In this week's podcast, Mick Elliot talks with Heather Fulara, Director, IP&E (Interconnect, Passive and Electromechanical), Americas, Director of Interconnect Passives at Premier Farnell about the results of Farnell's Women in Engineering survey.

Free eBook – Farnell IoT Trends Report

Tektronix is launching a new range of oscilloscopes on June 4 and, as part of the launch, Farnell and Tektronix are running a competition to win two prizes – both of which are exclusive to Farnell.

Demonstrating its comprehensive range of 3D printing and additive manufacturing products with extensive new resources, Premier Farnell has unveiled a dedicated area of the Farnell element14 website along with a series of webinars covering all aspects of the technology.

Those tasked with finding a gift for the hardest to shop for engineer this holiday season are being helped out by Premier Farnell. The distributor has handpicked gifts for engineers of all ages and abilities, from those with decades of experience to those just starting out.

Premier Farnell has signed a global distribution agreement with US-based Zymbit, a developer of hardware security modules which ensure physical and digital security of IoT devices. The deal provides Farnell element14 customers with access to Zymbit’s ZYMKEY 4i security module which delivers professional grade security to the Raspberry Pi family of single board computers.

A trio of global franchises which expand the depth and breadth of Premier Farnell’s linecard was revealed at electronica. The agreements with Osram Opto Semiconductors, Nodec Copal and Taoglas provide designers and engineers with access to several new product lines in key market sectors, covering the Interconnect, Passives & Electromechanical (IP&E) and Semiconductor product categories.

Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+, now available from Premier Farnell, delivers the latest features and capabilities to a more compact form factor and lower price point. Like the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ it boasts a 64-bit quad core Broadcom BCM2837 processor running at 1.4 GHz, adding significant performance enhancements over the previous model.

Distributor Premier Farnell has launched an area on its transactional website to help educators and education resellers identify what they need to teach coding and physical computing in schools and universities.

A third year of sponsorship of Startupbootcamp | IoT has been announced by Premier Farnell. This year’s Startupbootcamp IoT has a focus on high-impact startups in Industrial IoT and areas such as manufacturing, infrastructure, energy, education, the environment, health, agriculture and retail.

Adesto Technologies and Premier Farnell have signed a global distribution agreement. The franchise provides OEM customers with access to Adesto’s complete portfolio of ultra-low power non-volatile memory (NVM) products, with support provided through Premier Farnell’s sales, technical and product management resources.

Premier Farnell has named industry veteran Rob Rospedzihowski as Vice President for Sales, EMEA reporting to Chris Breslin, President, Premier Farnell. Rospedzihowski is responsible for Farnell element14’s sales across EMEA and takes on the role with immediate effect.

Affordable alternatives on a wide range of electrical and electronics products for design and production applications are being offered by Premier Farnell through its range of Exclusive Brands. The range offers cost savings of typically 30% on over 50,000 production level quality, in-stock products with the additional benefit of customisation options.

Further content has been added to Premier Farnell’s IoT Hub. Design Choices for Bluetooth Low Energy means it is now possible to tune wireless communication to the precise needs of an application. An article on the IoT Hub covers the factors to consider when designing BLE into the end equipment from RF Antenna Options and prototcol support to API considerations.

Pressing on with its plans for a new distribution centre in Leeds, Premier Farnell has signed a contract with SSI Schaefer to supply a state-of-the-art order fulfilment solution. Construction work commenced on the 361,000 sq ft distribution unit at Muse Developments’ flagship Logic Leeds site on 29 March.

An affordable robotics kit and classroom curriculum, which provides students with a deeper understanding of how electronic system designs work is in stock at Premier Farnell. The TI Robotics System Learning Kit (TI_RSLK) is specifically designed to be used within the university setting to teach students the background knowledge necessary to understand the engineering concepts behind designing, testing and building a functioning robotic system.

Graham McBeth has retired from his position as President of Premier Farnell and he has been replaced by Chris Breslin, who was previously senior vice president for global products. He was announced as McBeth’s replacement at Avnet’s Investor Day event in New York City.  Breslin will report to Pete Bartolotta, chief transformation officer at Avnet.

To help create the next generation of digital engineers Premier Farnell is providing kits and support to help youngsters to learn the fundamental skills of coding. The company offers one of the widest range of educational aids targeted at tomorrow’s coders and application developers including products such as Codebug, BBC micro:bit, Raspbery Pi and the newly launched Arduino CTC101 classroom kit.

Premier Farnell has sealed a global distribution agreement with SiTime, a supplier of MEMS (Micro-Electrical-Mechanical Systems) timing products. Over one billion SiTime silicon timing devices are being used today in a broad range of applications from smartphones, tablets and cameras to air transportation and earthquake detection systems.

forthings.io, a consumer website where you can shop for ‘hands-on’ electronics, established by Premier Farnell earlier this year, is offering a new kit to encourage kids to start building electronics and to learn to code. The Piper Computer Kit is a fun and educational kit that introduces young people to electronics through the ever-popular Minecraft game.