Master Thesis Project - Automatic brightness adjustment for display and interior illumination

Thesis Worker at Volvo Cars
Welcome to explore the world of Volvo Cars by writing your thesis with us! As a thesis worker in our organization you are supported by a supervisor who follows you during your project. All thesis projects are arranged in business critical areas and therefore you will be able to contribute to our company purpose – providing freedom to move in a safe, sustainable and personal way – from day one!

About this opportunity

Looking for a master piece for your master thesis project? Innovation starts with being curious. At Volvo Cars, we believe that being curious and truly committed to understanding people is the key to future success. We are people who care about other people, working together to create new technologies and innovations for safe, sustainable and convenient mobility. Want to join us as a Master Thesis student?
We are looking for driven and motivated students interested in pursuing their master thesis within Vehicle Tophat development during the spring term 2025.

Vehicle Tophat is one of six development units within Engineering (R&D) at Volvo Cars where the teams develop state-of-the-art Interior and Exterior. Vehicle Tophat aims to develop the most sustainable and safe Tophat solutions to provide freedom to move in a changing society. The customer value is optimized through attractive designs utilizing new technology trends. Speed to market is important in every aspect of what we do. And we attract and develop talents in a global competitive world, creating an open and transparent environment with a collaborative mindset. Within our team of over 800 engineers at Vehicle Tophat, we are offering a broad range of master thesis projects. 

Background of the project

Interior trim & systems (IT&S) is an engineering department within Vehicle Tophat. The department develops hardware and system solutions for all Volvo cars on the market. Our solutions interact with real customer in the entire world and has great impact on customer satisfaction and several customer surveys (ex JD powers, Initial Quality Survey (IQS) etc.). Our solutions are built with quality in a personal, sustainable and safe way.
 

We always want to improve and be better at what we create for our customers. Now we have an opportunity to create a new feature that automatically adjust the brightness of interior lights, with the help of 1-2 candidates. If successful, the result of this master thesis is planned to be introduced in our upcoming model year releases.
 

Objective of this project
The objective with this master thesis is to investigate different ways to have a smoother adjustment of interior brightness between day and night.

Between night, when it is very dark and no ambience, and day, when it is very bright and extreme ambience light, there are use cases where the ambience light is between night and day, like dusk or dawn. The current implementation in these use cases, the interior brightness is still defined as either day or night. This results in bad visibility of graphics or reduced comfort.

As a user I would like the interior brightness to be automatically adjusted and balanced to the level of ambience light outside the vehicle.

Scope of this project
Study different ways to automatically control interior brightness of lumination. Compare and rate different alternatives, from complexity and cost. Select the best alternative and create a proof of concept.

• Present different methods how the interior brightness can be controlled automatically
• Describe the technologies and rate the different methods using suitable measures
• Selected 1-2 alternatives that seems best suited for the application
• Create a poof of concept for one alternative

Prototyping center, test facilities and test rigs are available at Volvo Cars Gothenburg to assist and help creating the proof of concept.

What you´ll bring
We are looking for candidates with excellent academic records who are open, innovative, driven and team-players. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of our work, we are extending our search to a broad range of competences. If you think that you have what it takes to help us in our journey to deliver a safe, human-centric technology, read below on what we do & the various areas we can offer the thesis work in! 

We are looking for students with the following profiles:

• Highly analytic and a drive to succeed in what you set out to accomplish. You should have a genuine interest in user experience and software development.
• Master’s degree students in: Industrial/Product Design Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Graphics, Engineering Mathematics and Computational Science or equivalent. 
• Skilled in MATLAB and preferably Simulink. Knowledge about Android Studio. Skilled in other programming software’s.

This thesis project requires that you are on site at office in Volvo Cars Gothenburg.

Duration

Does this sound like your next challenge? Below are some practicalities you need to be aware of: 

• Tentative proposed thesis work period: 20th January 2025 to 27th of June 2025 (dates can be flexible with +/- 7 days)
• Academic credits: equivalent to 30 ECTS 
• Number of students: 1-2 students per project (2 preferred)

Welcome with your application by submitting your resume, cover letter (including which project(s) you would like to work and why) and grades/transcripts via the link below no later than 31st October 2024. We will be continuously reviewing the applications and selecting the candidates, so apply as early as you can!
 

Note that we do not accept any applications via e-mail. If you have any questions regarding the position, you are welcome to contact. For questions about the recruitment process, please contact:

Manager, Johan Sundemo, johan.sundemo@volvocars.com  
Supervisor, Johan Persson, johan.a.persson@volvocars.com   

Volvo Cars - Driving change together
Volvo Cars’ success is the result of a collaborative, diverse, and inclusive working environment. Today, we are one of the most well-known and respected car brands, with around 43,000 employees across the globe. At Volvo Cars, your career is designed around your skills and aspirations, allowing you to reach your fullest potential.