Dr. Stefan Schünemann - new managing director of the automobile research centre IKAM

 

What sounds like a dream one moment, can actually become reality. The foundation of the research centre IKAM (Institut für Kompetenz in Automobilität (Institute for Competence in Automobility)) is a first in the cooperation between industry and research and is unique in Germany. "Two bodies are responsible for the institute. In our laboratories, in IGZ Barleben (Innovations- und Gründerzentrum (Innovation and Founder Centre) research can be carried out together with business in conditions close to industrial reality. "At our site in Magdeburg we will carry out necessary fundamental research together with the Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg. Through this collaboration, we can together continue to successfully build research skills in the field of automobiles. We already have the most modern drive train test benches for hybrid and electric vehicles which provide us with undreamt of opportunities for testing. No other sector will face such profound upheaval in the coming years as the automobile and supply industry, due to the introduction of new propulsion methods and concepts for vehicles."

Stefan Schünemann answers the question of why he, as a trained electrical engineer who was born in Halle, wants to set himself this great challenge in Saxony-Anhalt, although he could have reached for the stars (in the truest sense of the word) without hesitation, "after my degree in information technology at the Ilmenau University of Technology in Thuringia, I started working on a major scientific project for a mission to mars at the institute for planetary sensors of the German Aerospace Centre in Berlin. We were involved in producing a camera for mapping the surface of Mars "It was very exciting, just as many developments of space travel which we now take for granted in everyday life continue to fascinate me. For example take the cordless screwdriver or the crisps packet covered in foil", says Stefan Schünemann grinning."In 1995 I came to the Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg as a research associate and completed my doctorate at the faculty for electrical engineering and information technology. The intensive cooperation with other disciplines at that time attracted me to Saxony-Anhalt. Today, there is also the interaction with business and industry, or in short the transfer of knowledge and technology."

As well as being happy in his personal life (his son Jerrit is now exactly two years four months old), doctor Stefan Schünemann found his working domain in Magdeburg. "/Taking cooperation between industry and science to new heights is a privilege for an engineer. I am up up for this challenge"

The companies in the supply region established the cluster MAHREG Automotive to represent their group interests and potential some time ago and have, step by step, developed several active networks. Since 2006 research into automobiles at the Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg has concentrated on the area of research, automotives, supported by 13 different institutes. Both successful initiatives have provided the basis for the new institute.

Author: Dagmar Perschke

 

Contact

IKAM GmbH

Managing Director: Dr. Stefan Schünemann

Tel.: 0049 (0) 39203 82221

info@ikam-md.de