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this is openuc2
we stand for
Open Source
Rapid Prototyping
Creativity
Cost-Effective
Open Science
Automation
WHO WE ARE
OUR TEAM
Dr. Benedict Diederich
Frustrated with always having to invent optical setups from scratch, and inspired by rapid prototyping tools in electronics, Benedict is trying to make optics and microscopy a standard tool for everyone. Always curious about problems and their solutions, he is the tinkerer behind optics, electronics, software and beyond.
Haoran Wang
Haoran is keen on dismantle and rebuild devices for new functions. Motivated from the open-source microscope concept, he makes efforts on design, build, trouble-shooting and standardize diverse optical microscopes and brings it to the market.
Dr. Benedict Diederich
Frustrated with always having to invent optical setups from scratch, and inspired by rapid prototyping tools in electronics, Benedict is trying to make optics and microscopy a standard tool for everyone. Always curious about problems and their solutions, he is the tinkerer behind optics, electronics, software and beyond.
Haoran Wang
Haoran is keen on dismantle and rebuild devices for new functions. Motivated from the open-source microscope concept, he makes efforts on design, build, trouble-shooting and standardize diverse optical microscopes and brings it to the market.
Sebastian Trampenau
Sebastian takes care of openUC2’s finances, sales and marketing. He helped scaling up several Startups across Germany and loves cars – especially if they are fast! Open hardware has to be a sustainable business to reach many people, and Sebastian makes sure it is, so that our instruments get to labs, schools and companies worldwide.
Christian
The realization that all electronics are essentially made of a limited set of building blocks empowers Christian to design increasingly ambitioned circuits out of curiosity. He has knowledge and just enough experience in a wide variety of fields to use them for creative problem solving – there is a high chance that any new problem is just a combination of problems seen before in one of his many, many pet projects. At openUC2, Christian is spearheading the design of electronics that are as modular and quick to use as UC2’s cube-ified optical components.
Stephan
Stephan builds robots, programs them and makes them work as part of larger systems. He combines Arkitekt, ImSwitch and all kinds of automation to bring our lab automation setups to live. He is studying at the EAH in Jena. At openUC2, Stephan brings robot arms and our modular instruments together, so that setups can be handled, assembled and run automatically.
Christian
The realization that all electronics are essentially made of a limited set of building blocks empowers Christian to design increasingly ambitioned circuits out of curiosity. He has knowledge and just enough experience in a wide variety of fields to use them for creative problem solving – there is a high chance that any new problem is just a combination of problems seen before in one of his many, many pet projects. At openUC2, Christian is spearheading the design of electronics that are as modular and quick to use as UC2’s cube-ified optical components.
Stephan
Stephan builds robots, programs them and makes them work as part of larger systems. He combines Arkitekt, ImSwitch and all kinds of automation to bring our lab automation setups to live. He is studying at the EAH in Jena. At openUC2, Stephan brings robot arms and our modular instruments together, so that setups can be handled, assembled and run automatically.
Jens
Christine
Christine runs production at openUC2 and knows that quality is decided long before a box is packed. From incoming parts to the final test, Christine makes sure that every cube and every FRAME microscope leaves Jena the way it was designed, and takes care of product certification.
Jens
Christine
Christine runs production at openUC2 and knows that quality is decided long before a box is packed. From incoming parts to the final test, Christine makes sure that every cube and every FRAME microscope leaves Jena the way it was designed, and takes care of product certification.
Ethan
Computers were a mistake, and at the same time we rely on them to help us do important work. Because Ethan is familiar with how painful software can be – including a nontrivial amount of software which Ethan had previously inflicted upon themselves – now they take responsibility for developing and maintaining openUC2’s open-source software systems to give you strong foundations for doing important work.
Florian
Florian believes that complex ideas become truly powerful only when they are accessible to everyone. With a background in computer science and education, he builds bridges between code, hardware, and people — from web interfaces and cloud backends to classroom experiments and documentation. At openUC2, he focuses on creating intuitive, scalable software and workflows that make open science tools easier to use, teach, and love.
Ethan
Computers were a mistake, and at the same time we rely on them to help us do important work. Because Ethan is familiar with how painful software can be – including a nontrivial amount of software which Ethan had previously inflicted upon themselves – now they take responsibility for developing and maintaining openUC2’s open-source software systems to give you strong foundations for doing important work.
Florian
Florian believes that complex ideas become truly powerful only when they are accessible to everyone. With a background in computer science and education, he builds bridges between code, hardware, and people — from web interfaces and cloud backends to classroom experiments and documentation. At openUC2, he focuses on creating intuitive, scalable software and workflows that make open science tools easier to use, teach, and love.
Haiyue
Haiyue connects code with hardware and considers a system finished only when it has been measured. Haiyue built our AI design assistant, which links language models to the optical simulation software Optiland so that UC2 setups can be laid out and optimised automatically. At openUC2, Haiyue validates and benchmarks our systems before they reach users.
Manuel
Manuel turns lens prescriptions into instruments that can actually be built. As a core developer of Optiland, the open-source alternative to Zemax for optical design, Manuel brings years of scientific programming and physical simulation, and is doing a PhD in optical design at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. At openUC2, Manuel leads optical design and the development of Optikit, our design tool that turns any optical design into cubes, holders and a ray-traced digital twin.
Haiyue
Haiyue connects code with hardware and considers a system finished only when it has been measured. Haiyue built our AI design assistant, which links language models to the optical simulation software Optiland so that UC2 setups can be laid out and optimised automatically. At openUC2, Haiyue validates and benchmarks our systems before they reach users.
Manuel
Manuel turns lens prescriptions into instruments that can actually be built. As a core developer of Optiland, the open-source alternative to Zemax for optical design, Manuel brings years of scientific programming and physical simulation, and is doing a PhD in optical design at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. At openUC2, Manuel leads optical design and the development of Optikit, our design tool that turns any optical design into cubes, holders and a ray-traced digital twin.
Christian
With years of experience in optical setup creation, software design and lab experiments, he is currently pushing the developments of our new software NewSwitch. He is critical about system integrity and supports the mision of optics for everyone.
Johannes
He is the brainchild of Arkitekt – the software equivalent of the modular openUC2 system. He is a physician with a background in pathology who has been writing code since childhood. He created Arkitekt, the open platform that lets microscopes, robots and analysis software work together in real-time workflows, and leads a group for smart microscopy at Johannes Kepler University Linz. At openUC2, Johannes connects our instruments to Arkitekt and to AI agents so that they can run on their own, co-develops Optikit, and works on making data integrity easy for everyone with the ISCC standard.
Christian
With years of experience in optical setup creation, software design and lab experiments, he is currently pushing the developments of our new software NewSwitch. He is critical about system integrity and supports the mision of optics for everyone.
Johannes
He is the brainchild of Arkitekt – the software equivalent of the modular openUC2 system. He is a physician with a background in pathology who has been writing code since childhood. He created Arkitekt, the open platform that lets microscopes, robots and analysis software work together in real-time workflows, and leads a group for smart microscopy at Johannes Kepler University Linz. At openUC2, Johannes connects our instruments to Arkitekt and to AI agents so that they can run on their own, co-develops Optikit, and works on making data integrity easy for everyone with the ISCC standard.
Dirk
Having spent years working with scientists and users in research and routine laboratories, particularly in biochemistry, he understands the practical challenges they face. At openUC2, he brings technology and real-world applications together, connecting developers with the people who use their solutions. He is familiar with our cubes and FRAMEs and enjoys exploring how they can be adapted to different needs in research and education. His goal is to help make openUC2 a useful and accessible tool for labs and classrooms around the world.
You?
We are always looking for motivated people!
Dirk
Having spent years working with scientists and users in research and routine laboratories, particularly in biochemistry, he understands the practical challenges they face. At openUC2, he brings technology and real-world applications together, connecting developers with the people who use their solutions. He is familiar with our cubes and FRAMEs and enjoys exploring how they can be adapted to different needs in research and education. His goal is to help make openUC2 a useful and accessible tool for labs and classrooms around the world.
You?
We are always looking for motivated people!
Our Partners
Public funding
Some of our projects are supported through public funding programmes.
RUnFAST
RUnfAST develops rapid AST to reduce antibiotic resistance.
The project aims to diagnose antimicrobial resistance from patient samples by performing sample processing, measurement and data analysis sequentially. In AP1, a standardised interface for seamless device integration is being developed. AP4 focuses on the development of an automatic Raman sample preparation system that safely transports samples between measurement stations to increase efficiency and accuracy. In AP7, a demonstrator is being built to validate the system on real patient samples in order to confirm its reliability.
Funding notice:
This project is funded by the federal state of Thuringia.
OptiKit
FTI-Thüringen TECHNOLOGIE
the modular platform for planning and simulating optical systems for research and teaching
With the modular platform ‘Opt2Kit’, we are developing an integrated system for the digital planning, simulation and implementation of optical setups. Users can configure and simulate optical systems without any prior knowledge and order them as real modules. The platform combines existing hardware with an AI-supported configurator, open marketplace and CAD export for 3D printing or CNC. The aim is to promote research, teaching and development in the long term through low-threshold access to optical solutions and to accelerate innovation.
Funding notice:
This project is funded by the federal state of Thuringia.