edge lab LIVE! brings hands-on embedded development to electronica 2026

Engineers attending electronica 2026 will have an opportunity to move beyond the usual conference presentations and technology demonstrations, with a new event dedicated to hands-on embedded, IoT, and edge AI development. Taking place over four days in Munich, edge lab LIVE! will give visitors the chance to work directly with development hardware, explore open-source technologies, and learn from engineers working across the embedded industry.

The event comes at a time when AI and IoT integration are becoming important considerations for modern embedded products. Open technology standards are also changing how developers approach system design, with the potential to support more resilient supply chains, faster time to market, and longer product life cycles. Meanwhile, an evolving regulatory landscape is introducing new requirements that developers must account for throughout the design process.

For decades, electronica has been a place where engineers from around the world have gathered to discuss such developments. It has also served as a barometer by which embedded experts across hardware and software disciplines could gauge the state of the industry. However, exhibition stands and conference presentations offer something very different from practical experience with new technologies.

Bringing the embedded workbench to electronica

Presented by Edge Computing Workbench (EdgeBench), the industry's first fully remote, vendor-agnostic embedded board lab, edge lab LIVE! (ELLi) brings a new level of technological engagement to electronica 2026. Running from November 10 to 13 at Messe München, the event will occupy a dedicated area in Hall C5 for embedded, IoT, and edge AI development, featuring live open-source technology demonstrations and a technical conference area with more than 70 seats.

What sets edge lab LIVE! apart is its emphasis on hands-on workshops from leading edge technology companies, including NXP, Renesas, Avnet, Qualcomm, and Tria. For many of these sessions, registered participants will also receive hardware platforms on which they will learn how to build, configure, test, and troubleshoot the latest embedded, edge AI, and IoT technologies for real-world applications.

With a packed program across all four days, alongside evening events for further discussions and demonstrations, edge lab LIVE! is dedicating each day to a different challenge facing edge system developers. Here are some of the highlights.

Tuesday: Open innovation and embedded development

The opening day will explore edge innovation across a wide range of technologies. Qualcomm will guide attendees through the live, interactive process of training a voice-recognition model, using their smartphones to contribute training data. The host will then deploy the model at the edge within a containerized embedded Linux application, showing attendees which elements of the demonstration can remain portable across different embedded hardware platforms and why separation between applications and operating systems matters for device updates and long-term product maintenance.

Other practical sessions include an automotive real-time control, sensing, and visualization workshop where participants will use NXP's FRDM-A-S32K344 board and FreeMASTER real-time debug monitor to configure, test, and refine a prototype application. A later session from LVGL will demonstrate how to build a modern visual user interface through LVGL's declarative XML language, guiding attendees through the process of bringing an animated, live-data-integrated design to life on a Riverdi STM32U5 display board.

Wednesday: Developing AI at the edge

The second day will shift the focus to edge AI, with Renesas presenting a motion-tracking application workshop. Registered participants will receive a free development kit and work through an exercise exploring how Renesas Developer Hub's reusable software building blocks can accelerate scalable edge AI development from concept to prototype. The workshop will also demonstrate how a working motion-tracking system can connect to Hubble Network, providing a practical example of edge AI and IoT integration.

Another session likely to interest developers is "Reinforcement Learning for Robotics" with Shawn Hymel. Attendees will train an AI agent to balance a wheeled robot, using the MuJoCo physics simulator and Python to build a complete reinforcement learning training pipeline. They will then explore the transition from simulation to physical hardware by transferring the trained control policy to a real robot.

From 18:00 in Hall C5, Shawn will also host An Evening of Edge AI. This ticketed event will include complimentary food and drink, six live technology demonstrations, and the official electronica Edge Awards ceremony.

Thursday: Preparing embedded products for cyber resilience

Thursday's program will focus on one of the most significant challenges facing edge system developers: the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). NXP will host a session examining the role of security-by-design in addressing CRA requirements throughout a product's life cycle, exploring how its security technologies, EdgeLock 2GO IoT service platform, and PSIRT (Product Security Incident Response Team) processes can support manufacturers preparing for compliance. By the end of the workshop, attendees should have a clearer understanding of how risk assessment, threat modeling, and vulnerability management contribute to CRA readiness.

Later that day, open-source security and CRA expert Marta Rybczynska will examine the compliance dos and don'ts for Raspberry Pi-based products. Using a hypothetical integration case, she will take attendees through the development of a preliminary CRA requirements and evidence map. The session will explore where Raspberry Pi documentation and standard software can help address CRA requirements, along with the responsibilities that remain with the manufacturer, including managing keys, documenting dependencies, and maintaining an update and response process throughout the product's support period.

Friday: Zephyr and the Yocto Project

The final day of edge lab LIVE! will bring together developers working with two prominent Linux Foundation software ecosystems: Zephyr and the Yocto Project. The morning session will feature experts from the Zephyr community discussing real-world products, project subsystems, features, and development experiences involving the real-time operating system.

In the afternoon, attention will turn to the Yocto Project, with an opportunity for embedded Linux developers to connect, exchange experience, and explore scalable approaches to building and maintaining customized Linux-based systems.

By bringing hands-on development workshops to one of Europe's largest electronics exhibitions, edge lab LIVE! aims to give engineers practical experience they can take back to their own embedded, edge AI, and IoT projects. The opportunity to work with real development platforms, rather than simply observe demonstrations, is central to that approach.

Workshop places and take-home development hardware are limited. Visit edgelablive.com to explore the full four-day program and register for individual sessions.