Work

Since the invention of the car, the security of passengers and pedestrians has always been a main focus of research. In recent years and with greater technical possibilities the automotive sector developed the advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), enhancing the safety of all traffic participants. Most of these technologies require the accurate detection of a situation. Computer vision technology reached a state of practical usability for this task in recent years, becoming one of the major research topics in the automotive sector. We want to create an object detection algorithm using Matlab, being able to detect pedestrians in a day and night condition. The algorithm should be fast enough to process all information necessary to detect pedestrians at higher driving speeds in real-time. Matlab was chosen for its usability and its flexibility of processing information giving the possibility to output detection results directly to future or already existent technology.

Experience

The city of Changzhou with its 3.5 million inhabitants is a Chinese medium-sized city about an hour's train ride north-east of Shanghai in the Jiangsu province. While in the past it was known for the production of wooden combs - which can still be seen in museums in the city centre - today it is a noticeably grown industrial city. In the streets, you mainly see people in their thirties with children, because Changzhou is one of the cities in this area where you move for good work. Accommodation and Life In Changzhou I lived with two other interns in a flat that was rented by the company for this purpose and for which we didn't have to pay anything contrary to our expectations. This apartment is located about ten minutes by bus from the company within a quite well-equipped commune with supermarket, guard post at the entrance and own packing stations in case one wants to order something from the internet. We could also eat twice a day in the canteen of the company, which significantly increased the salary of 2600 CNY. The food of the canteen was indeed edible, but for better food, one can always go in and around one of the umpteen shopping centres in Changzhou in order to eat there cheaply. Free time In my free time, after work and on the weekends, I usually went to one of the ten shopping malls or one of the international bars in Changzhou, where you could always meet one of the other interns. The Chinese generally don't do any bigger business after work anymore, so you stayed among yourself with the international interns. Outside the trips offered by IAESTE China to fulfil the VISA regulations, I didn't travel much. Due to the size of China, it is not really possible to see distant destinations that can be reached by plane without taking time off. But the company is very accommodating, so you can always ask for an extended weekend. The Chinese were even surprised that I didn't take advantage of this, but focused on my work.

Discover

Concluding I learned a lot about different cultures and got a lot of different views on things which still influences my daily life.