Jaan Raik

Jaan Raik is a Tenured Full Professor at the Department of Computer Systems and the Head of the Center for Dependable Computing Systems at the Tallinn University of Technology (Taltech), Estonia. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering from Taltech in 1997 and in 2001, respectively. His research interests cover a wide area in electrical engineering and computer science domains including reliability of deep learning, hardware test, functional verification, fault-tolerance and security as well as emerging computer architectures. He is a member of ISO PAS 8800 standardization committee (AI functional safety for automotive), a EUROPRACTICE and ARM Academic Access representative, a member of IEEE Computer Society, HiPEAC and of Steering/Program Committees of numerous conferences within my field. He was awarded the Global Digital Governance Fellowship at Stanford University (2022), HiPEAC Paper Award (2020), the Order of the White Star 4th class medal by the President of Estonia (2016), Estonian Academy of Science’s Bernhard Schmidt Award for innovation (2007) and the national Young Scientist Award (2004). He is the coordinator of several Pan-European research and collaboration actions in his field.

“Why Estonia Cannot Remain a Technology Player Without Its Own Chip Industry?”

The significance of computer chips in our society cannot be overestimated. They have spread to all areas of human life and it is impossible to imagine a modern technology product that would not base on chips.
It is also widely known that that this technology has become the key strategic resource to any country, which is reflected by recent regional chip acts in different regions of the planet.
Yet, Estonia has been so far reluctant in making the needed steps to take advantage of this trend.  This talk attempts to explain the inner workings of modern chip industry and how Estonia can contribute and will benefit from it.
The aim is to break several pervading misconceptions regarding the size of the country being a limiting factor.
The talk is also pointing out why there is in fact no alternative to establishing its own chip sector if a country wants to keep up its capacity of producing competitive innovative products.