”In many areas of industry, production development has reached ”saturation point“. Because of the expense of functional improvements, maufacturers can only attempt to pare down their costs. For me, however, there is no professional satisfaction in designing the hundredth exhaust elbow so that it can be manufactured for a few cents less. I would rather set my sights on raising the functionality to the highest technically possible level of quality.

Also, when one is carrying out R&D for small and medium-sized companies, one has the chance to be fully involved from the initial idea through to construction and commissioning of a prototype. Understanding systems is a core competence at IMMS: working there, I have to grasp how all the systems function – drives, transmission, movement, measurement and control systems – so that they all work together in harmony. It is our philosophy not to lose sight of the whole and not to be too compartmentalised in our thinking. I have to apply all the knowledge I have acquired and, by extending and deepening it, meet new challenges.

As my degree subject was mechatronics, it is these interdisciplinary demands which attract me. In the mechatronics section at IMMS, we deal not only with mechanical-electrical microsystems but also with precision drives. In these highly technical fields there is a need for new thinking to enable macroscopic objects to be moved with precision on the nanometre scale. Ilmenau TU started up the NanoFab graduate college to help improve these extremely accurate machines and to research new processing possibilities in the area of nanoscale product fabrication. The role that IMMS plays in the graduate college enables me to concern myself with the particular demands of vertical movement systems in nanometre positioning and measuring machines.

Why did I choose to come to IMMS? Easy! Having spent an internship at IMMS while studying for the BSc and written my dissertation there, I had already had the experience and pleasure of working here with these colleagues. So it was not a difficult decision to apply for a job with them when I had graduated. The decisive factor was the working atmosphere. Here, I am a member of a team like a family group in which we all level with each other, giving help as needed and learning a lot from each other. Besides, the offices and labs are modern in their equipment and furnishings, so that working conditions are very pleasant. But even outside work, there are frequent activities to share with colleagues, such as barbecues, cycle rides or toboggan races.“