Yesterday I attended the 2025 Vancouver Hardware Unconference at British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Unlike a typical conference where talks are scheduled weeks or months in advance, the schedule of an unconference is decided by those attending. At the start of the day everybody gathers in a room where anybody can pitch a talk or discussion which they want to cover. They then put all the pitches into a web app for people to vote on. The most popular talks are then scheduled throughout the day for anybody to move between. Among the talks I attended were discussions as diverse as on how to seek funding for your hardware start-up, the many uses for disc springs, and even a showcase of a robotic wheelchair that BCIT was working on!

As the event was hosted by the school, they were able to show off some of what they have been working on. In addition to the afforementioned wheelchair they also showed some of these adorable robot dogs that were walking around during the whole conference:

Last year I presented my explorations in the ARM SWD protocol. You can find my slides for that here.

In a couple weeks I will also be attending the Polyglot Software Unconference at UBC Downtown Vancouver.