In 2025, Fraunhofer is performing the project in collaboration with Insiders Technologies, John Deere, and Porsche Informatik, which act as customers for you. We have prepared three exciting projects in which you will work in close collaboration with your industry customers as well as Fraunhofer experts to solve the challenges presented by them.
Here are the key descriptions of the three challenges offered this year:
Insiders Technologies
The Topic: Experience the Future of Intelligent Process Automation!
Are you passionate about artificial intelligence and large language models? Then take the opportunity to participate in an exciting project where you will use the latest technologies in the field of intelligent process automation and process optimization!
Together with Insiders Technologies, the most successful spin-off of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), you will work in a team to develop innovative solutions for specific use cases in the field of intelligent process automation. The focus is on AI agents that create real value for the customers of this internationally active company.
💡Your Mission:
- Development and implementation of an AI agent for use in a real-world scenario in the finance or insurance sector.
- Application of modern AI technologies to automate and optimize existing business processes.
- Working closely with Insiders Technologies to design a practical project.
- Working on a real-world use case that will give you concrete insights into the use of AI agents in a corporate environment.
🧠 Why you Should Participate:
- Innovation at the forefront: Work with the most advanced technologies in the field of AI.
- Customer focus: Learn how cutting-edge research results are directly applied to benefit customers.
- Career opportunities: Make valuable contacts and gain practical experience
- that will prepare you for your future career.
John Deere
The Topic: 🚜 Software Engineering Project Opportunity: Simulating Agronomic Vehicles with AI Support
Are you passionate about AI, Python development, and real-world applications in agriculture? Join an exciting software engineering project where you’ll explore how AI can assist software development—and measure its impact!
🔍 Project Overview
In this project, you’ll develop a simulation of agronomic vehicles (e.g., tractors or sprayers) operating in the field. These vehicles will follow various path patterns, simulating real-world behavior as digital twins. The simulation data will be visualized using the John Deere Operations Center, a cloud-based platform accessible via Web API.
💡 Your Mission
- Design and implement a Python-based simulation of one or more agronomic vehicles.
- Integrate with the John Deere OpCenter to visualize vehicle paths and field data.
- Evaluate AI tools (e.g., code assistants, test generators, refactoring tools) to support software development during the project.
- Measure the impact of AI assistance on development efficiency, code quality, and team collaboration.
🧠 Why you Should Participate:
- Practical experience with Python, API integration, and simulation modeling.
- Hands-on exposure to AI-assisted development workflows.
- Insights into agricultural technology and cloud-based data visualization.
👥 Who Should Apply?
- Students in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related fields.
- Interest in AI, agriculture, or simulation systems and computer games is a plus.
- Basic Python skills required; experience with APIs or cloud platforms is helpful but not mandatory.
Porsche Informatik
The Topic: Revolutionizing Monday Mornings in Car Retail 🚗
Mondays are hectic, especially for car owners dropping off vehicles for scheduled repairs after the weekend. Long lines, unexpected issues, and waiting for systems to load create frustrating bottlenecks. But what if Porsche Informatik, the hub of automotive innovation, could change this?
We’re inviting bold student innovators to help us engineer the future of streamlined car repair experiences—where cutting-edge technology meets ingenious design in the dynamic realm of car retail.
The Challenge: Fix Mondays Before They Break You
Imagine this:
Monday morning, a customer arrives to drop off their car for its pre-booked repair. While the appointment details were set online, there’s still so much to manage:
- Accurately assigning the right mechanic with the certifications needed.
- Ensuring all the required tools and infrastructure are available.
- Verifying if all necessary parts are in stock—and exploring alternatives if not.
- Reviewing warranties, calculating costs, and keeping the process smooth under patchy system availability.
The chaos worsens when systems are down or slower than expected, leaving dealerships scrambling for information, frustrating customers and staff alike.
💡Your Mission: Build Smart Solutions That Keep Calm Under Pressure
As part of this Capstone Challenge, you will tackle two intertwined aspects:
1. Build Resilient Cloud Services
Design a scalable solution that prepares data in advance, caches key information, and syncs asynchronously when full systems become available. Whether handling delayed domain events, minimizing latency, or ensuring repair workflows stay uninterrupted, your innovation will lead the charge in building software that performs under pressure.
2. Innovate Intuitive User Experiences
Develop a lightning-fast onboarding process for customers dropping off vehicles:
- Skip irrelevant, time-consuming tasks (e.g., warranty checks or spare part updates) and defer them strategically to later asynchronous channels with customer input.
- Ensure the user-facing experience adapts organically to technical and human constraints, creating smoother interactions—no matter the hiccups.
This is your chance to blend domain-driven design, cloud-first thinking, inventive UX and (what else) AI to turn chaos into order—and smooth Mondays like never before!
🧠 Why you Should Participate:
- Real-world relevance: Work on a solution directly impacting Porsche’s global dealer networks.
- Tech meets design: Apply cutting-edge technologies (resilient APIs, asynchronous processing, UX mockups) to solve customer pain points.
- Impactful innovation: Your project could shape the next generation of car retail!
Put your skills to the test in this high-stakes, fast-paced challenge and join Porsche Informatik’s legacy of driving innovation forward.
Are you ready to reimagine car repairs and revolutionize retail workflows? Apply now and start making Mondays better—for everyone!
Our typical technologies: Angular, Azure, Java