GeekFest 2025
Description
GeekFest, our team-building, strategizing, road-mapping exercise, will be held in Phx the week of Nov 17th.
Goals for the meeting include:
- Get together for fun, and get to know one another
- Design discussions on new products
- Solidify verf plans for Kismet Verf
- Strategize the set of projects, products, and programs we will be working into the future
Date: Nov 17, 2025 - Nov 21, 2025
Travel on Sunday, meetings on Mon-Thurs, and 1/2 day on Fri. Travel home Friday after 3pm.
We'll identify the drivers (people who will rent cars), and make sure everyone has a ride to and from the airport, and to dinners in the evenings.
Daily Hiking
Bring a headlight if you have one, or use your cellphone flashlight!
We hike early and get back to the hotel in time to shower, grab breakfast and head to the 9am meetings.
Meet in the lobby:
5:00am hike with Aaron and Ryan
6:00am hike with Chris and Kelly
Note: the hotel also has a nice little workout room
Attire
Customer Day (Wed): business casual
All other days, wear comfortable clothes. T-shirts, Jeans and shorts are ok, but no wet swim trunks.
The conference rooms are air-conditioned, so bring a sweatshirt/sweater (or parka if you're Adina)
What Happened Last
See GeekFest_2024
Travel Plans
If you are NOT traveling:
- If you only plan on staying Wed night (for the group event), list your arrival date as Wed, and departure as Thurs.
- Otherwise add "N/A" to Arrival and Departure columns, and leave the remaining columns blank
Column Definitions:
- Rental: Indicates who is renting the vehicle
- Arrival: Airline, date, and time of arrival
- Riders to hotel: Indicates who will be riding with the car renter/driver
- Departure: Airline, date, and time of departure
- Riders to airport: Indicates who will be riding with the car renter/driver
For Arrival/Departure use the following format:
- MM/DD [military-time Flight#] Where: MM == 2 digit month, DD == 2 digit day.
- I.e., military-time without the time zone (since all times will be PHX time)
Consider using Uber or Lyft to get to the hotel and connect with a co-worker who has rented a car.
Hotel Rooms will be booked and paid for by DDCI. The Hotel is:
Staybridge Suites
9141 E. Hummingbird Lane, Scottsdale, AZ 85250
| Person | Rental | Arrival | Riders to hotel | Departure | Riders to airport |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aaron Larson | 11/16 [15:50 sy605] | 11/21 [20:01 sy608] | |||
| Adina Roffelsen | no | 11/16 [16:25 WN3622] | 11/21 [23:55 WN4086] | ||
| Andre Martinez | 11/16 [16:31 UA673] | 11/22 [11:34 UA378] | |||
| Bernardo Garza | no | 11/16 [18:00 #2278] | 11/21 [17:20 #392] | ||
| Bill Cronk | no | 11/16 [11:10 WN2590] | 11/22 [14:10 WN425] | ||
| Bob Morris | 11/16 [TBD] | 11/21 [TBD] | |||
| Carlos Cespedes | TBD | 11/17 [08:01 Y41882] | 11/22 [09:32 Y41883] | ||
| Chris Pow | no | 11/16 [17:56 SY607] | 11/21 [20:01 SY608] | ||
| Chuck Frayman | 11/16 [15:58 UA455] | 11/21 [15:30 UA1686] | |||
| Evren Gregoire | 11/16 [11:57 DAL514] | 11/21 [23:53 JBU1969] | |||
| Gary Gilliland | 11/16 | 11/21 | |||
| Gary Kindorf | no | 11/16 [17:56 UA2249] | 11/21 [16:32 UA1226] | ||
| Geunhyung "GB" Ban | — | — | — | — | — |
| Greg Donahue | 11/16 | 11/21 (To be confirmed) | |||
| Gregg Wildes | 11/16 | 11/21 | |||
| James Cates | |||||
| Jared Reibel | 11/16 [22:40 DL2076] | 11/22 [12:45 DL1070] | |||
| Jean Countryman | no | 11/16 [15:26 UA631] | 11/21 [12:55 UA2324] | ||
| Jennifer Sanchez | |||||
| Johan O. Nielsen | yes | 11/12 [18:20 BA289] | 11/22 [20:25 BA288] | ||
| John Kimball | 11/16 [09:40 AA1515] | 11/22 [06:10 AA1149] | |||
| John Walsh | 11/16 | 11/21 | |||
| Kelly Leonard | yes | 11/16 [17:56 UA2249] | Chris, Gary, Bernardo | 11/21 [16:32 UA1226] | Gary, |
| Kenny Tope | no | 11/16 [TBD] | 11/21 [TBD] | ||
| Kevin Lew | |||||
| Kevin Vap | 11/16 [13:55 WN1839] | 11/21 [19:45 WN1634] | |||
| Kobus Grobler | yes | 11/15 [13:15 DL0796] | 11/24 [16:30 DL0796] | ||
| Laurent Meilleur | 11/16 | 11/21 | |||
| Lisa Cole | 11/16 [TBD] | 11/18 [TBD] | |||
| Lisa Jett | 11/16 [TBD] | 11/19 [TBD] | |||
| Mark Carroll | no | 11/16 [13:20 WN1150] | 11/21 [17:22 AA2307] | ||
| Mark Sygrove | 11/16 [20:20 AA2280] | 11/22 | |||
| Matthew Carroll | no | 11/16 [13:20 WN1150] | 11/21 [17:22 AA2307] | ||
| Matt Verreaux | yes | 11/16 [15:50 WN1150] | Jean, Aaron, Chuck? | 11/22 [20:50 WN3886] | |
| Peter Zick | — | — | — | — | — |
| Philippe Weber | no | 11/16 [22:48 DL0757] | 11/21 [16:55 DL0366] | ||
| Rebekah Frost | 11/19 | 11/20 | |||
| Richard Frost | 11/19 [hotel check in] | 11/20 [hotel check out] | |||
| Ron Rische | — | — | — | — | — |
| Ryan Roffelsen | yes | 11/16 [16:25 WN3622] | Adina, Andre | 11/21 [23:55 WN4086] | Adina, Evren |
| Santiago Lopez | 11/16 [17:56 UA2249] | 11/22 [11:34 UA378] | |||
| Shayne Sellner | no | 11/17 [Driving] | 11/21 [Driving] | ||
| Steven Duff | 11/16 [1622 UA1210] | 11/22 [0700 UA2413] | |||
| Steven Leon | 11/16 [17:56 UA2249] | 11/22 [11:34 UA378] | |||
| Tyler Vance | — | 11/19 [hotel check in] | — | 11/20 [hotel check out] | — |
Agenda
Main Conference Room Meeting Info
Board Room Meeting Info
Team Presentations
Meeting Schedule
| Time | Attendees | Topic | Location | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00 - 09:30 | All Employees | Welcome + Introductions | Main Conference Room | Kelly |
| 09:30 - 09:45 | All Employees | VP of Engineering Overview | Main Conference Room | Richard |
| 09:45 - 10:00 | All Employees | VP of Product Management Overview | Main Conference Room | Bill |
| 10:00 - 10:30 | All Employees | Deos Architect | Main Conference Room | Aaron |
| 10:30 - 10:45 | 15 min Break | |||
| 10:45 - 11:15 | All Employees | Security Architect | Main Conference Room | Kobus |
| 11:15 - noon | All Employees | Support & FAEs | Main Conference Room | Support Team & FAEs |
| noon - 12:30 | All Employees | Lunch + Leg Stretch | Main Conference Room | Jennifer |
| 12:30-13:00 | All Employees | PM Presentation | Main Conference Room | Kelly |
| 13:00 - 15:00 | Engineering | Team Presentations* | Main Conference Room | All Teams |
| 13:00 - 16:30 | Sales & Marketing | Planning Session | Executive Conference Room | Sales & Marketing, Bob, Richard, Bill |
| 15:00 - 16:15 | Engineering | Goals for the Week | Main Conference Room | Team |
| 16:15 - 16:30 | 15 min Break | |||
| 16:30 - 18:00 | All Employees | Village Gathering | Main Conference Room | Kelly |
- Team Presentations*: The intent is for people to share good ideas, lessons learned, and new features, not have a detailed list of minutia.
- Teams: Kernel, Verf, Driver, BSP, OpenArbor, Tools
| Time | Attendees | Topic | Location | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 - 11:30 | Kismet Verf Breakout Sessions: | |||
| BSP Team | Modular Boot Testing | Main Conference Room | Ron + Steven | |
| BSP Team | Secure Boot Testing | Main Conference Room | Kobus + Carlos | |
| BSP Team | Intel's Firmware on Verified BSPs | Main Conference Room | Adina | |
| Driver Team | Common vfile driver design to enable re-use during testing | Boardroom | Chris, Matt, Evren, Mark | |
| 9:00 - 11:30 | Support & FAEs | Topic TBD | Bill's Suite | Bill |
| 11:30 - 11:45 | 15 min Break | |||
| 11:45 - 13:00 | Engineering | Working Lunch - Communicating Effectively | Main Conference Room | Kelly |
| 13:00 - 15:00 | Engineering | Variety Hour: | Main Conference Room | |
| CI/CD: Demo, Jenkins, Pass/Fail of OA examples | CI/CD Team* | |||
| Coverity Demo & Training | Andre | |||
| UDP Demo | Matt/John | |||
| 15:00 - 15:15 | 15 min Break | |||
| 15:15 - 17:00 | All Employees | Sales & Marketing Presentation & Feedback | Main Conference Room | Sales & Marketing Team |
| 17:00 - 17:30 | All Employees | Village Awards | Kelly/Richard/Bill |
- CI/CD Team*: Peter, Shayne, Evren, Matthew, Kenny
| Time | Attendees | Topic | Location | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 - noon | All Employees + Customers | Sales & Marketing (S&M) Presentation to Customers | Main Conference Room | Gary G., John + Team |
| noon - 13:00 | All Employees + Customers | Lunch | Main Conference Room | Jennifer |
| 13:00 - 15:00 | All Employees + Customers | Customer Presentations | Main Conference Room | TBD |
| 15:00 - 17:00 | S&M + Customers | One-on-One Meetings | Boardroom | TBD |
| 15:00 - 17:00 | Engineering + Customers | Technical Topics: | Main Conference Room | |
| Creating a Boot Module | Adina + Team | |||
| Universal PAL | Adina + Team | |||
| 17:30 - 22:30 | All Employees + Customers | Company Event | Near hotel | Jennifer |
| Time | Attendees | Topic | Location | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00 - 11:30 | Engineering | Farm and Debug Skills | DDCI Headquarters | Richard + Team |
| 09:00 - 10:00 | Deos TSN Team* + NAI + TTTech (remote) | TSN Architecture/Design | Boardroom | Kelly (Moderator) |
| 10:00 - 11:00 | Deos TSN Team* | TSN Design | Boardroom | Matt + Team |
| 10:00 - 11:00 | NAI + Bill | NAI SSK Workspace/desk tree concept | Boardroom | Bill + OA Team? |
| noon - 13:00 | All Employees | Lunch + Leg Stretch | Jennifer | |
| 13:00 - 15:00 | Driver + Verf Team | DVMS Design and Test | Boardroom | Chris + Ron/Mark |
| 13:00 - 14:00 | Engineering | x9 Redesign | Main Conference Room | Bekah + Team |
| 15:00 - 15:00 | Engineering | Topic TBD | Main Conference Room | TBD |
| 15:00 - 15:15 | 15 min Break | |||
| 15:15 - 16:30 | Engineering | Developing Secure Code | Main Conference Room | Kobus/Bernardo/Jared |
| 16:30 - 17:00 | All Employees | All Hands Meeting | Main Conference Room | Bob |
- Deos TSN Team*: Aaron, Chris, Matt
| Time | Attendees | Topic | Location | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 - noon | Engineering | Laplata Planning: | Hotel near the Airport | |
| Engineering | Refactor utility libraries | Aaron |
Topics
Please use the format of Author: Description
- (Monday 13:00) Team Leads: presentation on the past, present and future
- The presentation only needs to be as long as you think is worth it. The intent is for people to share good ideas, lessons learned, and new features, not have a detailed list of minutia.
- (Monday 11:41) Support Team & FAEs:
- Common customer issues: TCP issue, ??
- Cache partitioning
- (Tues 13:00) Modifying the OA examples to indicate Pass/Fail? This should make the OA test harness easier to maintain, and it puts the responsibility of determining success on the owner/designer of the OA example. OA_Example_Test
- (Fri 9:00) Refactor utility libraries (e.g. ansi, gnu language, etc.) into kernel mode loadable and user mode loadable libraries.
- (Tues 13:00) ALR: CI/CD - Add network communication to each test to state the results of the test. Add tests that collect the timemap and do timemap analytics on it. Also see [OA_Example_Test]
- (Wed 15:00) ALR: BSP Team - One PAL to rule them all (or at least all of one architecture)
- (Tues 9:00) Secure Boot verification
- (Thur 9:00) Farm Training session (on site at DDCI HQ): lauterbach, logic analyzer, oscilloscope
- (Tues 9:00) RDR: Module boot testing approach/strategy.
- (Thur 9:00 TSN Architecture
- (Thur 14:00) DVMS Architecture - concurrent access, exfat, ??
- (Tues 9:00) vfile drivers common verf approach(es)
- (Wed 15:00) Working/Training sessions? creating a modular boot, platforms, Security
- (Tues 15:15) Marketing presentation:
- Competitive analysis; ie, why we win, why we lose contracts
- (Mon 10:00, Thur 13:00) Kobus: Automation, CMMC, Security, AI
- (Mon 9:30) Richard: organization structure and plan for 2025
- (Mon 9:45) Bill:CoreAVI product supports multiple RTOS; Similarly Acontis EtherCAT.
- Deos is different; What recommendations do we need to help make ports successful
- Partners do not get full training
- Historically forced at least couple half day FAE classes
- Can we have self study course? Can we have examples Linux vs Deos?
- System ticks 100-200usec is common in competition, but different meaning.
- (Tues 9:00) ALR/CC: Verf Intel BSP (Intel provided firmware)
- (Thur 10:00) Topics for joint sessions with NAI engineers
- Bill: NAI SSK workspace/desk tree concept – this requires a shared repository (branch on NAI’s git repository – See Item #12 below); h/w updates require updated SSK binary
- Deos vfile wrappers to NAI’s drivers as a benefit to customers wanting to transition to verified drivers
- Timing issues on nai68int6
- NAI's BIOS provider is Insyde. May need to ask them for details like SMI.
- Adina provided additional details on the issue, and what impact the SMI could have on timing
- Kurt/NAI: to provide information and new Bios from Insyde; Tom and Terence can also provide support/instructions for updating Bios on the nai68int6
Suggested Format
Should have a mix of:
- component/team specific, cross team, and whole system
- new features/technologies, changes to existing, finding things to leave behind
- Learning, teaching, listening, presenting.
- Thinking, doing (e.g., install docker/wsl)
- Site visit opportunities; e.g., farm tours. Or vendor presentations; e.g. Intel Rep
- Presentations: short (12 minute), medium (24 minute), long, vs work sessions