About me:
Who are you, and what do you do professionally? Since when are you Software Campus participant, and with whom are you collaborating (Industry Partner)?
My name is Benedikt Dietrich. I’m a research associate at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). At the chair of Embedded Systems (CES), I’m a member of the research group “Embedded Machine Learning.”
Since this summer I’m also a participant in the Software Campus, leading my microproject “Foundation Models in Embedded Systems,” in cooperation with Robert Bosch GmbH.
What is your IT-Project about – core topic – and how could it be used in the long run?
My microproject focuses on the challenge of running foundation models on resource-restricted, embedded systems. Through foundation models—which are, for instance, implemented as LLMs in nowadays widespread chatbots—remarkable progress has been achieved in the field of artificial intelligence in the past few years.
But the realization of these models is still resource-consuming and puts an increasing strain on the underlying hardware. That’s the reason why, with this microproject, algorithmic and platform-specific methods will be studied to allow these models to perform with restricted resources, such as energy and memory.
Thereby it can contribute to the usage of foundation models also in technical fields of applications, such as, for instance, in robotics or autonomous driving.
Career:
What exactly was your personal reason to pursue a career in computer science?
I studied mechatronics, and slowly but steadily, through attending lectures I could freely choose—which were from the field of technical computer science—I’ve paved my way to computer science.
Especially lectures about computer architecture and internships for micro-controlled programming I enjoyed the most, which is why I chose to dive deeper into these fields during my studies. To me, it’s particularly fascinating to see how systemic and software-based optimization can better unlock the potential of the underlying hardware and, therefore, enable applications to run faster or more efficiently.
Personality
Besides your job, what makes your heart beat faster?
Next to my profession, my interests lie in soccer and basketball.
I enjoy watching games and following up with the teams’ developments.
These sports offer me an ideal balance from work and have been for years part and parcel of my leisure time.
Impact
Which app/technical invention is the most essential to you?
One of the most fundamental technical inventions is, in my opinion, the global communication infrastructure and the internet. Even though they require a complex and globally connected structure, they are an essential part of everyday life and function extensively without disruption.
Source language of this interview: German
