Our CeTI team member Florian Wieczorek worked at the Institute for Textile Machinery and High Performance Materials (ITM) at TU Dresden. His scientific work dealt with Smart Textiles, medical textiles and lightweight structures. From April 2019 onwards, the topic of smart textiles occupied him more and more as part of his work at CeTI and thus became his main research focus. In doing so, he focused on the integral manufacturing of such textiles. Recently, Florian Wieczorek left CeTI to commercialize his know-how of Smart Textile manufacturing. In a short farewell interview, he tells us what his new job is all about.
Where are you headed after your time at CeTI and what will you be working on there?
I am a co-founder of Smart Textiles Hub GmbH and run the day-to-day business here, do project management and am still involved in research and development. We are largely a service provider for the development of smart textiles and technical textile products that are tailored to the needs of our customers. In general, we work here on solutions for the medical, lifestyle, sports, tech and gaming sectors.
For smart textiles and technical textiles, we are hitting a gap in the market, as prototyping labs for these areas are rarely set up to industrial standards. In addition, we have a decisive advantage: with our sister company (Born GmbH), we can also put our developments into production right away.
How does this differ from your previous work?
Basically not so much, I think the biggest differences are that in most cases I am commissioned directly by industry and have to write fewer final reports and research proposals. In addition, I am now allowed to lead a team and have responsibility for my co-workers.
What was your highlight at CeTI?
The research topic itself, of course, which has helped me a lot to build up expertise in an innovative field and to gain a certain reputation here. In addition, the interdisciplinary idea of CeTI, through which I was able to meet so many new and interesting people with whom I also enjoyed spending time at the social events.
What was your favorite cafeteria to visit during your employment and why?
My favorite was the organic cafeteria, because they always had very special dishes, sustainability was a high priority, and the vegetarian and vegan options were great as well.
The employees of CeTI wish Florian Wieczorek all the best and a successful time at Smart Textiles Hub GmbH, so that smart textiles will soon find their way into the mainstream.
