This recap blog is written by Peter Christ and his team at Zeiss.
The Zephyr Project Hands-On Workshop was a great chance for people new to Zephyr RTOS to quickly get started with it. In total, about 40 enthusiasts used the opportunity, and gathered at Hackwerk, a hack space in Aalen, Germany, on two consecutive evenings.
After everyone made themselves comfortable, the workshop started with a brief introduction to the Zephyr RTOS and its ecosystem. To give everyone a head-start, the Zephyr development environment had been provided in a cloud environment. This ensured participants could immediately get their hands on the hardware and learn how to interact with an embedded system that is running Zephyr RTOS.
The group of participants came from diverse backgrounds: The workshop attracted hobbyists like pupils and pensioners, students and teachers at the Aalen university, as well as industry professionals. This sparked interesting discussions, that lasted long after the official closing time of the meetup at 11 PM.
“A very interesting feature of Zephyr RTOS is the powerful hardware abstraction using devicetree. I am familiar with this feature from Linux development, and I am happy that Zephyr brings this concept to embedded. After finishing the provided course materials, I was able to easily port my application to the Arduino board I brought. I can see how Zephyr can help my company to efficiently deal with obsolescence issues in the future”, one participant stated.
The high number of participants and the feedback that we gathered shows that a vibrant embedded community exists in and around Aalen. To keep the community engaged, Peter Christ of ZEISS announced that the next Zephyr event is already around the corner: In summer, a Zephyr Project Meetup will take place in the ZEISS Forum in Oberkochen, Germany. Here, the focus will be on exciting expert talks with discussion and network opportunities.
The exact date will be announced on the Zephyr Project Events page.
Special Thanks
A big thank you to Hackwerk e.V. for providing the venue and technical infrastructure.
We thank Stephan Linz of Navimatix GmbH and Tobias Kästner of inovex GmbH for guiding through the workshop and creating the stimulating training materials.
Many thanks to Peter Christ of ZEISS for the organization!
Additionally, we want to thank inovex GmbH, Navimatix GmbH and ZEISS for providing support staff, and UL Software Intensive Systems for providing additional technical infrastructure.
Lastly, many thanks to ZEISS for sponsoring the awesome food and snacks!
Join the community!
Just like Peter from Zeiss shared an insightful post-event blog, you too can be an active part of the Zephyr RTOS community. Whether it’s hosting meetups, giving presentations, or sharing your experiences, your contributions help grow and strengthen the ecosystem. Check out our latest blog “Join the Zephyr Project Meetups – Learn, Connect, and Share!“ learn how to apply for presentations, organize your own meetup, and get involved. We look forward to seeing your active participation!
To keep up to date about the project, subscribe to the Zephyr quarterly newsletter or connect with us on @ZephyrIoT, Zephyr Project LinkedIn or the Zephyr Discord Channel to talk with community and TSC members.