Reverse Engineering an Abandoned IoT Device && Exploring JVM memory management

We're excited to announce our next meetup March 19th, 2025! As usual, we'll take care of food, drinks and awesome sessions - you just need to bring you ;-)

This meetup will feature two talks aimed at (Java) developers:

• Artem Makarov will start with sharing his reverse engineering journey where he revived an abandoned IoT device.
• Next, Gerrit Grunwald will talk trash in a session on JVM memory management.

All sessions will be presented in English; RSVP now for an evening of learning and fun!
The meetup will be at the OpenValue office in Utrecht (directions: https://route.openvalue.eu), enough free parking spaces available.

Agenda
17:30 Walk in
18:00 Food
18:30 Talk 1 (see below)
19:30 Break
19:45 Talk 2 (see below)
20:45 Drinks

First talk: Hacked in translation: Reverse Engineering an Abandoned IoT Device
As everybody knows, "L" in IoT stands for long-term support.

I'll take you on a tour of my technical adventure where I revived an abandoned IoT "AI" translator and gave it a new life, 2025-style.
Through deciphering peculiar protocols and formats, reverse engineering firmware and software and doing the necessary research to implement a replacement, we'll see how curiosity and persistence can help you overcome the most obscure technical challenges.

About Artem
Artem Makarov is a Principal Engineer at Code Nomads. He's been working on Java projects in various industries for the past 14 years. Having Masters in Electronics Engineering he is passionate for applying engineering practices in his projects, contributing to better software design and reliability. In his free time he enjoys traveling, road cycling and learning to play music instruments.

Second talk: Trash Talk - Exploring the JVM memory management
In the realm of Java programming, understanding memory management and garbage collection mechanisms cannot only be helpful for optimizing performance and resource utilization but also in general will help you to use the right garbage collector for your application. This session will be about memory allocation, object lifecycle, and garbage collection strategies within the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Attendees will gain insights into memory allocation strategies, object retention policies, and various garbage collection algorithms like generational and concurrent collection. So when you are interested in getting more knowledge about which garbage collector to use best for your application or about memory management in the JVM, this session is for you.

About Gerrit
Gerrit Grunwald is a software engineer that loves coding for around 40 years already. He is a true believer in open source and he is an active member of the Java community, where he founded and leads the Java User Group Münster (Germany), he is a JavaOne rockstar and a Java Champion. He is a speaker at conferences and user groups internationally and writes for several magazines.