About Robert

Robert Feranec

Founder & CEO of FEDEVEL

Email

Links to Robert's Channels and Activities

Speaking at

  • AltiumLive Summit - Keynote speaker, San Diego, California, US - 2019
  • CDN Live Conference, Silicon Valley, California, US - 2018
  • PCB Layout Design Workshop, Silicon Valley, California, US - 2018
  • Altium Live Summit, San Diego, California, US - 2017
  • PCB Board Layout Training, Penang, Malaysia - 2017
  • Learn High Speed PCB Layout, Silicon Valley, California, US - 2015
  • Creating Digital Products, London, UK - 2015
  • High Speed PCB Design, London, UK - 2015
  • Altium Training, San Diego, US - 2014
  • ARM Board Design and Linux Porting, Bratislava, Slovakia - 2014
  • Learn to Design your own OS booting ARM board, Silicon Valley, California, US - 2013
  • From Idea to Prototype, Bratislava, Slovakia - 2012

Professional Profile

Specialties: Motherboard Design, Processor and Microcontroller Board Design (x86, ARM, MIPS ...) based on Intel, VIA, AMD, Freescale, TI and others.

Skills and experience in following areas (20+ years):

  • electronic product hardware development (from initial idea to final product)
  • product specification
  • schematic design
  • PCB layout (including high speed design)
  • hardware debugging, assembling, verification and testing
  • software developing
  • production test design, documentation and manual writing
  • processor and microcontroller board design (x86, MIPS, ARM …) for different OS (Linux, Windows XP/Embedded/2000/CE ...) based on Intel, VIA, AMD, Texas Instruments, Atmel, Microchip, ST ...
  • strong background in embedded systems
  • team leading
  • project time and cost planning
  • interfaces and peripherals: DDR4, DDR3, DDR2, DDR, FSB, PCI Express, Gb Ethernet, SATA, PCI, ITP, GSM, GPS, CF, PCMCIA, IDE, ISA, LVDS, SDVO, RGB, Composite TV, VGA, HDMI USB, SD, PS2 Keyboard, Mouse, Audio, Touchscreen, JTAG, RS485, CAN, RS232, SPI, I2C, ISDN, PSTN, WiFi, miniPCI, PCIE minicards, COM Express, ZigBee ...
  • CPLD, FPGA designs (Xilinx, Altera ...)
  • CAD software: Protel 99 / DXP / Altium, Cadence Allegro (Orcad, Spectra ...), PADS
  • Integrated Development Environments: Microsoft Visual C++, Delphi, Xilinx ISE, ispLEVER, AVR Studio ...
  • programming languages C/C++, VHDL, ABEL, Assemblers, Html, Perl, PHP ...
  • compiling Linux and Windows CE images, driver modification, microcontroller firmware programming
  • design for mass production / cost effective solutions
  • EMC design, testing and measurement
  • business traveling (Europe, USA, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, ... )
  • teaching

Professional Experience

  • Founder & CEO of FEDEVEL, California, US / Slovakia, October 2010 - Present

Creating online courses, Supporting and designing open source boards, Contract work for number of clients ( https://www.fedevel.com )


  • Senior Hardware Design Engineer, EUROTECH Ltd (formerly ARCOM Control Systems Ltd), Cambridge, UK, 2005 – 2010

Designing Eurotech (Arcom) products and industrial computers ( https://www.eurotech.com )


  • Hardware Design Engineer, VOIPAC, Trencin, Slovak Republic, 2002 – 2005

Electronic product hardware design for VOIPAC company and their customers ( https://www.voipac.com )


  • Work during PhD study, Slovak University of Technology, FEI, Bratislava, Slovak Republic, 2000-2002

Designing a calibration system based on Texas Instrument DSP processor ( https://www.fei.stuba.sk/ )


  • Computer expert, DATACENTRUM, Bratislava, Slovak Republic, 1998 – 1999

Network and computer administration

Education

  • Slovak University of Technology, FEI, Bratislava, Slovak Republic, 2000 - 2002

PhD. (finished 66%, interrupted due a job offer)

Dissertation: “Spectrum analysis in Digital Signal Processing”


  • Slovak University of Technology, FEI, Bratislava, Slovak Republic, 1998 - 2000

MSc. in Electronics

Thesis: “Calibration measure system with DSP TMS320”


  • Slovak University of Technology, FEI, Bratislava, Slovak Republic, 1994 - 1998

Bc. in Electronics

Thesis: “Magnetron systems”


  • Machine-construction Technical College, Martin, Slovak Republic, 1990 - 1994

Specialization: Machine construction

Teaching Experience

Teaching online and creating online courses at FEDEVEL Academy (worldwide):

    • Learn Altium Essentials Second Edition, 2019 - Present
    • Learn OrCAD & Cadence Allegro Essentials, 2018 - Present
    • Learn the Essentials of creating uBoot, Linux and YOCTO, 2016 - Present
    • Learn to Design Your Own Boards, 2016 - Present
    • Advanced PCB Layout Course, 2014 - Present
    • Advanced Hardware Design, 2013 - Present
    • Learn Altium Essentials, 2013 - Present


Teaching online on UDEMY (worldwide):

    • Starting with Altium Designer, 2018 - Present
    • Starting with OrCAD and Cadence Allegro PCB, 2018 - Present
    • Learn to Design Your Own Boards, 2017 - Present


Teaching at Slovak Technical University, FEI, Bratislava, Slovak Republic:

    • Teaching “Digital Signal Processors” , 2000 - 2002
    • Leading practical course for students
    • Leader of students project –“Single phase measure system with MSP430 microcontroller”, 2000 - 2004
    • Leader of students project –“Communication using GSM modules”, 2001 - 2004
    • Leader of students project –“Spectrum analysis using TMS320C6711 processor”, 2000 - 2001


At the Fachhochschule, Heilbronn, Germany:

    • Teaching Assistant –“Digital Signal Processors”, 2001
    • Developing a DSP course for university students

Certificates

  • Microcontrollers TMS370, European Customer Training Center, Bratislava, Slovak Republic - 1998
  • DSP TMS32C5x, European Customer Training Center, Bratislava, Slovak Republic - 1999

Languages

  • English – advanced (I used to live in the UK for 5 years and 2 years in the US);
  • Slovak – native language;
  • Czech – speaking fluently;

Interests

  • Reading, traveling, sports