Munich, Germany – 2nd July 2025 - The Design and Verification Conference & Exhibition Europe (DVCon Europe), sponsored by Accellera Systems Initiative, has announced its keynote speakers for this year’s event on October 14th and 15th at the Holiday Inn Munich. They are Ralph Schleifer, Head of Virtual ECUs and Simulation at CARIAD and Amanda Brock, CEO of OpenUK.
Amanda Brock’s keynote is entitled; ‘We didn’t start the fire…open source software in 2025’. It will guide the audience through a refresher on the meaning of open source software to build a base understanding of the shift in digital infrastructure over the last 10 years, where the pace of adoption of open source has not been met by the pace of understanding. As she peels back the layers of digitalization, the underbelly of our tech sector will be revealed, showing what makes tech tick today. From geopolitics to tariffs and calls for sovereignty, she will explore the stories we all know to build deeper understanding of policy bathed in a technical context. Embracing software infrastructure, deep tech and AI, this story is one of the technical and social evolution of the last 30 years, driven by a world of open source and global collaboration.
Ralph Schleifer will present; ‘Driving Forward: The Evolution of Virtual Development in the Automotive Industry’, exploring the transformative journey of virtual development within the automotive industry. He will address the challenges faced and the lessons learned along the way, examining the ambitious goals and visions. Through a detailed analysis, he will highlight advances, including innovation in simulation technologies, digital twins, and virtual testing environments.
“Our keynotes this year will be fascinating,” said Mark Burton, general chair of DVCon Europe. “We have two very different and very strong speakers who have important things to say about automotive, open source and the whole tech industry. They really are not to be missed.”
Ralph Schleifer heads the Virtual ECUs and Simulation Group at CARIAD. Before joining the automotive industry in 2015, Ralph was active in different fields of mobile communication at Ericsson in SW development, speech processing research, system engineering, DSP sub systems and virtual prototypes. Ralph holds a M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering. He has established virtual development methodology on different abstraction levels along the automotive supply chain first within Audi and now at CARIAD. He has been active in various areas of virtual development for more than 15 years.
Amanda Brock has built OpenUK into one of open source's most recognised and impactful organisations. A lawyer with 25 years’ experience, five as general counsel of Canonical, she has been instrumental in shaping open source’s legal frameworks, echoing her earlier work with internet law during the early 2000’s. She is a regular contributor to the tech press, edited ‘Open Source: Law, Policy and Practice’, 2nd edition (2022), and is executive producer of State of Open Con (2023- 2025). Amanda holds a wide variety of Advisory Board appointments with, for example, the UK Cabinet Office Open Standards Board and the UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure.
Registration for the event is now open at: https://dvcon-europe.org/registration with reduced rates until September ...
ABOUT DVCON EUROPE
The Design and Verification Conference & Exhibition in Europe (DVCon Europe) is the leading European event covering the application of languages, tools and intellectual property for the design and verification of electronic systems and integrated circuits. Sponsored by Accellera Systems Initiative, and one of several DVCon events around the globe, DVCon Europe brings chip architects, design & verification engineers, and IP integrators the latest methodologies, techniques, applications and demonstrations for the practical use of EDA solutions for electronic design. For more details, visit www.dvcon-europe.org. Follow #dvconeurope on Twitter.
DVCon around the world:
ABOUT ACCELLERA SYSTEMS INITIATIVE
Accellera Systems Initiative (Accellera) is an independent, not-for profit organization, dedicated to create, support, promote and advance system-level design, modeling and verification standards for use by the worldwide electronics industry. The organization accelerates standards development and, as part of its ongoing partnership with the IEEE, its standards are contributed to the IEEE Standards Association for formal standardization and ongoing change control. For more information, please visit accellera.org. For membership information, please email membership@accellera.org. Follow @accellera on Twitter or to comment, please use #accellera.
ACCELLERA GLOBAL SPONSORS: Cadence; Siemens; Synopsys
Accellera Systems Initiative and DVCon are trademarks of Accellera Systems Initiative Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners
Amanda Brock’s keynote is entitled; ‘We didn’t start the fire…open source software in 2025’. It will guide the audience through a refresher on the meaning of open source software to build a base understanding of the shift in digital infrastructure over the last 10 years, where the pace of adoption of open source has not been met by the pace of understanding. As she peels back the layers of digitalization, the underbelly of our tech sector will be revealed, showing what makes tech tick today. From geopolitics to tariffs and calls for sovereignty, she will explore the stories we all know to build deeper understanding of policy bathed in a technical context. Embracing software infrastructure, deep tech and AI, this story is one of the technical and social evolution of the last 30 years, driven by a world of open source and global collaboration.
Ralph Schleifer will present; ‘Driving Forward: The Evolution of Virtual Development in the Automotive Industry’, exploring the transformative journey of virtual development within the automotive industry. He will address the challenges faced and the lessons learned along the way, examining the ambitious goals and visions. Through a detailed analysis, he will highlight advances, including innovation in simulation technologies, digital twins, and virtual testing environments.
“Our keynotes this year will be fascinating,” said Mark Burton, general chair of DVCon Europe. “We have two very different and very strong speakers who have important things to say about automotive, open source and the whole tech industry. They really are not to be missed.”
Ralph Schleifer heads the Virtual ECUs and Simulation Group at CARIAD. Before joining the automotive industry in 2015, Ralph was active in different fields of mobile communication at Ericsson in SW development, speech processing research, system engineering, DSP sub systems and virtual prototypes. Ralph holds a M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering. He has established virtual development methodology on different abstraction levels along the automotive supply chain first within Audi and now at CARIAD. He has been active in various areas of virtual development for more than 15 years.
Amanda Brock has built OpenUK into one of open source's most recognised and impactful organisations. A lawyer with 25 years’ experience, five as general counsel of Canonical, she has been instrumental in shaping open source’s legal frameworks, echoing her earlier work with internet law during the early 2000’s. She is a regular contributor to the tech press, edited ‘Open Source: Law, Policy and Practice’, 2nd edition (2022), and is executive producer of State of Open Con (2023- 2025). Amanda holds a wide variety of Advisory Board appointments with, for example, the UK Cabinet Office Open Standards Board and the UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure.
Registration for the event is now open at: https://dvcon-europe.org/registration with reduced rates until September ...
ABOUT DVCON EUROPE
The Design and Verification Conference & Exhibition in Europe (DVCon Europe) is the leading European event covering the application of languages, tools and intellectual property for the design and verification of electronic systems and integrated circuits. Sponsored by Accellera Systems Initiative, and one of several DVCon events around the globe, DVCon Europe brings chip architects, design & verification engineers, and IP integrators the latest methodologies, techniques, applications and demonstrations for the practical use of EDA solutions for electronic design. For more details, visit www.dvcon-europe.org. Follow #dvconeurope on Twitter.
DVCon around the world:
- DVCon Japan – August 20, 2025
- DVCon Taiwan – September 9, 2025
- DVCon India – September 10-11, 2025
- DVCon U.S. – March 2-5, 2026
ABOUT ACCELLERA SYSTEMS INITIATIVE
Accellera Systems Initiative (Accellera) is an independent, not-for profit organization, dedicated to create, support, promote and advance system-level design, modeling and verification standards for use by the worldwide electronics industry. The organization accelerates standards development and, as part of its ongoing partnership with the IEEE, its standards are contributed to the IEEE Standards Association for formal standardization and ongoing change control. For more information, please visit accellera.org. For membership information, please email membership@accellera.org. Follow @accellera on Twitter or to comment, please use #accellera.
ACCELLERA GLOBAL SPONSORS: Cadence; Siemens; Synopsys
Accellera Systems Initiative and DVCon are trademarks of Accellera Systems Initiative Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners