Exciting times at UDS: Our software development employee Leonard Huster is currently working on a practical project as part of his bachelor's degree in ‘Media Informatics Online’ at the University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer in Germany, which is closely linked to his work at UDS. The aim of this project is to independently work on a topic relevant to everyday professional life and document it according to scientific standards.
The content deals with possible efficiency gains when outsourcing computationally intensive operations to the graphics card. Leonard deliberately chose this topic because, although the optimisation of software performance often takes a back seat, it remains crucial in areas such as 3D applications, simulations and large-scale data processing. He finds it particularly appealing that this brings him much closer to the hardware than is usual in the development of user software.
The topic is directly relevant to UDS: ‘Many of our applications for the engineering sector involve mathematical calculations. Where these can be parallelised, graphics processors are significantly faster. Some work packages that currently take several minutes can be processed many times faster,’ explains Leonard. ‘Users wait less – workflows become smoother.’
The biggest challenge in creating the practical work was organising the existing knowledge on the topic: ‘There is an incredible amount of material online from almost 20 years of CUDA development – filtering out the relevant and still current parts was not always easy,’ says Leonard. On the other hand, he found it particularly motivating when the know-how led to visible progress. ‘Seeing that it works’ – the first performance comparisons confirmed exactly the desired effect.
For UDS, this work results in documented, long-term know-how. Existing software can thus be accelerated and made more attractive to customers. At the same time, it enables new projects – both locally on the desktop and in cloud environments.
And for future applicants, this project clearly shows that at UDS, you don't just ‘work’. You can research, experiment, set priorities and actively feed knowledge back into products. There is room for development, responsibility and real progress here.
We continue to follow Leonard's work with interest and are excited to see the results.