Today's agriculture has little to do with a romantic farm idyll. There is no way around digitalisation in agriculture. Information technology and electronics are already in use in the stable and on the field, and intelligent machines have become an indispensable part of precision farming. The technical progress of recent years has revolutionised agriculture, so that more and more processes, which used to involve laborious manual work, are now automated. With the help of sensors that measure and evaluate data, agriculture can be further optimized so that resources are optimally used. The Dresden-based company "Senorics GmbH" is developing stamp-sized sensors based on the principle of near-infrared spectroscopy that can detect whether and which ingredients are present in what quantities. The Dresden start-up recently raised 2.3 million euros in its seed financing round. Among the investors are the Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen (TGFS), the main investor Ventura Investment GmbH (Ventura) and TUDAG TU Dresden Aktiengesellschaft.

1. Dr. Timmreck, as co-founder of the high-tech spin-off "Senorics GmbH" of TU Dresden, you won the futureSax ideas competition in 2016 with your sensor technology. The sensors developed are to be used in agriculture, among other areas, to determine the degree of ripeness, moisture or protein content of the crop already in the field. Can you briefly explain how the process is implemented in practice?

In fact, the agricultural sector turned out to be an attractive area for us at the beginning, because the applications are already there and the NIR spectroscopy technology we are working with is already being used there. However, today's equipment is very large, heavy and, above all, expensive, so the application is very limited. Our technology offers similar possibilities, namely the analysis of ingredients such as fat, protein, carbohydrates etc. in agricultural products. There are two possibilities: Either you measure during the ripening process to find the right harvest time or you can measure after the harvest to determine the quality of the crop. This can be measured and we are already using it. That's why we initially saw agriculture as an attractive field that promoted it and finally won the futureSax ideas competition. But then we had to see that the agricultural market alone was not a good entry-level market because we needed very high measurement accuracy and the hurdles were greater than we initially thought. For this reason, we also concentrated on other markets, even though agriculture continues to be an issue for us and we are currently working on a concrete project with an agricultural supplier. However, we are now more broadly positioned and are entering various industrial markets, such as the automotive sector, where coolant analysis is involved, and hair analysis in the cosmetics sector in order to be able to offer customers suitable hair care products. The fields of application are therefore broad.

2. How exactly does optical sensor technology work?

In optical measurement, there is a light source, we radiate light onto the object under investigation and the different colors of the light are reflected back differently; some are absorbed, others reflected, creating a kind of spectral fingerprint. Certain substances such as fat, sugar or the like absorb different wavelengths and colors in the non-visible NIR range. For example, sugar and flour look white to the human eye, but in the NIR range both products have different colors. One could attach a small measuring module, approx. 10x10 cm, to a forage harvester; in a car the sensor would have to be even smaller, about the size of a matchbox. If you think even more visionary, you could also integrate this technology into smartphones, so that you could examine your food and measure protein and carbohydrate content.

3. What are the advantages of the new sensor technology in agriculture?

In silage production, for example, it is possible to measure the water content in order to adjust the amount of feed and protein. To date, farmers check the quality of silage by hand, i.e. they squeeze out a small amount in their hand to see whether it contains much or rather little water, and thus roughly estimate the amount of feed. This is, of course, very inaccurate. With sensor technology, accurate data can be read and agriculture can be optimised. Compared to already existing measuring methods, our sensor is much cheaper, smaller and our chip is monolithic and therefore insensitive to vibrations, which you always have to take into account.

4. in which other areas are the sensors used?

In addition to agriculture, they are also used in the automotive sector, process automation, cosmetics as a small special field and in agri-food. In the long term, we see great potential especially in the latter. When setting up a start-up, it is always recommended to set a focus. However, we have noticed that we have to position ourselves more broadly in order to be able to serve various markets and create options for the future.

5. You are also developing a sensory wound dressing that will transmit health data. What is the biggest challenge in developing this product?

The problem here is mainly technological hurdles such as the light source and the power supply. In the medical sector, of course, the product must also meet the strict requirements that are set here. If you have different applications to choose from, you probably won't be the first to choose the medical sector, because the hurdles are simply the highest here. It's a very visionary topic, but we've already had a few discussions with interested parties and certainly a future research topic.

6. What exactly will you use the 2.3 million euros from the seed financing round for?

The basis of our developed technology is already very good and applicable. So we no longer have to carry out basic research. We are now mainly dealing with engineering topics: Miniaturization, transformation into a finished product, away from the prototypes that we have produced so far at the TU Dresden. In the foreseeable future, we want to be able to produce small series and correct series. Chip packaging is a topic here. We also need calibration databases in the area of software, and of course we will also have to increase our personnel in order to be able to sell our product.

7. you have already applied for several patents and received one. What role do patents play in your business model?

For a technology spin-off, patents are the basis par excellence, without patents we would have no chance to get an investor. Patents secure a unique position, the basis for a start-up. Without unique selling points, nobody would invest money. In this respect, patents really do play a decisive role and are essential for our start-up.

8. At the beginning of January 8, 2019, you were at CES in Las Vegas, the world's largest trade fair for consumer electronics. Have you already received inquiries for your invention from the USA?

We've been on the road in the USA for quite some time, and were at CES last year. The interest is definitely there, especially in the field of smartphone technology there is a lot of demand in the USA. In general, we are taking part in various trade fairs, this year still at the SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. In Germany we will definitely be represented at the Hanover Fair and at the Sensor+Test in Nuremberg at the joint stand "Research for the Future".

9. What are your corporate goals for the next 3 to 5 years?

The first goal is to develop a product for our existing customers so that they can integrate the sensor module into their product. For the next 1.5 to 2 years, we want to set up a production facility and then go into production.

10. Can you give advice to future scientists who want to start a start-up on what is important for a successful technology transfer?

I have a lot of tips I could give (smiles). In my opinion, two points are particularly important. One is the team. A start-up lives from its team and investors usually look at it first. A good technology and a bad team won't work, whereas a bad technology and a good team can. This is also the investor's basic premise. Throughout the early phase, you should think carefully about the team composition and be the first in the team to talk about the long-term goals. If they don't fit together, the start-up is doomed to failure. The second point is the research transfer project. We started with the BMWi's EXIST research transfer funding programme. However, many people often regard this as a third-party funded project and cannot fully exploit the potential. My credo was to go into fundraising from the first day of funding and actively build up financing. You can't start that early enough. This takes a long time and you have to learn to present yourself well to investors, to adapt your strategy to the investors and to be pragmatic. I can only encourage anyone who has an invention and is thinking about a spin-off to find out about it. It is a very nice form of exploitation, which is very important for the university and for the founders.