Ralph Hempel
Ralph Hempel is a Staff Engineer at Edwards Safety, where he works with his team to deliver firmware for world-class Fire Alarm Systems. Previously, he was a Senior Manager and Senior Architect of Firmware Development at the LEGO Group in Denmark. There, he and his team were responsible for the PoweredUp LEGO elements found in Technic, CITY Train, and MINDSTORMS sets.
With 40 years of experience, Ralph has been involved in deep embedded systems development since the 68xx class of devices, all the way up to modern Cortex M0-4 devices. He believes that firmware development has made significant strides in the last decade, with low-cost or free tools now available that engineers could only have dreamed of when he was starting out.
Always willing to experiment and share knowledge with other developers, Ralph is a strong advocate for continuous learning as a key to career progression. He holds a BASc in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
Why Are We Still Struggling in the Golden Age of Embedded Systems Development?
Status: Coming up in April 2026!We are arguably better equipped with software tools, processes, debuggers, and analyzers than ever before—so why are we still struggling?
The core problems remain the same: mixed expectations, poor communication, shifting priorities, and a lack of autonomy. What can we do today to improve outcomes for ourselves, our team, and our organization?
In this talk, I will share lessons learned from a significant project at the LEGO Group, where we successfully transitioned all PoweredUp motors and sensors from STM8 to STM32, on time and within budget.