Internship Report

Bachelor Biomedical Engineering

Fraunhofer Institute of Integrated Circuits IIS
Company

 Fraunhofer Institute
for Integrated Circuits
IIS
 Located in Erlangen,
Bavaria, Germany
 Leading research
facility worldwide for
microelectronic and
information
technology
 Known for developing the mp3 and MPEG AAC Audiocodec
 Over 900 employees
 Fields of expertise: audio and media technologies, development of adaptive
systems, X-ray and medical image analysis, communication systems, smart
sensing and electronics, supply chain services

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Workplace and tasks

 Implementation of an optical sensor for measuring the pulse wave into a

shirt

 Tuning of the parameters of the sensor, transmission of data with a

microcontroller and a bluetooth module, conducting a pilot study under
different levels of physical activity, analysis and postprocessing of the
recorded data, evaluation of the data

 Included works: soldering, programming in C, physical testing of the

prototype, statistical evaluation, MATLAB

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Workplace and tasks

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Living in Erlangen

 Student apartment provided by Fraunhofer IIS, 10min car ride to the

institute

 Low living cost (100€ for the apartment, groceries usually 2/3 of the
price in vienna)

 Small city with many students

 Salary paid by Fraunhofer IIS for working as a scientific assistant

(~500€ for 40h/month), additional income by Erasmus+ (~230€/month)

 Many outdoor activities north of Erlangen (Fränkische Schweiz is about

30-45min car drive), Nürnberg has a lot of attractions, beautiful city
centre
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Living in Erlangen

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Living in Erlangen

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 Timeline
Final Version
Preliminary Final  Mai 11, 2017
Version
Start of Apr 8, 2017 End of Internship
Internship May 15, 2017
Jan 16, 2017

January February March April May 2017

Acquaintance, 
16/1/2017 ‐ 27/1/2017
Research
Microcontroller
27/1/2017 ‐ 17/2/2017
Firmware in C

LabVIEW GUI 13/2/2017 ‐ 24/2/2017

Research, 
24/2/2017 ‐ 2/3/2017
Troubleshooting

MATLAB 3/3/2017 ‐ 3/4/2017

Pilot Study 10/3/2017 ‐ 24/3/2017

Evaluation 28/3/2017 ‐ 8/4/2017

Thesis ‐ Corrections, Formatting, 
10/4/2017 ‐ 11/5/2017
Structuring

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Other projects by the Fraunhofer IIS

 Efficient recycling with x-ray techniques

 Sorts and identifies materials

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Other projects by the Fraunhofer IIS

 facetVision®
 Compound eye technology enabling cameras with a thickness of two
milimeters
 Enables ultra thin smartphone cameras

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Other projects by the Fraunhofer IIS

 MPEG-H audio codec for

enabling 3D audio
experiences at home
 Individual control of volume,
for example raising the
volume for voices while
lowering background
sounds and music for better
understanding of speech

 Cingo® support for Virtual

Reality devices for realistic
3D sound

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Other projects by the Fraunhofer IIS

 SHORE®
 Facial recognition of emotions, age and gender with a video camera

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Conclusion of the internship

 Very diverse company, many projects, friendly and helpful work colleagues
 Interdisciplinary work, cross-linked thinking
 Not many differences regarding food, living, language and overall lifestyle
compared to Austria
 Enough time to work on bachelor thesis
 Project concluded in a presentation in front of department to inform them
of your results and eventual prospects, including constructive feedback on
your working behaviour as well as on the presentation
 Salary and Erasmus+ support enough to live on
 Beneficial for future work life due to wide-ranged experience
 Overall a very positive experience

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Conclusion of the internship

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Sources
 Fraunhofer IIS, http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de
 Fraunhofer IIS, SHORE®, https://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/de/ff/sse/ils/tech/shore-
facedetection.html
 Fraunhofer IIS, Highlights 2016, Jahresbericht, http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/jb2016

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