IEEE Event Agenda - Tuesday May 12, 2026🔹 5:00 PM – 5:30 PMRegistration, Refreshments, Food & Networking (Meet & Greet)Featured Speakers & Sessions🔹 5:30 PM – 6:15 PMTopic 1: Industry Talk – Standardizing Automotive Firmware for SDVsExperts from Mercedes-Benz, Arm, and Athos Silicon will discuss the urgent need for a standardized, secure, and vendor-agnostic firmware <a href="http://foundation.Key" target="_blank" title="foundation.Key">foundation.Key focus areas:- Overcoming fragmented firmware ecosystems- UEFI as a scalable automotive standard- Enabling functional safety, cybersecurity, and interoperability- Supporting chiplet-based and next-gen ADAS architecturesSpeakers:- François Piednoël – (<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/francoispiednoel/)-" target="_blank" title="https://www.linkedin.com/in/francoispiednoel/)-">https://www.linkedin.com/in/francoispiednoel/)- Sachin Athanikar – (<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sachin-athanikar-18ba5914/)-" target="_blank" title="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sachin-athanikar-18ba5914/)-">https://www.linkedin.com/in/sachin-athanikar-18ba5914/)- Dong Wei (<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dongweimba/)🔹" target="_blank" title="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dongweimba/)🔹">https://www.linkedin.com/in/dongweimba/)🔹 6:15 PM – 6:45 PMTopic 2: Academic Keynote – Safe Embodied AI: From Theory to DeploymentProf. Ding Zhao (Carnegie Mellon University)Topics include:- Rare-event safety in autonomous systems- Safe reinforcement and imitation learning- Generalizable and adaptive AI safety- Future of trustworthy embodied AI at scaleSpeaker:- Ding Zhao – (<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ding-zhao-01130730/)🔹" target="_blank" title="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ding-zhao-01130730/)🔹">https://www.linkedin.com/in/ding-zhao-01130730/)🔹 6:45 PM – 7:15 PMTopic 3: Industry Talk – Static Safety Is Dead: Continuous Risk & Compliance for SDVsAkshay Chalana (CEO & Co-founder, Saphira AI)Modern vehicles evolve continuously through software updates, AI-driven functionality, and increasing connectivity—yet safety and cybersecurity practices remain largely <a href="http://static.This" target="_blank" title="static.This">static.This talk explores:- What breaks when traditional safety assumptions no longer hold- Real-world ADAS/autonomy failure propagation: dataset bias, requirement drift, and system boundary ambiguity- Cross-domain challenges between safety and cybersecurity- A new model for continuous, system-aware risk assessment and compliance- Treating compliance artifacts as live infrastructure integrated into development pipelinesThis session provides a practical path to maintaining certification-grade rigor while operating at software <a href="http://velocity.Speaker:-" target="_blank" title="velocity.Speaker:-">velocity.Speaker:- Akshay Chalana – (<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshaychalana/)🔹" target="_blank" title="https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshaychalana/)🔹">https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshaychalana/)🔹 7:15 PM – 7:30 PMQ&A and open discussion - Aditi RamadwarAbout This Technical ForumThis technical forum brings together OEMs, Tier-1 suppliers, semiconductor leaders, researchers, and innovators to address the challenge of fragmentation and define a unified, future-ready mobility <a href="http://stack.Who" target="_blank" title="stack.Who">stack.Who Should Attend:- Automotive engineers and architects- Safety and cybersecurity specialists- Semiconductor and embedded systems professionals- Researchers in autonomous vehicles and AI safety- Technical decision-makers from OEMs and suppliers- Students in Automotive, Compute, Mechanical & Electrical EngineeringWe would be delighted if you could join us and participate in shaping the future of intelligent <a href="http://transportation.Speaker(s):" target="_blank" title="transportation.Speaker(s):">transportation.Speaker(s): Francois, Wei , Sachin, Zhao, AkshayIn-Person at:SEMI Headquarters, 673 S Milpitas Blvd, Milpitas, California, United States, 95035, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/551666