• Type of project: HiWi/Internship
  • Contact: ahmad.omira@izfp.fraunhofer.de

Are you looking for an internship or a research project? Are you interested in ultrasound? Do you want to work with state-of-the-art ultrasound hardware? Do you want to work in a friendly and open team? Then you are at the right place!

Laboratory: 3D- SmartInspect

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Ultrasound non-destructive testing (UNDT) is based on the process of transmitting ultrasound signals into an object under test, recording the reflected signals, and using them to learn about the internal structure of the object. Since the practical implementation of imaging and reconstruction algorithms involves large amounts of measurement data and necessitates great computational efforts, key questions arise, such as: How should the data be measured? How much data is needed to produce good reconstructions? How should the data be processed? During your time with us, you will have the opportunity to gain an understanding of ultrasound imaging systems through the practical application of different measurement schemes and image reconstruction methods on our 3D-SmartInspect measurement system.

3D-SmartInspect is an assistance system developed by Fraunhofer IZFP which is based on ultrasonic sensors. The system helps inspectors during manual inspection processes by providing interactive support. At the same time it enables automated documentation of inspection performance and the digital transfer of measurement data.

This is a valuable opportunity to gain more knowledge in signal processing and programming. You’ll have the chance to acquire practical skills through your tasks and regular interactions with experts in our team. There is also the opportunity to work in our research group in the long term, e.g. HiWi contracts, bachelor/master theses.

Pre-requisites

  • Mandatory:
    • intermediate to advanced knowledge of Python
    • have visited some mathematics lectures, so you’re familiar with basic linear algebra and analysis, such as matrix-vectors operations, Fourier analysis, etc.
    • have visited at least one signal-processing-related class, e.g. Signals and Systems or Analog Digital Filtering, Digital Signal Processing, Communication Engineering, or any similar. So, you’re familiar with basic signal processing concepts, like: Fourier transform, convolution, filtering, etc.
  • Nice to have:
    • familiarity with some software development tools, such as Git or unittest
    • familiarity with ultrasound

Alternatively:

  • Fresh students with fewer/none of the prerequisites can also be considered if they are willing to learn and collaborate with us over a longer time period.

You will learn with us

  • Advanced ultrasound imaging
  • Python libraries for scientific data analysis, e.g. Numpy, SciPy Matplotlib, etc.
  • Concurrent Python programming, i.e. multithreading and multiprocessing.
  • Common software development practices, such as:
    • version control with Git
    • unit testing using the unittest module
  • Efficient implementations of linear algebra operations in Python

Tools you will be working with

  • Python
  • Gitlab
  • High-end ultrasound equipment

Main Tasks

  • familiarizing yourself with the 3D-SmartInspect system and handheld ultrasound measurements
  • collecting ultrasound measurement data with 3D-SmartInspect system
  • implementing and testing functionalities for the system, e.g.
    • new reconstruction algorithms
    • unit tests
  • demonstrating the system at trade fairs and conferences

Team

You’ll be working in an international team of researchers and PhD students. The team is very open, friendly, and values collaboration. We are always open to questions, ideas, discussions, and feedback. You will have the opportunity to put your ideas and technical knowledge into practice by working with state-of-the-art ultrasound hardware.