Embedded Systems Education: Job Market Expectations

In the fifteen years since the first Embedded Systems Design Master studies were proposed the embedded systems world has radically changed. The spectrum of application areas has increased beyond any expectation, and the increasing presence of embedded systems in the physical world has led to "cyber-physical systems." Devices tend to become a commodity in many cases, while sensors and IPs acquire a larger share of the market. The whole industrial ecosystem is changing as well, with "application" companies becoming increasingly present and SMEs emerging as major players. It becomes mandatory to reconsider the competences and capacities that should be provided in a Master of Science course oriented to Embedded Systems Design, so as to meet new and diverse requests that come from job market and prospective employers. Within the frame of the Nano-Tera Swiss Federal program (www.nano-tera.ch), the educational project Future Embedded Systems Education (FESTE) aimed at identifying requests coming from the job market, so as to outline the renewed professional profile for young Embedded Systems Designers. The results indicate that programming, networking, real time and system architecture know-how combined with soft skills such as teamwork and communication are in demand and frequently come under disguised names such as automation or control engineering.