PhD Student Voice Assistant Development High-Voltage Charging (f/m/d)
PhD Student Voice Assistant Development High-Voltage Charging (f/m/d)
Wolfsburg, DE, 38436
PhD Student Voice Assistant Development High-Voltage Charging (f/m/d)
Work environment
You will join a department with Group-wide lead responsibility for the development of high-voltage charging functions across the Volkswagen Group. High-voltage charging today involves far more than the interaction between a vehicle and a charging station. The vehicle, battery, backend systems, mobile applications, electricity tariffs, and charging infrastructure form a complex, interconnected ecosystem. For customers, however, charging should be simple, transparent, and reliable. This is where your doctoral research comes in: You will develop an intelligent, vehicle-based voice assistant for high-voltage charging that translates technical complexity into clear explanations and actionable recommendations. Why did my charging session stop? Why is my vehicle not achieving the expected charging performance? What conditions need to be met for optimal charging? And how can charging schedules be intelligently aligned with favorable electricity prices? Based on the current vehicle and charging context, the voice assistant should be able to answer questions such as these, explain technical dependencies and potential root causes in an understandable way, and provide customers with targeted recommendations for resolving charging-related issues. Building on an existing concept, your doctoral research will investigate how information from different systems can be integrated, interpreted, and processed in a context-aware manner to enable intuitive, dialogue-based interaction with the customer. The objective is to develop a future-ready assistance concept for intelligent and explainable high-voltage charging.
Possible tasks within this role
- Designing and further developing AI-based communication solutions for customer interaction related to charging issues and potential solutions for both BEVs and PHEVs
- Extending the functionality to determine charging costs at public charging stations, taking into account the interaction between Charge Point Operators (CPOs), Mobility Service Providers (MSPs), and the vehicle’s charging schedule
- Developing AI-based control and decision-making approaches for vehicle functions as part of your doctoral research
- Designing and evaluating the performance of AI-based methods, benchmarking them against competitive solutions and conventional algorithm-based approaches
- Implementing and validating the developed methods in prototypes using MATLAB, Python, or comparable development environments
The final doctoral topic is defined together with the professor. The prerequisite for the cooperation is the confirmation of supervision as well as a confirmed delimitation of topics by the professor of a university or research institution entitled to confer a doctorate.
Qualification requirements
-
Good to very good university degree qualifying for doctoral studies in electrical engineering, automotive engineering, information technology, or a comparable field
-
Experience working with system architecture models and requirements decomposition
-
Knowledge of ISO 15118 and ISO 26262, as well as the modeling languages SysML and UML
-
Experience in developing and working with neural networks, as well as proficiency in relevant programming languages, is desirable
-
German language level B1
-
Ability to understand and structure complex technical relationships, for example from use cases to software requirements
-
Knowledge of pedagogical or didactic principles relevant to the development of language models and human-machine interaction is desirable
The following documents must be submitted with the application
- Curriculum Vitae
- Current transcript of records / Master’s or Diplom degree certificate
Keywords
Dissertation, Charging, AI, KI, E-Mobility, LLM (Large Language Model), Volkswagen
What we offer
- Attractive salary & 30 vacation days (+ 24.12. and 31.12. off)
- 35-hour week, flexible working hours, remote work
- Special conditions for the purchase and leasing of vehicles
- Free seminars on scientific work and interdisciplinary qualifications
- Participation in the doctoral network for scientific exchange with science representatives and other doctoral candidates within the Volkswagen Group
The gross monthly salary for this position, based on a 35-hour workweek and scaled according to the respective year of employment, is €3,030 (1st year), €3,194 (2nd year), and €3,497 (3rd year). In addition, there is a monthly allowance of €167 as well as a 49% share of the variable bonus.
Contact person for this posting: Fabian Wenzel
Work environment
You will join a department with Group-wide lead responsibility for the development of high-voltage charging functions across the Volkswagen Group. High-voltage charging today involves far more than the interaction between a vehicle and a charging station. The vehicle, battery, backend systems, mobile applications, electricity tariffs, and charging infrastructure form a complex, interconnected ecosystem. For customers, however, charging should be simple, transparent, and reliable. This is where your doctoral research comes in: You will develop an intelligent, vehicle-based voice assistant for high-voltage charging that translates technical complexity into clear explanations and actionable recommendations. Why did my charging session stop? Why is my vehicle not achieving the expected charging performance? What conditions need to be met for optimal charging? And how can charging schedules be intelligently aligned with favorable electricity prices? Based on the current vehicle and charging context, the voice assistant should be able to answer questions such as these, explain technical dependencies and potential root causes in an understandable way, and provide customers with targeted recommendations for resolving charging-related issues. Building on an existing concept, your doctoral research will investigate how information from different systems can be integrated, interpreted, and processed in a context-aware manner to enable intuitive, dialogue-based interaction with the customer. The objective is to develop a future-ready assistance concept for intelligent and explainable high-voltage charging.
Possible tasks within this role
- Designing and further developing AI-based communication solutions for customer interaction related to charging issues and potential solutions for both BEVs and PHEVs
- Extending the functionality to determine charging costs at public charging stations, taking into account the interaction between Charge Point Operators (CPOs), Mobility Service Providers (MSPs), and the vehicle’s charging schedule
- Developing AI-based control and decision-making approaches for vehicle functions as part of your doctoral research
- Designing and evaluating the performance of AI-based methods, benchmarking them against competitive solutions and conventional algorithm-based approaches
- Implementing and validating the developed methods in prototypes using MATLAB, Python, or comparable development environments
The final doctoral topic is defined together with the professor. The prerequisite for the cooperation is the confirmation of supervision as well as a confirmed delimitation of topics by the professor of a university or research institution entitled to confer a doctorate.
Qualification requirements
-
Good to very good university degree qualifying for doctoral studies in electrical engineering, automotive engineering, information technology, or a comparable field
-
Experience working with system architecture models and requirements decomposition
-
Knowledge of ISO 15118 and ISO 26262, as well as the modeling languages SysML and UML
-
Experience in developing and working with neural networks, as well as proficiency in relevant programming languages, is desirable
-
German language level B1
-
Ability to understand and structure complex technical relationships, for example from use cases to software requirements
-
Knowledge of pedagogical or didactic principles relevant to the development of language models and human-machine interaction is desirable
The following documents must be submitted with the application
- Curriculum Vitae
- Current transcript of records / Master’s or Diplom degree certificate
Keywords
Dissertation, Charging, AI, KI, E-Mobility, LLM (Large Language Model), Volkswagen
What we offer
- Attractive salary & 30 vacation days (+ 24.12. and 31.12. off)
- 35-hour week, flexible working hours, remote work
- Special conditions for the purchase and leasing of vehicles
- Free seminars on scientific work and interdisciplinary qualifications
- Participation in the doctoral network for scientific exchange with science representatives and other doctoral candidates within the Volkswagen Group
The gross monthly salary for this position, based on a 35-hour workweek and scaled according to the respective year of employment, is €3,030 (1st year), €3,194 (2nd year), and €3,497 (3rd year). In addition, there is a monthly allowance of €167 as well as a 49% share of the variable bonus.
Contact person for this posting: Fabian Wenzel
Wolfsburg, DE, 38436