Understanding Product Generation Transitions – Analysis of Change Patterns and Their Impact on the Validation System: The Case of KA-RaceIng

Today, technical systems are developed in successive product generations. New requirements, changes in regulations, technological advancements, or insights gained from operation and testing regularly lead to changes in the product. However, these product changes not only affect the product itself but can also have implications for development artifacts, models, documentation, and existing validation environments. In particular, the question arises as to what types of product changes occur between generations and what consequences these have for related development and validation systems. A better understanding of these relationships can help identify change efforts early on, maximize reuse potential, and ensure consistency across multiple product generations. The goal of this thesis is therefore to systematically investigate product generation transitions, identify typical change patterns, and analyze their effects on the validation system. The Formula Student Team KA-RaceIng serves as the use case, for which development and validation data from several vehicle generations are available.

Your Task:

You will analyze product generation transitions across different vehicle generations and examine their impact on downstream development and validation systems. Possible work packages:

• Systematic literature review on product generation development, change management, consistency management, and validation of technical systems
• Analysis of documented generation transitions for selected vehicle systems (e.g., braking system, chassis, aerodynamics, or powertrain)
• Identification and classification of product changes between different vehicle generations
• Conducting and evaluating expert interviews with current and former team members
• Analysis of the effects of identified product changes on development artifacts, models, documentation, and validation environments
• Derivation of typical causal relationships between product changes and necessary adjustments in development and validation systems
• Development of a catalog of characteristic product generation transitions and their effects

Am I a good fit for this?

If you have a technical interest in mechanical engineering, mechatronics, automotive engineering, computer science, or industrial engineering, and are passionate about product development, systems engineering, or Formula Student, then this topic is a perfect fit for you. Ideally, you enjoy analyzing complex technical relationships and deriving scientific insights from real-world development projects.

Your Benefits:

• Work on a cutting-edge research topic with direct relevance to future product generations
• Insights into the real-world development and validation processes of a Formula Student racing team
• Intensive mentoring by research staff
• Experience in scientific research, empirical data collection, and analysis
• Development of skills in the areas of product development, change management, and systems engineering
• Opportunity to contribute to scientific publications

Interested? Then we look forward to receiving a brief application or any questions via email:  lars.gesmann∂kit.edu or patrick.grycz∂kit.edu.