STUDENT ASSISTANT - FORTISS IIOT LAB, EDGE AI BASED THING TO SERVICE MATCHING (M/F/D)

fortiss is the state research institute of the Free State of Bavaria for the development of software-intensive systems, based in Munich. The scientists at the institute work in research, development and transfer projects with universities, research institutions and technology leaders in Bavaria, Germany, and Europe. They research and develop methods, techniques, and tools for reliable, secure and comprehensible software solutions and artificial intelligence applications. fortiss is organised in the legal form of a non-profit limited liability company. The shareholders are the Free State of Bavaria (majority shareholder) and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research).   The IIoT competence center of fortiss focuses on the development of computational and networking architectures for advanced IoT applications and use-cases in sectors such as Mobility, Smart Cities, Manufacturing, etc. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to: Edge computing, in particular decentralised edge architectures; deterministic wireless networking; dynamic container orchestration; information-centric networking; Edge AI.    To strengthen our team, we are looking for a: Student Assistant - fortiss IIoT Lab, Edge AI based Thing to Service Matching (m/f/d)   Based on realistic key performance indicators derived from real-time environments, across different vertical domains, the fortiss IIoT Lab  (https://www.fortiss.org/en/research/fortiss-labs/detail/iiot-lab) is a playground that integrate multiple software-based demonstrators aiming at improving different aspects of an IoT Edge-Cloud system, with particular focus on far Edge solutions. Technically, our demonstrators cover aspects from the OSI MAC Layer until the OSI application layer.   We are looking for a student research assistant (HiWi, currently enrolled in a M.Sc.) to participate in the technical support of the fortiss IIoT Lab TSMatch (Thing to Service Matching) demonstrator. The current open-source TSMatch relies on NLP to provide a semi-automated matching between IoT Things Descriptions (W3C Web of Things) and services semantic descriptions. The work to be developed shall analyse and integrate new AI/ML models suitable to IIoT Edge environments (including the possibility to consider small LLMs), considering the need to operate in the so-called far Edge. The work comprises analysis of related literature, understanding the current TSMatch code and setup, and proposing new directions together with the supervisor.

· Get acquainted with the current TSMatch demonstrator and open-source code. · Perform an analysis of existing models (including mini LLMs) that may be used to bring context-awareness to TSMatch, providing a finer-grained semantic matching between IoT Things and services. · Assist the development of the new models in TSMatch and provide a performance analysis based on agreed performance evaluation parameters. · Develop concepts for the visual presentation of results in an articulated way. · Support demonstrations in the lab.

· Currently enrolled on a M.Sc. degree in computer science, information systems or similar  · Practical experience in programming languages such as Python, Node.js, JSON-LD. · Experience with IoT tools such as Neo4J. · Excellent communication skills in English, basic German skills is a plus.

· 20 hour position, 6 months, possibility to extend. · Get involved with novel and exciting solutions in the context of IoT, and in alignment with industrial partners. · An international and dynamic work environment with highly qualified and motivated colleagues

Please submit your application with a motivational statement, a detailed CV and a current transcript of records.   Job-ID: IIoT-SA-02-2025 Contact: Rute C. Sofia