Bachelor-/ master thesis: »Development of a traceability system for use in the food industry«

At the Fraunhofer IPT in Aachen, we work with more than 530 employees every day to make the production of the future more digital, more flexible and more sustainable. In the production quality department, we deal with technologies, processes and methods for optimizing production processes as well as quality assurance in manufacturing. In the AgileHand research project funded by the European Union, solutions are to be developed for the effective and efficient sorting, handling and packaging of deformable products from the food industry, as these work processes present companies with particular challenges. Part of the project is the development of a solution for the traceability of products along the production processes. On the one hand, the products should be traceable along their passing processes with the help of a tracing function. On the other hand, a tracking function should specifically support the production processes by making it possible to view outstanding processes for a product. The system is to operate at batch and product level.

In the context of this thesis a traceability system is to be developed, which makes a tracing of the products possible. The system considers the regulations defined by the EU for the documentation of food. As a partial solution of the system a data base is to be set up, which fulfills requirements for the product tracing. An already developed database concept can be built upon. For functionality testing, various use cases are to be worked out and tested in order to implement, test and evaluate the developed traceability system.

What you will do

• Selection and preparation of provided data
• Development of a traceability concept including a database for tracing products
• Implementation of functions for data retrieval and interaction with the system
• System validation by elaboration of use cases for functional testing

What you bring to the table

• You are studying computer science, mechanical engineering or a comparable subject
• Extensive knowledge in at least one programming language
• First experiences in the field of databases and software development are advantageous
• An independent way of working and enjoyment of interdisciplinary teamwork
• Good language skills in German and English

What you can expect

• Ideal conditions for practical experience alongside your studies
• Professional supervision and collaboration in a dedicated team
• A state-of-the-art machine park equipped with edge cloud systems and 5G infrastructure
• Flexible working to combine study and job in the best possible way

Questions according to this position will be answered by:

Jan Hendrik Hellmich M.Sc.
Research assistant »production quality«
Phone: +49 241 8904-399