In an interview at AI & Big Data Expo, Alessandro Grande, Head of Product at Edge Impulse, discussed issues around developing machine learning models for resource-constrained edge devices and how to overcome them.

During the discussion, Grande provided insightful perspectives on the current challenges, how Edge Impulse is helping address these struggles, and the tremendous promise of on-device AI.

Key hurdles with edge AI adoption

Grande highlighted three primary pain points companies face when attempting to productise edge machine learning models, including difficulties determining optimal data collection strategies, scarce AI expertise, and cross-disciplinary communication barriers between hardware, firmware, and data science teams.

“A lot of the companies building edge devices are not very familiar with machine learning,” says Grande. “Bringing those two worlds together is the third challenge, really, around having teams communicate with each other and being able to share knowledge and work towards the same goals.”

Strategies for lean and efficient models

When asked how to optimise for edge environments, Grande emphasised first minimising required sensor data.

“We are seeing a lot