Hardware Engineering
Master Thesis in Hardware Engineering
Master Thesis · Part-time
Akilaris was founded on the belief that the orbital economy only works if space stays safe. We build AI-powered space intelligence and collision avoidance that lets satellite operators act in minutes, not days. Joining Akilaris means joining a small, fast team in Bremen, Europe’s City of Space, where your work ships to real operators and directly protects real assets in orbit.
Running risk-assessment models in orbit means inference under a strict power budget. Your Master thesis maps one of our neural network workloads onto an FPGA-based accelerator, optimizes it (quantization, pruning, dataflow) and characterizes the accuracy/latency/power trade space on real hardware.
Responsibilities
- Analyze our inference workload and select a target architecture (e.g. AMD/Xilinx DPU, custom RTL, HLS)
- Implement the accelerator path including quantization-aware model conversion
- Benchmark latency, throughput, power and accuracy against CPU/GPU baselines
- Assess single-event-effect exposure of the design and propose mitigations
- Deliver a reproducible pipeline the hardware team can iterate on
Basic Qualifications
- Master student in electrical/computer engineering, embedded systems or similar
- FPGA experience (VHDL/Verilog or HLS) and solid C/C++/Python
- Understanding of neural network inference fundamentals
Preferred Skills and Experience
- Experience with Vitis AI, FINN, TVM or similar deployment stacks
- Power measurement and optimization experience
Additional Requirements
- Thesis duration per your examination regulations (typically 5–6 months)
- Optional paid working-student hours alongside the thesis
- Some of our work touches dual-use technology governed by EU export-control regulations; candidates must be able to comply with applicable EU export-control requirements.
What We Offer
- Direct impact: your work ships to production and is used by real satellite operators
- Work side by side with the founders: short paths, fast decisions, real ownership
- Flexible hours built around lectures and exam phases (for student roles)
- Office in Bremen, Europe’s City of Space, in the heart of a dense aerospace ecosystem, with hybrid options
- A high-trust, high-velocity culture: we iterate like a launch company, not a corporation
- Clear growth path: many student roles convert into permanent positions
How to Apply
No forms, no portals. Email your CV together with a cover letter or a portfolio (projects, GitHub, publications, whatever shows your work best) to info@akilaris.com with the subject line “Application: Master Thesis in Hardware Engineering”. Tell us in a few sentences why this mission matters to you.
Location
Bremen, Germany, On-site lab + hybrid writing, thesis + optional hours.
info@akilaris.com
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. We reply to every serious application.