With Big Data to infinite expanses – and desirable vehicles.
Whether measured values from the test track or data streams that the vehicles record daily on the road: Dr Thomas Albin knows how to distil valuable information from complex data streams using the latest analysis and data mining tools. As part of the "Data Insights" team, he supports our vehicle engineers in making even better use of the potential of huge amounts of data – and thus in making Mercedes-Benz vehicles even more comfortable, powerful and safe. The physicist and Big Data expert tells us in his interview how he found his way from space research to Mercedes-Benz and what for him is real "rocket science".
Dr Albin, what role does data analytics play in vehicle development today?
Data has always been important for development work in the automotive industry. Today, however, thanks to digitalisation, we have much more data at our disposal than ever before, such as the information recorded by the sensors in the vehicles during every journey. In addition, we have completely new possibilities for evaluating these immense amounts of data, for example with the help of data mining, meaning the statistical analysis and identification of interesting connections and trends in large data sets. Both offer huge potential. With our "Data Insights" team, we develop tools for our engineers with which they can use these data volumes even better for their development work. By the way, please just call me Thomas.
Thank you, Thomas. What does a "tool" of this nature that you develop for R&D look like?
Our current project is a good example of this: this involves, for example, bringing together the measurement data on a dashboard that we record when our vehicles are driving on public roads. There are millions of very different measuring points. With the dashboard, our developers can access the data freely via an app and the cloud and have everything in view thanks to visualisation techniques. In the future, they will be able to analyse the data directly within the application. We are currently working on the tools for this.
With the dashboard, data can therefore be viewed directly by colleagues in vehicle development ...
Yes, the potential that lies in data can only be used if we make the data available. With our work, we want to help our different teams make even better use of their synergies in this area – and create awareness for what is possible with the help of data analytics. Solutions that work for colleagues from drive system development can also potentially be applied to the suspension – and vice versa. What is fascinating about modern data tools is that they can be used in almost all subject areas.
How can we picture your "Data Insights" team?
We are a group of programmers with very different areas of expertise: from data handling to machine learning and cloud infrastructure. Our team is still quite new and was set up a year ago. That gives us a lot of freedom. We often try out new working methods. In the "Data Dashboard" project, for example, we tested "pair programming". Two team members always worked on a code in parallel. This is a really cool method because it creates a lot of team spirit and at the same time ensures a tremendous transfer of knowledge. And when implementing new projects, we often work in sprints and with agile working methods.
At Mercedes-Benz, you are an expert in machine learning. But you actually come from a completely different subject area ...
Yes, I am actually an astro- and geophysicist (laughs). I have always been fascinated by space and everything around us. I got that from my mother, by the way. When I was a child, we used to watch the planetary and stellar constellations together at night. That is why I went on to study physics and specialised in astrophysics and geophysics for my Master's degree. At that time, I also had a lot more involvement with machine learning and data mining tools. And for my doctorate at the Institute of Space Systems at the University of Stuttgart, I then worked on the Cassini mission ...
... the NASA space probe that has been studying Saturn and its moons in more detail?
Exactly. The great thing for me was that Cassini was launched when I was still at primary school and now, as a postgraduate, I worked on the mission myself. Among other things, Cassini also had European contributions on board, such as the Cosmic Dust Analyzer, which could detect cosmic dust. We received huge amounts of data that the probe collected over many years. And thanks to digital technologies, we finally had completely new possibilities to analyse this data.
