Our team and mission

This position is based at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) - Noordwijk, Netherlands

Under the direct authority of the Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality, the Head of the Electrical Department is responsible for providing support to ESA programmes in the following areas:

• Avionics systems, including data handling for payloads and platforms;
• Computers and microelectronics;
• EEE component technologies, radiation, and associated standardisation;
• Guidance, Navigation and Control, Attitude and Orbit Control and pointing;
• Power systems;
• Electromagnetic waves propagation, interaction, and compatibility;
• Space environments;
• Antenna, payload subsystems and instruments;
• On-board telemetry, tracking & command, and Payload Data Transmission subsystem;
• RF and digital technologies.

The Head of Department manages the operation of the corresponding technical laboratories and facilities, elaborates Engineering Standards and is responsible for technology activities for the technical discipline areas of the Department.

In executing these functions, the Head of Department is supported by the:

• GNC, AOCS and Pointing Division (TEC-EC);
• Avionics and EEE Division (TEC-ED);
• Radio Frequency Payloads and Technology Division (TEC-EF);
• Power Systems and EMC Division (TEC-EP);
• Electrical Architects (TEC-EA).

The Microelectronics Section's (TEC-EDM) core responsibilities cover technical support to ESA missions and research activities in the areas of

1. Digital and analogue integrated circuit: Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), as well as Intellectual Property (IP) Core developments for space applications;
2. Mitigation techniques against radiation effects for ASIC and FPGA;
3. Tools and methods for Integrated Circuit design and development (from specifications to tested devices).
    

Candidates interested are encouraged to visit the ESA website: http://www.esa.int

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: Neural network implementation on space grade Field Programmable Gate Arrays and SoCs

Deep learning by neural network (NN) is establishing itself as a promising tool that can lead to outstanding performance for on-board computing. Computation of NN is a highly demanding computational intensive task. Currently there is a body of research focused on implementing NNs with low power, memory and interface foot print, making them suitable for use on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or space grade System on Chips (SoC). This internship is focused on exploring for space applications the available frameworks, models, tools and hardware to efficiently implement NNs (e.g. Xilinx FINN or the Microchip Core Deep Learning) and SoCs, integrating them into the spacecraft computing architecture and analysing their performance and necessary adaptations. This would include a solution for synthesizing the NN into a hardware description language and integrating the resulting hardware into the spacecraft computer. The most promising hardware, method, tools and architecture is to be illustrated in a laboratory demonstrator. You will gain competences in microelectronics and AI design flow, FPGA design, SoCs and computer architecture for space.

Behavioural competencies

Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward Thinking

For more information, please refer to ESA Core Behavioural Competencies guidebook

Education

You must be a university student, preferably in your final or second-to-last year of a university course at Master’s level and you need to remain enrolled at your University for the entire duration of the internship.

Additional requirements

The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another Member State language would be an asset.

The topic requires educational knowledge, such as:
Microelectronics, including digital integrated circuit modelling languages (e.g. VHDL, Verilog, SystemVerilog and SystemC) and computer aided design tools for digital design from e.g. Synopsys, Mentor and Cadenc.