Mission & Scope

Our Mission and Scope

To advance open-source embedded systems research, education and technology for the public benefit — so that every embedded device, from a $2 microcontroller to an aircraft flight computer, can run software that anyone is free to read, audit, learn from and build on.

Embedded Operating Systems Research Foundation · 501(c)(3) Public Charity · EIN 41-4821627

Charitable Purpose

What we are exempt to do

The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) Public Charity recognised by the Internal Revenue Service, exempt since March 11, 2026. Exemption is not a general licence to operate — it is granted for specific purposes, and the Foundation's programmes are built to serve them. These are the three we work under.

Scientific

Conducting and publishing research into real-time operating systems, on-device machine learning, and safety-critical embedded architecture, with results released openly rather than licensed.

Educational

Producing free technical books, curriculum, reference documentation and a children's edition, and running internships that teach embedded engineering to people who cannot pay for training.

Charitable

Lessening the burden on public-interest developers — universities, hospitals, other nonprofits and independent engineers — by maintaining infrastructure they would otherwise have to license or rebuild.

In Scope

The five programmes we run

Everything the Foundation spends time or money on belongs to one of these five programmes. Each names what it does, who it is for, and where the work itself can be inspected.

1

Open-Source Platform Engineering

Design, build and maintain the EoS real-time kernel and the components around it — bootloader, inter-process communication, storage, build tooling and simulation — released under the MIT License.

What this involves

  • Maintain the EoS kernel and its supporting repositories in public
  • Review, test and merge community contributions under open governance
  • Publish tagged releases with changelogs and upgrade notes
  • Run security review on every release and disclose findings responsibly

Who it serves

Engineers and organisations building embedded products who need a dependable base they are permitted to inspect and modify.

See this programme's work
2

Education and Free Curriculum

Publish the teaching material that embedded engineering normally hides behind paid training: full-length technical books, API references, guided tutorials and a version written for children.

What this involves

  • Write and maintain free technical books covering the whole stack
  • Keep reference documentation current with each release
  • Maintain a Kids Edition that introduces embedded computing without cost
  • Answer learner questions in public so the answers stay searchable

Who it serves

Students, career changers, teachers and self-taught engineers — particularly outside regions with established embedded industries.

See this programme's work
3

Research and Publication

Investigate problems the commercial market under-serves — health monitoring hardware, neural interfaces, avionics and quantum control systems — and publish the results, including patent filings, openly.

What this involves

  • Run research programmes in health, aerospace and edge AI
  • Publish findings, designs and filings rather than licensing them
  • Share hardware designs so results can be independently reproduced

Who it serves

Clinicians, universities and other nonprofits who can build on the work instead of paying to license it.

See this programme's work
4

Workforce Development

Bring people into embedded engineering through structured internships, mentored contribution and free certification, with no fee to the participant at any stage.

What this involves

  • Run internships and research placements with assigned mentors
  • Offer certification at no cost to the candidate
  • Pair newcomers with maintainers on real, shipping work

Who it serves

Early-career engineers and students who need verifiable experience before they can be hired.

See this programme's work
5

Community and Ecosystem Stewardship

Hold the project's governance, code of conduct and public forums, so that technical direction is decided in the open and remains independent of any single company.

What this involves

  • Govern technical direction through a public steering process
  • Enforce a code of conduct across every Foundation space
  • Run community events and keep decision records public

Who it serves

Every contributor and user of the project, and anyone who needs to know who decides what before they depend on it.

See this programme's work
Out of Scope

What the Foundation does not do

A scope is only meaningful if it has an edge. These are the things the Foundation deliberately stays out of — stated here so that no one has to infer them from an absence.

We do not sell software, licences or access.

Every Foundation repository is MIT licensed. There is no paid tier, no commercial edition and no feature withheld from the free release.

We do not carry advertising or monetise visitors.

This site runs no ad network, no affiliate links and no third-party advertising scripts. Nothing on it is paid placement.

We do not accept funding that buys technical influence.

Sponsorship and membership confer recognition, not authority over the roadmap. Technical decisions are made through the public governance process regardless of who funds the Foundation.

We do not certify devices for regulatory approval.

Foundation software is a building block. Safety, medical and aviation certification remain the responsibility of the organisation bringing a device to market.

We do not give medical, clinical or legal advice.

Health-related research describes the technology, not treatment. It is not a substitute for advice from a qualified professional.

Accountability

How we judge whether it is working

These are questions rather than metrics, and each one is answerable by a reader without asking us. That is the point: a measure only we can check is not accountability.

Is the work actually public?

Every repository, issue, design discussion and release is readable without an account. If a decision cannot be found in public, it has not been made properly.

Can someone learn from it without paying?

Books, documentation, tutorials and the Kids Edition stay free and unpaywalled. A cost that appears between a learner and the material is a programme failure.

Can the results be reproduced?

Research is published with the designs and sources needed to repeat it. A claim we cannot show the working for is retired rather than restated.

Does anyone outside the Foundation hold the direction?

Contributions, review and maintainership come from outside the Foundation. A project only one organisation can steer is not yet a public asset.

Support the mission, or come and work on it

The Foundation is funded by donations, membership and sponsorship — not by selling what it builds. Contributions are tax-deductible under contributions are deductible under irc section 170.

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