Sascha Ullbrich grew up in a small village in Brandenburg and moved to Dresden in 2007 to start his studies in physics. While attending university he commenced a part-time job at the IAPP (Dresden Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials) and decided to write his diploma thesis about organic solar cells. In 2014 he went on to pursue his PhD, focusing on organic solar cell characterization and organic photodetectors: the technology used in Senorics’ handheld devices.
Sascha started working for Senorics as a researcher in 2018 and became a full-fletched member of the team in 2019. In this interview he will give us insight into the reasons why he joined the company, his main tasks, and his current responsibilities as the company’s Product Manager.
Sascha Ullbrich, Product Manger
What made you decide to work at Senorics?
“I met Ronny, Robert, and Matthias during my time at the IAPP, several years before Senorics was founded. I always enjoyed working at the IAPP as my colleagues were very collaborative, open-minded, and constructive in their feedback. I knew that this attitude and team spirit would be part of Senorics too. Additionally, the technology used at Senorics was part of my research as a PhD student. I took part in characterizing our NIR photodetectors and optimizing them for fast response times. The prospect of transforming this lab technology into a real product was very interesting to me.
So, I knew the technology and I knew the founders, which meant I didn’t have to think long about joining the team when the opportunity emerged.”
What are your main responsibilities at Senorics?
“My main responsibility is to coordinate our product development and specific customer projects. This is a very diverse task as SenoLab comprises of 3 components (hardware, software, and applications) and I need to keep a good overview of current developments.
I’m also responsible for collecting requirements from our customers and align with our technical engineering, software, and data science teams to prioritize the development and plan our product strategy for the upcoming months and years.”
Tell us a bit more about your current tasks.
“At the moment I’m involved in a lot of discussions about the upcoming features for SenoLab. We have a lot of ideas, so we need to discuss the details and prioritize those based on our customers’ needs. For example, we are currently exploring the feasibility of new applications in the textile and yarn industry, but we are also trying to address other markets. Additionally, we are working on new features for the SenoApp.
What makes my job so interesting and challenging, is the fact that software, hardware, and applications are interconnected with each other. So, an improved hardware can offer new possibilities in terms of applications, for example because it is more accurate, but it might also require an updated firmware and software to enable users to use new functions."
SenoCorder with SenoSoft and SenoApp
What is your favorite use case?
"I am a coffee enthusiast and so I would love to see our technology used in the coffee production. There are countless possibilities from bean to beverage in which our technology would come in handy, for example to improve harvest yields, optimize roasting processes and to find optimal brewing parameters. Senorics’ could guarantee that every morning you end up with the perfect cup of coffee.”
Is there anything that you would like to add?
“Senorics has made incredible progress in the past 5 years, and you should definitely watch out for what’s next to come.”
We would like to thank Sascha Ullbrich for taking the time to participate in this interview and for giving us insight into the tasks and responsibilities of a Product Manager at Senorics. If you are currently looking for a new professional challenge, make sure to browse our vacancies and send us your application today. We are looking forward to meeting you.
