Calculated Conversations: Low-Level Mastery in Embedded Systems, with Piyush Itankar (Google Engineer)

Google Embedded Systems Engineer Piyush Itankar discusses his work on the Pixel Watch, the value of learning from the ground up, the 'round-robin' learning approach, and how vulnerability fuels high-performance technical leadership.

How does technology like Google’s Pixel Watch come to life? For Mr. Piyush Itankar, it is about combining low-level programming with a passion for understanding how everything works from the inside out. In this episode of Calculated Conversations, I had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Piyush Itankar, a highly respected Embedded Systems Engineer currently working at Google. Mr. Itankar has built a remarkable career at the intersection of hardware and software, playing a crucial role in developing Google’s Pixel Watch firmware and previously contributing to the foundational software behind Google’s custom Tensor SoCs. His journey into embedded systems started with a simple fascination for…

You have built an impressive career in embedded systems, from low-level programming to hardware-software co-design. What first sparked your interest in working so close to the metal, and how did that early curiosity evolve into the expertise you have today?

I was fascinated by glowing bulbs as a kid. I loved connecting batteries to a bulb and watching it glow. I slowly moved on to playing with motors. I fell in love with electricity early in life. I would try out experiments from science project books, got myself a book on electronics, and understood nothing. This was around the time when I was in 8th–10th grade. Past my 12th grade, I chose to do Electrical Engineering. It was tough, but I sailed through because I loved the subjects. I did not understand the content as much back then (everything makes sense now: the math, the equations, everything). I got a job in a production plant after my bachelor's. It was not what I thought I would be…

A lot of young engineers struggle to find the right balance between hardware and software interests. How did you navigate that path, and what advice would you give to someone unsure whether to specialize deeply or keep things broad in this space?

I was lucky. I focused on my love, electricity, and just tried to understand how it can be controlled. Turns out it runs everything, and Embedded is at the heart of it. I wanted to be able to design a CPU and write my own instruction encoding for it. That pursuit led me to learn FPGAs, CPU architecture (here and there), and the C language. It took me years, and what seems to have worked for me is - Round Robin. Do a little bit of each, move on, and return when the interest spikes! Do not force yourself to master something too soon - it does not happen that way. Learn when you feel like it; that is the only thing that really sticks anyway. Also, do not go around constantly validating your…