She’s been at the core of infrastructure and knowledge management behind applications that deliver insights and fast access to large technical documents. Leveraging information from text to graphs and making it accessible at scale.

Marten Rozema is research lead at Cimsolutions’ AI division, where he drives the development and implementation of applied AI solutions for clients across industries. He holds a master’s in artificial intelligence from the University of Amsterdam, with published research in cancer detection using medical imaging. During his studies, he joined the Y Combinator program in Silicon Valley with a startup he helped build. At Cimsolutions, he launched the Versadoc platform and leads early-stage AI initiatives, advising tech teams on strategy, integration and impact.

11:00-11:40

Dion Slijp (Canon Production Printing)

From curiosity to capability: embedding AI in a global manufacturing organization

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How do you embed AI into the DNA of a global manufacturing organization? At Canon Production Printing, we believe it starts with empowering every employee to explore and initiate AI in their daily work. As chair of the Center of Expertise for AI, I’ll share how we’re scaling digital transformation across R&D, manufacturing and support functions. Our journey began with inspiration: AI Days that sparked curiosity and lowered barriers. Then came structure: a cross-sector Center of Expertise that facilitates exploration, supports project initiation and fosters shared learning. I’ll walk you through our approach, the cultural shifts we’re nurturing and the lessons we’ve learned in making AI not just a tool, but a mindset. I’ll also share our experience applying AI in software engineering, from accelerating development to enhancing quality. Whether you’re just starting or scaling your AI journey, this talk offers practical insights into building momentum and making transformation stick.

Dion Slijp is department head of R&D at Canon Production Printing, where he leads a software engineering department and chairs the Center of Expertise for AI. In this role, he supports the adoption and implementation of AI across the organization. After nine years as an entrepreneur, he returned to Canon with a strong focus on helping people thrive and enabling change. He values diversity, equity and inclusion as essential to building effective teams and sees it as a core part of his leadership approach.

11:45-12:25

Daan van der Munnik (Philips)

CTRL+ALT+INNOVATE: Rebooting R&D with GenAI (one bot at a time)

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Discover how Philips IGT-Systems is pioneering the use of AI to accelerate innovation and boost productivity in R&D. In this talk, we’ll explore how emerging technologies like large language models (LLMs), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), Model Context Protocol (MCP) and AI agents are transforming the way we work – streamlining documentation, enabling faster insights and supporting engineers in their daily tasks. You’ll get a practical look at the early applications we’ve implemented, lessons learned and how AI is helping us shift from manual, repetitive work toward high-value innovation. Whether you’re new to AI or already experimenting, this talk will provide a clear, engaging primer on the core building blocks – and a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how we’re embedding them into a complex, highly regulated R&D environment.

Daan van der Munnik is a seasoned technology leader at Philips IGT-Systems, with a strong foundation in technical computer science and a career spanning software architecture, IT leadership and R&D enablement. He began at Philips Healthcare as a software architect, later serving as IT director at an ISP startup, before returning to software development in 2003. He’s played a key role in bridging the gap between IT and R&D globally, leading software development tooling initiatives. He now heads the software development competence within the Imaging Chain Cluster, transforming complex engineering challenges into real-life, impactful solutions.

13:45-14:25

Pepijn Noltes (Thales)

Generative AI behind closed doors

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How do you introduce generative AI in an environment where data can’t move, cloud isn’t an option and everything is subject to strict regulations? In this talk, Pepijn Noltes shares his experience setting up local generative AI solutions within a defense context. Through two concrete pilots – from GPU-powered developer machines to a Mac Studio cluster – he demonstrates how innovation is still possible within closed systems. He also discusses the role of the Local GenAI Board, which uses the RICE method to prioritize use cases. A talk full of practical lessons, technical decisions and organizational insights for anyone looking to deploy AI in a restricted environment.

Pepijn Noltes is a software architect with over twenty years of experience in software development, most of which he has spent at Thales Netherlands. He has specialized in designing robust, future-proof software architectures and has been closely involved in various studies on software evolution, reconfigurable systems and technology-agnostic architectural principles. As the original architect of the middleware stack widely used within Thales Netherlands, he has played a key role in standardizing software solutions across the organization. He currently serves as the lead software architect of a craftsmanship program at Thales Netherlands, focusing on improving the developer experience, introducing modern DevOps tools and streamlining a secure and generic development lifecycle process. He emphasizes the importance of software craftsmanship not only on the development side but also on the operational side – where resilience, reliability and security are critical in a defense environment. As the founder of the internal Special Interest Group for LLMs, he was one of the first advocates for exploring the potential of generative AI within Thales Netherlands. His work sits at the intersection of innovation and pragmatic implementation.

15:15-15:55

Alok Lele (ASML)

Coding with AI: what works, what hurts, what’s next

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In our journey to integrate AI into software development, we’ve encountered a landscape that ranges from quick wins to complex challenges. This talk explores that spectrum. We started with low-friction successes like deploying AI coding assistants (eg Github Copilot). We then looked at other low-hanging fruits like querying large semi-structured data and fixing simple code smells. As we progressed, we faced more nuanced technical hurdles: deeper code refactoring, collecting high-quality validation data and the limitations of current models in understanding context-rich codebases. The real complexity, however, emerged not from the technology but from the organization. Inconsistent adoption among engineers and the contextual mismatch between AI tools, real-world workflows and addressing IP security and compliance concerns all posed significant barriers. Not to mention, there needs to be proof of return on investment and due consideration for sustainability and environmental impact. This talk distills our experience into key takeaways that reflect both the promise and the responsibility required to make AI truly impactful in software engineering.

Alok Lele is currently the project lead for Twinscan software research and innovation. He's served in various technical roles at ASML since 2016 and driven projects related to model-based engineering, system performance and AI. He received a PhD in computer science from Eindhoven University of Technology in 2018.

11:00-11:40

Marieke Huisman (University of Twente)

Bug-free software: a realizable dream?

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Software is everywhere, and (almost) everything we do relies on software. But can we actually rely on software? Software bugs are just as old as software and frequently cause major disruptions, such as the recent Crowdstrike’s outage due to a software update.
I’ll argue that it should be possible to improve this situation by using formal methods. Formal methods can help identify software bugs in the early stages of development, so that they can be identified and fixed before deployment. They can also be used to analyze the possible effects of software updates before applying them.
Of course, the use of formal methods requires a time investment and training. However, the return on investment is big because of the improvements in software quality. I’ll end by discussing what needs to be done to make the transfer of formal methods from academia to industrial practice.

Marieke Huisman is professor of software reliability at the University of Twente. She’s well-known for her work on the verification of concurrent software. Since 2011, she has been working on the Vercors verifier, a tool for the verification of concurrent software. Her current work focuses on extending verification to a larger class of programs and properties, and making verification more automatic. Besides her scientific work, she contributes to diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as science policy. She’s department chair, chair of the Dutch computer science platform IPN and board member of the Netherlands Academy of Engineering.

11:45-12:25

Rebecca Dreher (Rolls-Royce Solutions ) & Jörg Herter (Absint)

Beyond safety-critical: expanding the reach of formal methods in embedded software development

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Formal methods may be utilized in software development processes to guarantee the absence of coding guideline violations and runtime errors, and to provide safe bounds for worst-case stack usage and worst-case execution time. For highly safety-critical applications, using ‘sound tools’ that implement such formal methods is well established. The experiences gained over the past years show that a formal approach not only greatly increases confidence in the correctness of code but also significantly reduces qualification efforts and costs in development, production and maintenance.
The benefits of sound tools are, however, not limited to highly safety-critical applications only. At Rolls-Royce Solutions GmbH (formerly MTU Friedrichshafen), their well-established sound toolchain (introduced for their first generation of electronic engine controllers for emergency diesel generators in civil nuclear power plants) is now being extended to be applied to all embedded software development projects.
This talk presents the lessons learnt at Rolls-Royce Solutions GmbH when migrating their software development processes to using sound analysis tools. It demonstrates with concrete example projects how a sound toolchain enables supporting novel requirements imposed by the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). It also discusses how using sound tools complements basic rules of the ISTQB.

Rebecca Dreher obtained her master’s degree in mathematics in 2016 from the University of Konstanz. She has been working at Rolls-Royce Solutions since 2019 as a software test manager. Before that, she was mainly involved in dynamic uniting testing. Her main project is a middleware for engine control systems, and over the past year, she has shifted her focus to static testing. At Rolls-Royce Solutions, she’s also responsible for Absint’s A3C tool, and this year, she was in charge of releasing new coding guidelines for C derived from Misra C.

Jörg Herter studied computer science and obtained a PhD in predictable dynamic memory allocation for hard real-time systems. He’s a research fellow at Saarland University and the University of Applied Sciences in Saarbrücken. His current work is focused on functional safety and the formal validation and verification of safety-critical software. He teaches static program analysis, embedded systems technology and compiler construction at the Saarland University of Applied Sciences and the University of Luxembourg. He also works as a senior technical consultant for Absint Angewandte Informatik GmbH.

13:45-14:25

Burcu Kulahcioglu Özkan (TU Delft)

Software testing as a sampling problem

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In this talk, we’ll explore software testing through the lens of probabilistic sampling. Our main focus will be on finding concurrency bugs, which arise from the unpredictable behavior of concurrent and distributed systems. Detecting these bugs is notoriously challenging because they often occur only in specific, subtle interleavings of the events. While naive random testing is often ineffective at uncovering challenging bugs, our randomized testing algorithms offer effective methods by strategically sampling test executions.

Burcu Kulahcioglu Özkan is an assistant professor and Delft Technology Fellow in the Software Engineering Research Group at TU Delft. She received her PhD from Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey, followed by postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS) in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Her research focuses on formal methods, model checking, software testing and debugging of concurrent programs and distributed systems.

14:30-15:10

Jens Don (Praegus) & Tom Heintzberger (Praegus/Orangebeard.io)

Testing the future: how AI is reshaping quality assurance

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The world of software testing is undergoing a radical transformation. And AI is leading the charge. Once ruled by scripts and repetition, quality assurance is evolving into an intelligent, adaptive discipline. In this talk, we explore how AI isn’t just accelerating testing, but redefining what it means to test altogether.
From predictive defect detection to self-healing automation and AI-generated test cases, we look at real-world applications that are accelerating delivery and improving quality at scale. But it’s not just about tools; it’s a mindset shift. What does this mean for test engineers, QA leads and the broader development lifecycle?
What skills will tomorrow’s testers need to thrive in an AI-augmented world? Join us on this thought-provoking journey and discover how you can ride the AI wave instead of being swept away by it. The future of testing isn’t coming; it’s already here.

Jens Don is a seasoned test consultant and head of R&D at Praegus, a Dutch test consultancy firm. With over a decade of experience in software testing, test automation and performance engineering, he helps organizations innovate their quality strategies using cutting-edge tools and AI-driven techniques. He’s passionate about bridging the gap between development and quality, and regularly explores the future of testing in modern DevOps and cloud-native environments.

Tom Heintzberger is a passionate software testing specialist with over twenty years of experience in quality engineering, test automation and agile transformation. As a CTO, consultant, trainer and speaker, he helps teams build better software by embedding quality into every stage of development. He thrives at the intersection of technology, people and process – always looking for smarter, more sustainable ways to test.

13:45-14:25

Derya Eker (Synopsys)

Shaping the future of engineering in the age of pervasive intelligence

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This talk will explore how artificial intelligence and machine learning are transforming the semiconductor industry. As the demand for more powerful and efficient chips grows, electronic design automation (EDA) plays a crucial role in streamlining the design and manufacturing processes. EDA tools utilize advanced algorithms to assist engineers in creating complex integrated circuits, improving accuracy and reducing time to market.
We’ll discuss the latest trends in AI/ML and their impact on system-on-chip (SoC) designs for high-performance computing, edge AI and IoT applications. Key topics include the integration of AI/ML algorithms in EDA tools for chip optimization, enabling efficient verification and manufacturing. Additionally, we’ll highlight emerging demands for advanced neural processing units (NPU).

Derya Eker, senior director of engineering in the IP Group at Synopsys, oversees the ARC Neural Processing IP software and tools development. Next to her product management leadership, she’s responsible for Synopsys Netherlands Eindhoven site management. With over 25 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, she has a deep understanding of hardware/software co-design across diverse application domains. She excels in building diverse, global teams and driving product development with a focus on quality and customer satisfaction. Prior to joining Synopsys, she held various engineering and management positions at Intel, Ericsson, NXP Semiconductors and Philips Semiconductors. She holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey.

14:30-15:10

Sumeet Kumar (Innatera)

Neuromorphic computing – the future of intelligence at the sensor

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Billions of sensors power our smart devices, a number that’s set to explode in the years ahead. More sensors mean more data, and more data demands smarter, leaner AI. Neuromorphic computing has an answer to this challenge: spiking neural networks (SNN). Inspired by the brain’s own mechanisms, SNNs stand out with their sparse activity, event-driven processing and natural handling of time. They’re the brain’s playbook for energy-efficient intelligence. But here’s the twist – the magic isn’t just in the networks; it’s in the system.
In this talk, we’ll dive into neuromorphic computing at the sensor edge and introduce Innatera’s Pulsar, the world’s first neuromorphic microcontroller. Pulsar brings brain-like AI right to sensors, unlocking massive gains in battery life, performance and device functionality. With real-world applications, we’ll show how neuromorphic tech is reshaping the future of smart devices – and where it’s headed next.

Sumeet Kumar is the CEO of Innatera, the pioneering Dutch neuromorphic processor company. He holds an MSc and PhD in microelectronics from Delft University of Technology in the design of energy-efficient microprocessors. He was previously with Indrion Technologies and Intel Imaging and Camera Technologies Group. At Delft, he’s credited with creating two highly successful European R&D programs developing energy-efficient compute hardware for highly automated vehicles, together with leading automotive and semiconductor companies. He co-founded Innatera in 2018 together with a team of experienced semiconductor experts and entrepreneurs.

11:00-11:40

Thomas Michl (Bosch)

The Leadership Focus Group – an enabling concept to foster technical leadership

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Several analyses of successful and unsuccessful development projects highlighted two key success factors for us: timely access to experts who drive both high innovation and early risk reduction, and the critical role of technical leadership. Focusing on the latter, we assert that first- and second-level engineering leaders are pivotal in shaping an environment conducive to high engineering performance. Beyond the orchestration of technical problem-solving, these leaders must grasp business models, cultivate the engineering culture, build diverse teams, integrate new technologies and translate cost and time pressures into innovative working methods, driving continuous transformation.
To cultivate these essential leadership skills, we developed the Leadership Focus Group, a guided workshop format. The core involves participants crafting individual leadership models, fostering transparent discussions on goals and expectations. Through individual and group coaching, leaders explore and verbalize their convictions, enhancing self-awareness and understanding of colleagues. These intensive workshops are framed by theoretical training on “Leading of X,” where X can be systems engineering, artificial intelligence or any further engineering technology, work organization or change model.
This challenging yet rewarding process of formulating a coherent leadership vision, reviewed with peers, consistently leads to significant personal and professional growth. The overwhelming positive feedback has led to global adoption, reaching over 7,000 participants and establishing a robust foundation for future challenges.

In 1990, Thomas Michl obtained his Dipl.-Ing. (Univ) in aerospace science from the Technical University in Munich. In 1995, he received his Dr.-Ing. on efficient Euler and Navier-Stokes solvers for use on vector high-performance computers and massive parallel systems from the University of Stuttgart. In 1995, he joined Robert Bosch GmbH as a simulation expert in ESP development. Subsequently, he served as section manager and department manager in ESP development. In 2014 and 2016, he became senior expert and department manager, respectively, in Corporate Technology Engineering. He was qualified as Bosch certified product engineering coach in 2015 and Bosch certified chief systems engineer in 2021. Since 2024, he’s activity owner for engineering processes and the Engineering Academy in the Business Sector Mobility.

11:45-12:25

Nicoleta Maistor (Canon Production Printing)

Architecting across boundaries: systems thinking for software minds

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In today’s complex products, software is a core part of the system itself, and its behaviour, timing and evolution shape the broader system just as much as physical components do. As the head of a software department in a ‘hardware’ company, I’ve found that many of the most critical conversations I have with software designers and architects aren’t about code, patterns or APIs, but about system context: purpose, constraints, integration and trade-offs.
This talk explores why systems thinking is essential for software minds and how cultural heritage subtly shapes the way we approach it. By stepping beyond the code, software architects gain clarity on the “why” behind the “how” – leading to more resilient, adaptable and meaningful designs. Likewise, system architects must understand the nature of modern software systems to create coherent, sustainable solutions. Bridging the gap isn’t optional anymore; it’s the key to building the next generation of complex, reliable systems.

Nicoleta Maistor is R&D department head at Canon Production Printing, where she leads one of the departments responsible for controller software in high-performance printing systems. She brings a systems thinking mindset to complex product development and focuses on purposeful leadership, strategic alignment and customer-focused innovation.

13:45-14:25

Ger Schoeber (High Tech Institute)

Systems architecting – the stakeholders’ debate

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Systems architecting is the process of conceptualizing, designing and leading the development and engineering of complex technical systems. For whom? Who are the main stakeholders? The landscape of opinions, requests and needs can be a minefield, with input coming from every possible direction and beyond! This includes a mixture of internal and external opinions – multiple dozens of them – none of which are aligned. It seems like an impossible endeavour. And, of course, we mustn’t forget your own most important opinion: the need to articulate that brilliant idea, that beautiful piece of technology, that symphony of flow, energy and movement, that incredible piece of art that you’ve shaped and modeled in your mind.
High-tech veteran Ger Schoeber will go head-to-head with the audience, playing devil’s advocate to established systems architecting views – and he’s inviting you to join the debate.

Ger Schoeber has had a distinguished career in engineering and systems architecture following his education in electrical engineering, software and computer science. He began his professional journey in 1984 as a software developer at Philips, contributing to the OS development for the ASML PAS 2500. After five years, he transitioned to High Tech Automation, a technical software service provider, where he advanced to systems engineering and management roles. In 2001, he took the entrepreneurial route by founding Task Switch, a consulting company focused on multidisciplinary systems architecting activities. This venture showcased his commitment to innovative solutions and systems design. His expertise led him to the Hotraco Group in 2011, where he assumed the role of innovation and technology leader. In 2021, he joined Lightyear as the group leader in systems engineering. His career continued to evolve when, in 2023, he became director of warehousing strategy systems and solutions at Vanderlande. Since last year, he has been serving as manager of software development for Secureone. In addition to his industrial roles, he’s recognized globally as a trainer in systems architecting and systems thinking, facilitating learning through High Tech Institute. He holds the ESEP certification and has served as the past president of the Incose chapter in the Netherlands, affirming his influence and leadership within the systems engineering community.

14:30-15:10

Harry van der Velde (Dutch Boosting Group)

Systems engineering across borders: culture, hierarchy and communication

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What happens when systems engineering meets national character? From US-designed deepwater floaters offshore Borneo, to floating LNG co-designed with Japanese engineers, and from Italian oilfield design to Dutch and English collaboration – this talk explores how cultural norms shape engineering decisions, communication and hierarchy.
Expect sharp contrasts: British managers who master understatement but fear upward delegation, Japanese teams where initiative doesn’t exist and American engineers who comfortably silo themselves. Italian meetings? Numbers first, boss speaks, everyone nods. And the Dutch? Informal chats, technical heroes and decisions made at the lowest level – often before anyone realizes.
Drawing on real-world experience from Shell and global projects, this talk offers a humorous yet insightful look at how culture influences systems engineering and architecture. Whether you’re engineering systems across borders or just trying to decode your team’s behavior, this talk should leave you thinking differently about collaboration.

Harry van der Velde is a systems engineering consultant at Dutch Boosting Group. He spent over 25 years at Shell, starting as a process engineer and later leading complex offshore and LNG projects across the UK, Malaysia, Japan, Kazakhstan and Australia. His roles included engineering manager for floating LNG and audit manager for Shell’s global energy portfolio. He championed systems engineering in capital projects and led Shell’s global engineering management community. He holds a PhD in mechanical engineering and an MBA in sustainability. From 2021 to 2025, he served as president of the Incose Netherlands Chapter.

15:15-15:55

Jelena Marincic (TNO-ESI)

Accelerating the energy transition: a systems engineering perspective from high-tech

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To meet the goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the Netherlands must scale its electricity grid by a factor of five. This talk explores how product line engineering, a well-established approach in high-tech, can accelerate grid expansion and thus the energy transition. We’ll present the sector’s modular building practices and the engineering challenges involved in expanding the electricity grid. We’ll compare these with high-tech product development approaches and highlight transferable engineering principles as well as sector-specific constraints. Attendees will gain insights into how system approaches from the high-tech sector can enhance strategies for addressing one of today’s major infrastructure challenges.

Jelena Marincic is a senior research fellow with TNO-ESI. She conducts applied research in an industrial context in the domains of system architecting and model-based systems engineering. Currently, she’s the technical lead in an industrial project focusing on reference architecting for sustainability. Before joining TNO-ESI in 2019, she worked for six years as a model-based software design expert in Altran (now Capgemini Engineering). Her primary role was to support the introduction of model-based software techniques to ASML. Before that, she worked as a researcher and a software engineer. The common denominator of her career has been designing good-quality models that reflect the multidisciplinary nature of systems.

14:30-15:10

Bram Hoefnagel (Vanderlande)

The day your system calls you first – proactive service in an AI-driven world

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Imagine a world where your system doesn’t wait for alerts – it calls you first. Instead of reacting to failures, agentic AI anticipates them. Weak signals trigger smart actions before downtime strikes. This talk reveals how Vanderlande Digital Services is redefining proactive service: detecting anomalies early, automating root-cause analysis, coordinating responses across teams and scaling expert guidance with AI agents. Discover how we’re transforming service models, boosting uptime and building trust – while reshaping the role of service engineers. Curious about a future where systems think ahead? Join us and see what happens when your system calls you first.

Bram Hoefnagel is director at Vanderlande, where he leads digital platform development with a strong foundation in systems engineering practices. He brings extensive experience in large-scale platform development, complex system integration and innovation leadership, enabling Vanderlande to deliver future-proof solutions for global logistics automation. Throughout his career, he has championed agile leadership and operational clarity, helping technology teams prioritize effectively and execute in high-stakes environments. His work spans strategic initiatives such as digital service platforms and integrated solutions that combine software, hardware and lifecycle services to optimize operational performance. Passionate about driving transformation, he focuses on creating scalable architectures and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

11:00-11:40

Dimitri Hehanussa (TNO)

Hardware security by design: protecting IP and achieving CRA compliance

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Unlock the secrets to building truly secure and resilient products. The escalating value of embedded algorithms and designs is making manufacturers prime targets for hardware IP theft by competitors and hostile state actors. Simultaneously, new regulations like the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) are creating a mandatory requirement for security to be integrated into product design.
The core strategy is a “shift left” approach, embedding security at the start of the development cycle. Since products are deployed in potentially hostile environments, security must be rooted in trusted, tamper-resistant hardware, not just software. Learn how formal verification, side-channel attack prevention and fault injection resistance can be practically applied. Discover how embracing design-level security is a strategic investment that preserves IP, ensures critical market access and dramatically reduces costly lifecycle management.

Dimitri Hehanussa is focusing on the hardware security portfolio and business development at TNO, leveraging experience in cybersecurity research and development for almost a decade. His primary work revolves around creating TNO’s knowledge and technology roadmap for advanced cybersecurity, with a strong emphasis on hardware security and cryptography. He advocates for a crucial industry shift from protecting networks to protecting products. He also contributes to TNO’s wider strategic cybersecurity efforts, ensuring manufacturers are prepared for future challenges by addressing the necessary migration roadmaps and algorithm selection related to quantum-safe environments.

11:45-12:25

Mahira Ali (TNO)

Resiliently shifting from human-operated to lights-out factories

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The manufacturing sector ranks among the top three targets for cyberattacks. While digitalization boosts business opportunities, it also introduces cybersecurity challenges. Resolving these challenges is a prerequisite for a successful transition to smart factories. Yet, manufacturers struggle to find the right balance between cyber resilience investment and avoiding overspending. Furthermore, no one-size-fits-all solution seems feasible, since the digitalization maturity across manufacturers varies widely and progresses over time. From initial administrative digitalization to digital twin exploration and ultimately to lights-out operations.
To face this challenge, we present the Cyber Resilience Blueprint Methodology (CRBM). CRBM guides manufacturers in selecting appropriate security measures based on their business risk appetite, their progress in transitioning to smart factories and their threat profile. In this talk, practical cases are used to illustrate how CRBM serves as a stepping stone toward autonomous cyber-resilient factories.

Mahira Ali is a cybersecurity researcher at TNO’s department of Cyber Security Technologies (CST). She works on advancing autonomous cyber resilience and supply chain management. With expertise in monitoring, detection and artificial intelligence (AI), she’s dedicated to increasing autonomy in defense and resilience through the explainable use of AI. Driven by a desire to shift the balance in the ongoing race between cyber attackers and defenders, she aims to create proactive, sustainable, intelligent systems that help break the cycle of reactive cybersecurity.

13:45-14:25

Sebastien Couet (Vertical Compute)

Breaking through the memory wall of AI compute – let’s go vertical

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The past five decades have seen an exponential increase in compute chip performance. In the meantime, progress in memory performance has usually lagged behind. Historical memory technologies such as SRAM, DRAM and 3D-NAND have forced the appearance of a memory hierarchy to deal with the inherent trade-offs between density, speed, endurance and energy consumption of these technologies. The past three years have seen a surge of generative AI workloads, which have brought the memory requirements far beyond what the current memory hierarchy can support. The results: extremely expensive and complex high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, combined in extremely expensive and complex AI compute systems. This happens at a time when the fundamental scaling roadmaps of most of these technologies are screeching to a halt.
In this talk, we’ll review the state of generative AI and the hardware context. We’ll then present Vertical Compute’s technology, which exploits the 3rd (vertical) dimension to integrate bit strings vertically, directly above transistors. Direct CMOS integration in the transistor back-end means no more chip-to-chip data shuttling: no bandwidth bottleneck and much lower system power. Combined with high-performance transistors, such architecture will enable a completely new class of products capable of processing generative AI workloads on the client side. The benefits? Private and secure (personal) generative AI inference at the user’s fingertips. We expect hardware leaps, such as the one proposed by Vertical Compute, will be the way to truly democratize generative AI applications and unlock their full potential.

Sebastien Couet is the CTO and co-founder of Vertical Compute, a startup developing a 100x level semiconductor technology to solve AI’s memory wall. He previously spent over a decade at Imec as program director, leading magnetic memory development. This is where he invented the concept underpinning Vertical Compute’s technology, before spinning it out as a deeptech startup.

15:15-15:55

Ashoka Visweswara (Accenture)

Reimagining SDLC with Gen AI: design patterns for next-generation software development

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Generative AI is redefining how we build and manage software. What began as simple code completion has evolved into a fundamental shift in how development teams design, test and deliver solutions. This talk explores the rapidly advancing landscape of Gen AI for software engineering, highlighting emerging capabilities, benchmark insights and the changing role of developers in an AI-assisted environment.
We’ll discuss how applying Gen AI design patterns from retrieval and reflection to collaboration and governance can unlock new levels of productivity, quality and adaptability across the software lifecycle. The focus will be on understanding where these models excel today, where they fall short and how to integrate them responsibly and effectively into modern engineering workflows.
Join us to discover how the next generation of software development is being shaped by Gen AI where human creativity and machine intelligence come together to transform the way we design, build and evolve technology.

Ashoka Visweswara brings over fifteen years of experience in building and scaling innovative technology products across IoT, computer vision and generative AI. He holds a PhD in computer engineering and has worked at Imec, Philips Innovation, Grai Matter Labs, and currently at Accenture, in roles spanning innovation, business development and product management. His current focus is on applying Gen AI across multiple industries, including high-tech, products, energy and utilities, to deliver reliable, scalable and value-driven AI solutions. He combines technical expertise with a business-value framework to ensure Gen AI initiatives create meaningful and measurable impact.

keynotes

Tanja Vos

Professor of software engineering, Polytechnic University of Valencia/Open University

On AI-driven software testing

Bernhard Kneer

Head of product systems engineering, ZEISS SMT

On multicultural systems engineering

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Program

Derya Eker (Synopsys)

Shaping the future of engineering in the age of pervasive intelligence

Petra Heck (Fontys)

What is an augmented engineer? Software engineering in the age of GenAI

Burcu Kulahcioglu Özkan (TU Delft)

Software testing as a sampling problem

Pepijn Noltes (Thales)

Generative AI behind closed doors

Daan van der Munnik (Philips)

CTRL+ALT+INNOVATE: Rebooting R&D with GenAI (one bot at a time)

Dion Slijp (Canon Production Printing)

From curiosity to capability: embedding AI in a global manufacturing organization

Opening

9:30-9:45

René Raaijmakers & Ger Schoeber (High Tech Institute)

Keynote

9:45-10:30

Tanja Vos (Polytechnic University of Valencia/Open University)

From user story to tested system – scriptless testing at the GUI level with AI

Break

Parallel sessions

Software engineering in the age of AI

11:00-11:40

Petra Heck (Fontys)

What is an augmented engineer? Software engineering in the age of GenAI

11:45-12:25

Pascal Widdershoven (Kabisa)

Software engineering in the AI era: how to stay relevant

Lunch

Parallel sessions

Software engineering in the age of AI

13:45-14:25

Sam Smetsers (ICT Group)

Finding the needle in the haystack – sifting through an enormous amount of sensor data

14:30-15:10

Iris Reitsma & Marten Rozema (Cimsolutions)

Multi-agent systems with small language models

15:15-15:55

Ashoka Visweswara (Accenture)

Reimagining SDLC with Gen AI: design patterns for next-generation software development

Parallel sessions

Gen AI in software development

11:00-11:40

Dion Slijp (Canon Production Printing)

From curiosity to capability: embedding AI in a global manufacturing organization

11:45-12:25

Daan van der Munnik (Philips)

CTRL+ALT+INNOVATE: Rebooting R&D with GenAI (one bot at a time)

Lunch

Parallel sessions

Gen AI in software development

13:45-14:25

Pepijn Noltes (Thales)

Generative AI behind closed doors

14:30-15:10

Bram Hoefnagel (Vanderlande)

The day your system calls you first – proactive service in an AI-driven world

15:15-15:55

Alok Lele (ASML)

Coding with AI: what works, what hurts, what’s next

Parallel sessions

Software quality

11:00-11:40

Marieke Huisman (University of Twente)

Bug-free software: a realizable dream?

11:45-12:25

Rebecca Dreher (Rolls-Royce Solutions ) & Jörg Herter (Absint)