Department of -

Computer Science

Companies interested in collaborating on final projects must submit their proposals to the department's office at td@ru.is or the course supervisor. Proposals for projects to be completed during the autumn term must be submitted by 5 May, while proposals for the spring term must be submitted by 5 December. Upon receipt, the final project committee will review the proposals for approval.

Proposals are presented to students before the term begins. Company representatives will introduce the projects with a five-minute presentation and be available afterwards to answer questions and engage with students.

It is possible to submit project ideas later; however, these projects will receive less exposure than others if the partner cannot participate in the project presentations.

Project proposals must be submitted using a specific form, which can be found below:

• Project proposal form
• Sample filled form

Students have access to these proposals and are responsible for initiating contact with the companies and project ideas that interest them.

If a project proposal is selected, the company will receive a team of students to work on developing a software solution that often serves as a prototype or even a finished project.

Participating companies assume certain responsibilities, such as:

• Providing work facilities for the students, including premises and computer equipment.
• Designating a collaborator who works with the students throughout the project. This individual must be available throughout the project and meet with the team during regular status meetings, anticipating several weekly work hours.
• Ensuring that all necessary materials and information are available during the project timeline.
• The school provides a mentor to ensure that the project's execution and development meet the school's requirements for final projects.
• All projects are published in Skemman and must be accessible to all (can be restricted for up to two years).
• Companies must agree that the examiner and mentor have temporary access to the code for review and that the final presentation is open to all.

Computer Science students in our department can apply for a prestigious internship at the Fraunhofer Research Institute in Maryland, USA. This internship, which can be credited towards your degree, involves intensive research in collaboration with organizations like NASA and the FDA. Interns receive a salary and typically participate for six-month periods.

The department will announce application openings for this internship opportunity.

Apply

The application form CS-Application-form-Fraunhofer-spring-2024 must be filled out, and the application form, together with a CV in English, should be sent to sstefansdottir@fraunhofer.org and td@ru.is. Here, you can read more about the opportunity at Fraunhofer Research Institute in Maryland.

Fraunhofer USA Center for Experimental Software Engineering, an affiliate of The University of Maryland

Students at all levels (undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral) in Computer Science and Software Engineering can apply for paid internships at the Fraunhofer USA Center for Experimental Software Engineering (Fraunhofer USA CESE) in the U.S.

BSc students are eligible for the internship at Fraunhofer USA CESE after completing four semesters, while MSc and PhD students can participate at any stage of their studies. All interns receive a monthly stipend.

About Fraunhofer USA CESE

Fraunhofer USA CESE is just 1.6 km from the University of Maryland (UMD) campus, Maryland’s flagship public university, near Washington, DC. UMD, with over 40,000 students, is renowned for its programmes in Computer Science (ranked 16th in the U.S.), Mathematics, Engineering, Economics, and Business.

Located in the research corridor adjacent to UMD, Fraunhofer USA CESE employs around 20 staff, including professional staff, graduate research assistants, student interns, and professors. Its mission is to drive economic and industrial development through innovative model-based methods for developing and assuring complex software-intensive systems.

Research activities at Fraunhofer USA CESE

Fraunhofer USA CESE conducts applied research to bridge the gap between academia and industry, applying foundational research principles to:

• Design tools and techniques
• Perform verification and validation
• Analyze, evaluate, and develop software
• Create modelling and simulation environments
• Provide software project management

Fraunhofer USA CESE applies the results of that research to fields such as:

• Aerospace
• Defence
• Automotive
• Medical

Its largest customers include NASA, the National Science Foundation, manufacturing companies, and defence sectors.

Internships at CESE

Since 2000, Fraunhofer USA CESE has hosted over 100 international interns in software development and tool application research. RU interns actively contribute to ongoing projects during their stay. Project examples include:

• Data Architecture Platform for NIH BRAIN Initiative: The National Institutes of Health's BRAIN Initiative aims to transform our understanding of the human brain by advancing innovative technologies. Fraunhofer USA CESE is tasked with evaluating and refining the brain imaging pipeline developed by project partners. This includes designing a software architecture that enhances the flexibility and efficiency of image acquisition, data processing, and algorithm integration. The enhanced architecture will support scalable research efforts, allowing researchers to test and optimize new algorithms and workflows easily.
• Software Quality Metrics for Large Machinery Manufacturer: Fraunhofer USA CESE collaborates with the electronics group of a major manufacturer to develop software release readiness metrics. The project started with a workshop defining key factors for software release readiness, then analysing existing software metrics and creating defect prediction models. These models help prioritize development efforts and improve software and process quality. Recommendations from this project are being implemented to enhance production cycles and ensure software validation and verification.

Practical information

Internships at Fraunhofer USA CESE typically last 6 months under the supervision of a staff scientist. The schedule is structured as follows:

• First two weeks: Orientation and initial learning.
• Next five months: Hands-on training and project work.
• Final two weeks: Knowledge transfer.
• Final week: Report writing, preparing research papers, and final presentation.

Interns are paired with staff scientists upon arrival and meet regularly to facilitate effective collaboration. The research often contributes to undergraduate reports, MSc and PhD theses, and research papers at RU.

Students are responsible for arranging and funding their transportation to the U.S. and finding accommodation, although Fraunhofer USA CESE offers assistance.

How to apply

The application should be submitted electronically to vhensler@fraunhofer.org. Please notice that a limited number of positions are available each semester and that a selection board in The School of Computer Science will choose the most eligible candidates.

Students within the Department of Computer Science can apply for internships with Härte- und Oberflächentechnik GmbH & Co, a leading German company based in Nuremberg 

Project target

The 6-month paid internship at H-O-T will have the participants continue the work done by other interns over the last 5 years, developing and implementing the new ERP software for the company HEAT&COAT.

Every individual will get his project expected to be the target for these 6 months. You will work towards this goal in tandem with other team members with technologies such as:

• Firebird as a relational database system
• Node.js with Express.js as the Backend server
• Angular Framework for the frontend
• GitHub as VCS

The backend and the front end are fully written in TypeScript, a superset of JavaScript. HTML and CSS are used on the front end as well.

You will be part of a 5 person team. You will also participate in collaborative code review and sometimes get feedback directly from end users. There is once during and again at the end of term, the interns will be asked to present their progress to the project owners.

Ordered by effort and priority

Project 1: Coating

• Complete Design and Implementation based on the provided project description
• H-O-T offers Heat Treatment and Coating services. Heat Treatment services implementation state is already good and used in production. Coating is the main other part of our offered services
• As this is a huge project, you will probably not be able to finish the whole module during your internship, but you will do the groundbreaking and finish the first coating tasks

Project 2: Pricing 2.0

• Complete redesign of the functionality of the price list (how does an order get a price) and (especially) special offers (How can a special order setup be priced as individually as possible) based on a complete project description
• As the current implementation does not fit anymore due to changed requirements and evolving strategies the pricing system needs to be refactored

Project 3: IoT communication service

• Creation of a service that communicates with our production machines and our project.
• Ability to start, end and document batches of our production systems and integrate the real machine data into our project database.
• Integration of our self-built production machine's data with this service.
• Create an API service to communicate with the external process control system ECS2000 and others.

Project 4: Notification system

• Design and Implementation of an in-app notification system

Project 5: Mobile device connection

• Creating Android apps with Flutter/Kotlin for special mobile devices (with integrated barcode scanner)
• This allows us to improve certain processes, e.g., allowing the driver to scan the items on delivery to get the exact delivery timestamp. Collecting the customer's signature, Taking photos of the delivered parts etc.
• You would set the groundbreaking here as we currently do not have much experience with mobile app development

About H-O-T

H-O-T (Harte- und Oberflachentechnik GmbH & Co. KG, Nurnberg) is a service company offering heat treatment and coatings based on high-tech expertise. We improve and optimize precision machine tools and high-grade components.

We have long-time experience in different fields of technology:

• more than 40 years in heat treatment of unprocessed steel
• more than 25 years in vacuum treatment techniques
• more than 20 years in plasma nitriding techniques
• more than 17 years in PVD and PACD coatings.

Our clients appreciate our experience and know-how. Through our expertise, collaboration with our customers, and the support of well-known scientific institutions, steel producers, and plant manufacturers, we take pride in maintaining our machines and processes according to the state of the art.

Over 500 employees from 20 different nations- including highly qualified engineers and technicians, work in our 13 locations and contribute to the ongoing story of success. We process more than 20,000 different items weighing from 1 g up to 2.5 t. We always ensure high service quality and on-time delivery.