Student computer science (f/m/x) - Real-time Visualization of Billions of Stars in CosmoScout VR

The DLR Institute of Software Technology sees software as a catalyst for research and innovation. The institute's staff, currently numbering around 200, make a significant contribution to advancements in the fields of aviation, space, energy, transportation, and security through the development of state-of-the-art software solutions and innovative research.

Our areas of competence include reliable and safety-critical software systems, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and quantum computing, human-system interaction and visualisation, software and systems engineering as well as digital platforms and digital twins.

What to expect

The Visual Computing and Engineering department develops interactive visualization and modeling methods to collaboratively make digital twins and complex technical systems experientially accessible – from the early design phase to the analysis of large scientific datasets in immersive 3D environments.

The department develops a real-time solar system visualization called CosmoScout VR. The application is used for visualizing scientific data in the solar system for either retrospective data analysis or for mission planning. CosmoScout VR uses a software rasterizer to render millions of stars from the Gaia star catalogue.

The goal of the thesis is to enhance the software rasterizer by using level-of-detail and culling algorithms to increase the performance and allow more stars to be loaded.

Your tasks

• analysis of the existing software rasteriser in CosmoScout VR to understand the current implementation and performance bottlenecks
• investigation and selection of suitable level-of-detail (LOD) algorithms to optimise star rendering based on distance and visibility
• implementation of culling algorithms to efficiently exclude non-visible stars from the rendering process
• integration of the selected algorithms into the existing software rasteriser and performance tests to evaluate the improvements

Your profile

• university studies in computer sciences or similar
• experience in computer graphics with frameworks lile OpenGL, Vulkan, Direct3D, WebGPU or similar
• good experience with typed programming languages, like C++, C# or Rust

We look forward to getting to know you!

If you have any questions about this position (Vacancy-ID 2627) please contact:

Andreas Gerndt

Tel.: +49 531 295 2782