SHANGHAI, China — January 7, 2026 — QNX, a business unit of BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB), announced that its QNX Everywhere initiative has rapidly grown into a preferred platform for embedded developers worldwide. Launched at CES 2025 to encourage non-commercial adoption of QNX Software Development Platform (SDP) 8.0, the program has already issued more than 12,000 non-commercial licenses.
QNX’s presence in academia is also accelerating. The company has signed 80 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with universities in India and established partnerships with leading North American institutions, including MIT. These collaborations integrate QNX tools directly into engineering curricula and have already benefited over 6,000 students.
🎓 A Commitment to Continuous Learning #
QNX Everywhere provides free, non-commercial access to QNX SDP 8.0 and QNX Hypervisor 8.0, enabling developers to work with the same industrial-grade tools used in safety-critical domains such as automotive, robotics, and medical devices. The initiative is designed to:
- Enable hands-on experimentation with production-grade real-time systems
- Help address the global shortage of skilled embedded engineers as industries transition to software-defined architectures
“Introducing QNX into student projects allows them to experience an industrial-grade real-time OS used by leading companies,” said Dr. Gregory Long, Instructor and Founding Lead Mentor at MIT’s New Engineering Education Transformation (NEET) program. “We expect QNX to further empower our students in deploying high-performance robotic systems.”
In parallel, QNX has launched free online training courses that have attracted nearly 6,000 registered users, underscoring strong demand for scalable, self-paced education in embedded systems.
🚀 Innovation Beyond Commercial Boundaries #
QNX is actively fostering innovation through hackathons, guest lectures, and student-led engineering projects. Events such as Germany’s HackaTUM and Canada’s Hack the North have introduced QNX to new generations of developers.
Grant Courville, Senior Vice President of Products and Strategy at QNX, emphasized the broader vision: “The most meaningful innovations often happen outside traditional commercial environments. QNX Everywhere is more than a program—it’s a movement. Whether you are a student, educator, or hobbyist, you can innovate freely with the same tools that power the world’s most critical systems.”
Notable projects developed under QNX Everywhere include:
- A racing dashboard for York University’s Formula SAE vehicle
- A central rover control system for the University of Waterloo’s competition team
- A ‘Street Fighter’-style game built on QNX using custom GPIO hardware and the QNX Screen graphics library
- A smart intrusion detection system combining face-recognition ML with servo-based deterrence
- A 3D-printed robotic arm controlled via gamepads and built on ROS2
🧩 What’s Next for QNX Everywhere #
Building on its momentum, QNX plans to release additional pre-built software packages and optimized open-source ports via oss.qnx.com and GitLab. Upcoming enhancements include support for Raspberry Pi 5 and self-hosting capabilities to further lower the barrier to entry.
Beyond education and community engagement, QNX continues to influence the future of automotive software as a voting member of the SOAFEE Special Interest Group and as the foundational operating system provider for the Eclipse S-CORE project.
🎥 Experience QNX at CES 2026 #
From January 6 to 9, 2026, QNX is showcasing its technology at the Las Vegas Convention Center, West Hall, Booth #4024.
- Demonstrations: Two robotic arms powered by QNX open-source software
- Developer Desktop: A live environment running open-source development tools directly on QNX
Join the Community
- Individuals: Obtain a free non-commercial license via QNX Everywhere
- Educators: Apply for multi-user academic licenses through the QNX in Education program
Through education, open collaboration, and real-world experimentation, QNX Everywhere is steadily shaping a more accessible and innovative future for the global embedded systems community.