1. General

Category

Category

Computer Software

2. Project Details

Company or Institution

MEETOPTICS LABS S.L.

Project

MEETOPTICS

General description of the AI solution

MEETOPTICS brings the digitalisation of the Photonics industry (enabling efficient technology) with an AI-powered metasearch and guidance in Photonics.
Photonics is set to become the electronics of the 21st century with an estimated market of $686B, rapidly growing due to its presence in high tech applications ranging from autonomous vehicles, medical devices or quantum computers, among others. However it remains highly fragmented and its technical nature makes it difficult to navigate.

MEETOPTICS began its development with a metasearch engine for optical components with its own technology. It currently has more than 40,000 products with a very wide variety of optical components, has 20,000 unique users and a commercial version since March 2020, with revenues of € 19,600 in 2020, an expected income of € 106,000 in 2021 and € 14.5 million in 2024, being 98% international revenues.

MEETOPTICS is a disruptive solution, unique in the global market, being the first specialized search engine for real-time photonic components thanks to the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms and neural networks allows the global scalability of help and professional and precise technical guidance in this market. Access to MEETOPTICS is online through a web platform and is accessible free of charge to users in order to facilitate their expansion of use.

AI in the form of pattern recognition and prediction anticipates users’ needs and guides them to the best components for their technologies. Moreover, MEETOTPICS aims to create a knowledge hub where users learn through tutorials and technical definitions, ask questions and answer questions, and find services, such as optical design and device assembly. MEETOPTICS’ goal is to become the go-to source of information whether a user wants to find the best lens for their technology or just learn how a polarizer works, a central point of reference for optics and photonics.

Website

https://www.meetoptics.com/

Organisation

MEETOPTICS LABS S.L.

3. Aspects

Excellence and Scientific Quality: Please detail the improvements made by the nominee or the nominees’ team or yourself if your applying for the award, and why they have been a success.

MEETOPTICS is a disruptive solution, unique in the global market, being the first specialized search engine for real-time photonic components. MEETOPTICS has created with its own technology a metasearch engine highly specialized in the field of photonics, which thanks to the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms and neural networks can semantically distinguish and standarise technical specifications of products across suppliers allowing the global scalability of help and professional and precise technical guidance in this market. Access to MEETOPTICS is online through a web platform and is accessible free of charge to users in order to facilitate their expansion of use.
We are applying for 3 provisional patents and we plan to have a family of 7 patents by 2022.

We are transitioning from a mySQL data base to a noSQL data base to provide information relation independency of categorisation. To do that we have created test algorithms that check the quality of the transitioning data. The noSQL database will be embedded into an elastic search to be able to extract information without need of sequencing attributes bringing smart filter statistics and interdependence and a cloud scraper development. MEETOPTICS will bring professionals a flexible intuitive search and guidance of products, we will be able to offer complementary and alternative products and our data base will be effortless expandable to the whole core photonics products industry.

MEETOPTICS makes it easier for expert photonics engineers to find new suppliers of highly specialized components in minutes instead of weeks, while less experienced engineers can find out which are the verified suppliers in the industry, understand how to use photonics in their applications and discover what are the most cutting-edge technologies of the moment. With only 1 year in the market we helped over 25.000 engineers, researchers and innovators with more than 40.000 products.

Scaling of impact to SDGs: Please detail how many citizens/communities and/or researchers/businesses this has had or can have a positive impact on, including particular groups where applicable and to what extent.

Photonics, the technology of light, is a versatile tool with direct impact to our sustainable growth:
1) Light is a clean energy that replaces current technologies based on high CO2 consumption (i.e.: measuring crop qualities in large field using light images instead of tractors);
2) Light improves technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases (i.e.: used for precise surgery, to measure non-invasively blood flows & obstructions and cure them);
3) Light helps in the anticipation of natural disasters (i.e: used to mesure large distances air flows and chemical composition & tectonic plaques movements);
4) Light measures water quality with cheap and flexible implementable systems event in isolated environments;
5) Light contributes to the generation of clean energy via solar-cells panels;
6) Light allows global internet access via its 5G and 6G contribution;
7) Light permits secure communication and sustainable computation power due to the new creation of quantum computer technologies; etc.

This is why we created MEETOPTICS. To help the community build photonics more efficiently.

MEETOPTICS is globally accessible via an online platform. The AI algorithms development guide engineers, researchers and innovators choosing the appropriate technology for their application, reducing inefficient trials, waste of time and resources. Moreover, the AI algorithms bring an understanding of the technology demand, helping manufacturers produce responsible according the demand and avoiding overproduction.

In addition, MEETOPTICS is created with the bases of Gender Equality (SDG 5), Decent word and economic growth (SDG 8), to bring Industry Innovation and sustainable Infrastructure (SDG 9). Helping build photonics more efficiently impacts to detect water quality (SDG 6), develop Affordable clean energy (SDG 7), reduce inequalities (SGD 10), build sustainable cities and communities reducing the CO2 consumption (SDG 11), help responsible consumption and industrial production (SDG 12), and detect climate changes to enforce climate action (SDG 13).

Scaling of AI solution: Please detail what proof of concept or implementations can you show now in terms of its efficacy and how the solution can be scaled to provide a global impact ad how realistic that scaling is.

Photonics is set to become the electronics of the 21st century with an estimated market of $686B, rapidly growing due to its presence in high tech applications ranging from autonomous driving, medical devices or quantum computers, among others. However it remains highly fragmented and its technical nature makes it difficult to navigate.
MEETOPTICS makes photonics accessible thanks to its highly customizable and highly specialised search engine (more than 40.000 products) that saves months of searching time while approaching photonics manufactures to their customers, and the rest of specialized services that make all the photonics value chain easier and faster for engineers.

The AI-powered platform, guides professionals to find, filter and sort components according to their own preferences, technical needs and search criteria over 30 specifications crucial for setup performance from trusted suppliers worldwide.

The scaling up of the platform to reach millions of engineers and scientists rely on the development of the AI algorithms involving experts in photonics and software development. To avoid biases on the development, MEETOPTICS has been build with more than 1100 professionals' feedback willing to bring an efficient solution to the technical and scientific community. This community is also willing to openly share their knowledge to others with the aim to improve our future developments, thus, our society.

With the aim to create a global solution, MEETOPTICS platform gathers professionals 51% from Europe, 32% from America and 15% from Asia, working in R&D departments of companies like Volkswagen, Philips, Intuitive Surgical, Imec, ASML, Ocean Insight or universities and research centres like Berkeley, Max Plank Institute, amongst others.

The created AI algorithms in the photonics industry can extended to be applied to other technical fields like robotics, blockchain, electronics and biology, where the access to this field encounters high knowledge barriers due to its complexity.

Ethical aspect: Please detail the way the solution addresses any of the main ethical aspects, including trustworthiness, bias, gender issues, etc.

The initially addressed markets are Europe and North America, markets where the founding partners have a wide variety of strategic alliances thanks to their previous professional experience. The development of the project will expand into the Asia Pacific market in 2022. Afterwards, MEETOPTICS plans an expansion to the Global South providing a solution that includes second-hand high-quality equipment and donations to developing countries to enforce their technological development.

MEETOPTICS gathers content created and validated by the community under their consent. This content is freely distributed to enrich others and help them develop their technologies more efficiently. Before releasing professionals comments, the content is reviewed and only accepted when purely explains or questions technical concepts. Initially, for simplicity and due to lack of resources, the comments are exclusively provided in English. This will change with the expansion of MEETOPTICS to decrease the entry barriers to professionals worldwide. In 2023 the platform will be translated to 23 languages already and the AI algorithms adapted and tested in the new addressed countries.

The current team consists of 7 highly qualified professionals, 3 of them have a Ph.D and 3 of them are women. In line with future investment rounds, MEETOPTICS will invest mainly in R&D to continue developing the technology, reaching 51 people in 2025.
The ultimate goal of MEETOPTICS is to achieve a multidisciplinary team that achieves excellence and professional diversity, encouraging job creation in the science and technology industry and other associated industrial sectors.
To ensure a team with a significant presence of women, MEETOPTICS applies several measures, like first, looking for talent in non-traditional ways through bootcamps where there is much more supply of women specialising in software development. Second, minimize gender discrimination or other under-represented groups in the selection process through assessment based on standardized questions and exercises that objectively qualify technical skills. Third, participation of at least one woman in decision-making processes during the interview, among other. Fourth, giving transparency to salaries across the team.