STUDENT ASSISTANT – SEMANTIC KNOWLEDGE GRAPH FOR ENERGY DATA PLATFORM (M/F/D)

  • fortiss GmbH Jobportal
  • Working student
  • Part time
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Who are we?

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 organized 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).
 
To strengthen our team Platform Engineering, we are looking for a
Student Assistant (m/f/d) 
 
The Platform Engineering team develops and researches software-defined infrastructures, which are an integral part of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and information systems (IS), towards the digital transformation of organizations.
 
We are looking for motivated students to join our team and support us in the application-oriented research project NEED (https://www.fortiss.org/en/research/projects/detail/need). The goal of NEED is to establish a national energy data platform that integrates diverse, heterogeneous data sources and synthesizes missing information for planning purposes. Central to the project is the creation of a semantic knowledge graph that does not replace existing data sources but rather links their data about different sectors and levels, forming a digital toolbox for end-to-end planning tasks from the building to the infrastructure. This innovative approach will enable automated, model-based analyses across system boundaries, significantly simplifying and accelerating the planning processes essential for the energy transition. 
 
The goal of your work will be to extend the scope of this semantic knowledge graph and the feature set of this digital toolbox. This will primarily involve reviewing existing knowledge bases and software frameworks, and then adapting and configuring them for long-term use by the NEED platform in the energy domain.

Your Tasks:

  • Literature review to explore and analyze state-of-the-art Semantic Web software solutions
  • Adapt them, if necessary, so that they can be easily integrated into the NEED platform
  • Set up and maintain their infrastructure so that they are continuously available
  • Use them as designed in the context of formal knowledge representation in the form of W3C OWL ontologies that semantically model classes as well as their relations and instances
  • Use the semantic query language SPARQL to interact with and test the tools and ontologies
  • Prepare usage examples and documentation for other stakeholders in the NEED platform

Your Profile:

  • Student in the field of computer science or similar
  • Previous experience with Python, Java, JavaScript, Bash, Git, and Docker
  • Previous experience with or interest in symbolic AI, in particular Semantic Web and ontology technologies and tools such as RDF, OWL, SPARQL, Protégé, RDF4J or GraphDB
  • Previous experience with geographic information systems such as QGIS would be a plus
  • Excellent communication and presentation skills in English or German

Our Offer:

  • An international and dynamic work environment
  • Close cooperation and interaction with both academic and industry professionals
  • Possibility to extend to a Bachelor’s or Master’s thesis
  • Possibilities for paper publication
  • Convenient location and view on the 15th floor of the Highlight Towers

Did we catch your interest?

Please submit your application in German or English including a cover letter, a detailed CV, and a current transcript of records.
 
Kennziffer: PEng-SH-1-2025
Ansprechpartner: Ingmar Kessler
  • Ralf Kohlenhuber
  • Human Resources Administrator
  • Ingmar Kessler
  • Scientific employee