Master's Thesis: Next-Generation Mobile Experience for Process Supervision and Control

About the role

ABB is offering a master's thesis project in Västerås, reporting to the R&D Team Lead. Industrial automation has traditionally been centred on the control room, but many tasks happen in the field, where operators, maintenance personnel and service engineers need process information while mobile. Current solutions are often limited to fixed workstations or fragmented tools. This thesis explores how next-generation mobile user experiences can support process supervision, troubleshooting, maintenance and decision-making, investigating user needs, use cases and technologies, and developing concepts or prototypes for future mobile solutions within ABB's automation ecosystem.

Key responsibilities

• Conduct a literature review on mobile interaction in industrial environments, mobile operator solutions, human factors, AI-assisted decision support and remote collaboration.
• Investigate current ABB offerings and market solutions for mobile access to automation and process information.
• Carry out user research through interviews, workshops, contextual studies or discussions with ABB experts and end users.
• Identify user needs, pain points, workflows and key use cases for mobile process supervision and support.
• Analyse technical and communication requirements for the identified use cases.
• Develop concepts and user experience visions for next-generation mobile DCS solutions.
• Create interactive prototypes of selected concepts and use cases.
• Evaluate concepts with users or domain experts and collect feedback.
• Summarise findings and provide design recommendations for future ABB mobile offerings.

Required profile

• Motivated master's student interested in designing future industrial user experiences and digital solutions.
• Background in one or more of: Interaction Design, HCI, UX Design, Industrial Design Engineering, Human Factors Engineering, Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Media Technology.
• Interest in user-centred design, digital product development and emerging technologies.
• Ability to conduct qualitative user research and turn findings into requirements, concepts and design recommendations.
• Experience creating prototypes and visual concepts with tools such as Figma is an advantage.
• Ability to work independently and creatively in an exploratory research environment.
• Interest in industrial automation, process industries, AI-assisted systems or industrial digitalisation is a strong merit.

The project runs in Spring 2027 (commonly January to July), lasts 30 ECTS credits, involves 1-2 students and offers a hybrid workplace in Västerås. Applications are made with a CV, academic transcripts and an English cover letter.