The clocks move faster here than in many other places
At its three research locations in North America, Sunnyvale, Pittsburgh and Watertown, Bosch Research is working on technologies for tomorrow and beyond.
Blue skies, bright sunshine, palm trees: this is the US west coast; this is Sunnyvale, California, USA. A city near San Francisco, in the middle of Silicon Valley. Home to Apple, Microsoft, Google. And just a few minutes' drive from the Bosch Research and Technology Center, where they are conducting intense research on future-focused areas like artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, hydrogen, and medical technology.
Since October 2023, Stefan Knoll has been responsible for the three research centers in North America at the Sunnyvale, Watertown and Pittsburgh sites and thus the US locations of Bosch Research. He began his career 25 years ago as a development engineer in the Brake Systems operating unit at Bosch in Schwieberdingen, Germany, followed by other positions in the Mobility and User Experience units. Now he stands in front of the large glass windows of his office in Sunnyvale and looks out over the vastness of Silicon Valley. “The clocks move faster here than in most other places” he says. “Digitalization and artificial intelligence are rapidly driving the development of future-relevant technologies and products. And at our research centers, we are actively helping shape this.” 140 researchers work at the sites in North America, 90 of them at the Sunnyvale campus.
Combining research and development
At each location, the surrounding ecosystem has adopted a leading position in specific industries and markets. “Silicon Valley and California are leaders in the fields of artificial intelligence, semiconductor chip design, network technologies, molecular diagnostics and green technologies,” explains Knoll. “That's why we're staying ahead of the curve with our talents and initiatives here.”
The research teams work closely with various Bosch divisions. For example, with Crossdomain Computing Solutions on the integration of AI and Generative AI (GenAI) in driver assistance systems. Together, they are driving forward topics such as mapless driving and parking with the help of video in Sunnyvale. There is also an exchange with Bosch Ventures: Bosch Research provides support in evaluating start-ups as potential investment candidates. And in semiconductor technology, the researchers are developing MEMS sensors and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) together with Bosch Sensortec.
“The technical expertise of our experts is truly remarkable,” says Knoll. “In science and research, but also in product development. People are motivated, they want to put new things on the road.” The speed is particularly remarkable. “In the development of software solutions, we often see results after just a few days thanks to advancing digitalization. It's about offering customers solutions quickly, because the competition never sleeps.”
Making decisions faster on site
“The hotspot for artificial intelligence and digitalization around the world is Silicon Valley,” explains Knoll. “Success comes to those who act quickly, and rethink established things and processes. That's why we need experts here and need to be able to make decisions quickly on site.” Currently, the focus at the locations is on research, but development also needs to be more local. “I don't see Bosch as a German company with a global footprint, but as a global company with German roots.” With this understanding, Bosch can attract top talent, meet local customer needs, and advance the latest innovations.
A number of successful Bosch products and services have their origins in Sunnyvale. For example, various designs for ASICs, which have been produced at Bosch Mobility Electronics and Bosch Sensortec for several years. The end products include an acceleration sensor for vehicles. Hundreds of millions of these chips have now been produced. Perfectly Keyless, a keyless access control system for vehicles, also got its start in Sunnyvale. The project received the Bosch Innovation Award in 2019 and has won over numerous car manufacturers as customers.
What projects are associates working on at the Research and Technology Center in Sunnyvale? Here is an overview:
Revolutionizing diagnostics
Gabrielle Haddon-Vukasin spends most of her working day in the chemical laboratory in Sunnyvale. The sensor technology expert has a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University in California. During this time, her interest in pursuing a career in the healthcare sector grew stronger. So, she jumped into an internship in medical technology at Bosch Research in Sunnyvale in 2020. “I never imagined that I would be able to apply my knowledge as a mechanical engineer to biosensors and bioelectronics,” she recalls. She is now a permanent member of the team and is researching a sensor for the electronic analysis of DNA with colleagues from the fields of BioMEMS, chemistry and biology. The aim is to be able to diagnose a wide range of pathogens even faster and directly at the point of care, for example at a doctor’s practice.
“Diagnostics are often carried out by sending samples to a laboratory and the results are available after days to weeks,” she explains. “Our aim is to have these results available within hours. We would like to use this method to identify viruses, bacteria and cancer in the future.” To this end, the team is developing highly sensitive sensors that can analyze DNA in real time. The development is complex and the research project involves multiple scientific challenges from different disciplines. In the future, these sensors could be used in new generations of the Bosch Vivalytic platform.
Optimizing hydrogen technology
Lei Cheng's day-to-day work revolves around hydrogen. The expert in electrochemistry and materials science has been working at the research campus for seven years. He is researching hydrogen fuel cells and water electrolyzers. The latter devices use electricity to break down water into its basic components hydrogen and oxygen. Bosch announced in 2022 that it would enter the hydrogen electrolysis business field and develop components. This includes, for example, the electrolyzer stack, a tower of several hundred individual cells. “The aim is to estimate and optimize the lifetime of an electrolyzer. This means we provide a solution to assure customers of long service life,” explains the engineer.
Initial estimates suggest that an electrolyzer can operate for tens of thousands of hours, which corresponds to many years of continuous operation. Cheng and his team are developing a comprehensive understanding of degradation and methodologies to accurately predict the service life of the product: they work with a miniature representative sample of the electrolyzer and carry out various experiments and simulations. “We want to understand how the cells age over time, how the materials behave, and how the water splitting process changes,” explains Cheng. The team creates data sets in lifetime tests that accelerate aging mechanisms seen in typical duty profiles and develops approaches for extending product service life by adapting individual components and operation strategy. This approach for predicting product service life can also be transferred to other products and applications.
Promoting assisted driving
David Paz Ruiz sits in a test vehicle in the research campus workshop. He analyzes the data from the previous test drive on a display. Sitting next to him is his colleague Arun Das, an engineer in the Cross-Domain Computing Solutions division. Together, they are working on software for assisted driving that does not require external high-resolution maps. Vehicles currently need these detailed maps to be able to navigate. But they are expensive to create, maintain and constantly update. “If there is a new construction site on the route, the changes have to be updated on the map,” explains Paz. “This involves enormous effort. That's why we are working on a mapless system.” The vehicle will use integrated cameras to capture video images and generate its own maps in real time. AI also helps to predict behavior in different traffic situations and recommend driving decisions.
The models developed recreate the complex infrastructure in cities. “Pedestrians, traffic lights, multi-lane traffic circles — a vehicle has to be aware of all these scenarios and react accordingly.” This information is necessary to predict interactions between road participants, for example what could happen five or ten seconds after a pedestrian steps onto the sidewalk. The AI is constantly learning on the basis of the collected data and will help to navigate through road traffic in the future.
More information on the research centers in North America
The teams at the Bosch Research locations in North America work closely together and supervise joint projects. The campus in Watertown is the smallest research location in North America. Associates there concentrate on atomistic simulations, i.e. on how atoms interact with each other, in order to identify new materials that improve the performance, durability, and sustainability of Bosch products. The Pittsburgh campus focuses on software, cyber security and artificial intelligence.