December 2019

Two startups from Thessaloniki, which have been distinguished at the MIT Enterprise Forum Greece competition, have expanded to the US. The two startups, Twiddle and AidPlex, are based in Thessaloniki, where their research activity will remain, even if their headquarters are moved to the US for business-related reasons. Each company’s course of action was presented at the ‘’MITEF Greece Startup Competition 2020’’ which was co-organized by the MIT Enterprise Forum Greece and the Alexander Innovation Zone.

Twiddle

Twiddle was founded in October and uses Artificial Intelligence to recommend and position the best matching sound effects and music in videos. Content creation, e.g. video, has gained tremendous momentum and is expected to grow even further, while the number of professional editors and amateur vloggers, youtubers, and influencers on social media is constantly increasing. Choosing the right sound requires time for research, expertise, knowledge and, of course, money. Twiddle responds to these needs by using Artificial Intelligence to read the video, recommend and position the best matching sound effects and music. A mobile application has already been created for the time being, while the studio version which will be able to run on a PC and target mainly professionals will be released in the near future.

Aidplex

AidPlex aims to provide the best therapy experience and make it accessible to everyone. The company first started dealing with fractures. Its founders set themselves a challenge: to reduce the time needed for a splint to be fully set from 30 minutes to 3 minutes. And they did it by creating their own thermoplastic splint that heats up and adapts to the musculoskeletal characteristics of the individual to be ready for use. Aid Plex delivers high quality treatment as the splint is waterproof and can be reused. The first splints were made with 3D printing to make the necessary changes, while the following ones with laser cutting. The next product the company is making is a scoliosis brace that helps children suffering from this problem fight it.

The Region of Central Macedonia presents the Innovation Ecosystem ‘’One Stop Liaison Office’’ to businesses participating in a series of actions to foster innovative entrepreneurship. The aim is to develop the Region of Central Macedonia into the friendliest region in the country for innovation, entrepreneurship and investment, to which Alexander Innovation Zone’s action in Thessaloniki contributes. The dynamic presence of the Independent Directorate of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Support of the Region of Central Macedonia was prominent in its participation in two more important actions for the promotion of innovation which took place in September 2019 in Thessaloniki.

The most emblematic action of the region’s innovation and entrepreneurship support mechanism is the One Stop Liaison Office. The purpose of this office is to play a key role in mediating between the market, research and public administration. In addition, it is responsible for monitoring and evaluating the interventions of the Smart Specialization Strategy in the Region of Central Macedonia. It is an intervention that aims and contributes to attracting investment, utilizing the knowledge generated, generating new income, creating new jobs and boosting entrepreneurship.

According to the Region of Central Macedonia, the driving force behind these developments has been the importance that the European Commission has attached to the digitization of the European industry over the last years. The Commission’s will is the cornerstone of the emergence of digital innovation hubs in one of the key tools of the new ‘’Digital Europe’’ funding programme which is to be launched in the new Programme Period, 2021-2027. This policy seeks to upgrade the quality of all services provided to the European citizen through digital transformation.

Aiming at facilitating the return of Greek scientists who work abroad and the development of long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships between Universities of Greece, USA and Canada, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is participating in the third cycle of the ‘’Greek Diaspora Fellowship Program’’. Following its successful participation in the first two cycles of the program, AUTh is participating in the third cycle with seven innovative research programs, among the 37 research proposals that were selected. Therefore, Thessaloniki, the Greek ‘’city of innovation’’, will host Greek diaspora scientists who will utilize their ideas and methods in Greece.

The ‘’Greek Diaspora Fellowship Program’’ enables Greek universities to host Greek scientists-academics working in the US, Canada, and South Africa with the aim of conducting collaborative research, developing joint curricula, and graduate or undergraduate student research mentoring and teaching. The program is funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and is managed by the US Institute of International Education in collaboration with the Fulbright Foundation in Greece.

Specifically, AUTh’s scholars in charge, titles of the selected programs, and scholars from the US and Canada who have been awarded fellowships are:

• Christos Hadjidoukas, Assistant Professor at the Chemical Engineering Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, will host Dr. George Filippidis from the University of South Florida (USF) in the framework of the ‘’Collaborative Research in Algae for Production of Biofuels and Bioproducts’’ programme.
• Konstantinos Chrysafis, Professor at the Department of Physics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, will host Dr. Xanthippi Chatzistavrou from Michigan State University in the framework of the ‘’ Next generation bioactive and antibacterial glass-ceramics for tissue healing and regeneration’’ programme.
• Evangelos Efthymiou, Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, will host Dr. Sofia Gavridou from the University of California in the framework of the ‘’ TAll BUilding Structural Design (TABU): Collaborative Research‚ Curriculum Co-development and Graduate Research Mentoring and Teaching’’ programme.
• The Department of Biology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki along with Dimitris Kardasis, Professor at the Medical School of the University of Crete, and the Department of Medicine of the University of Patras, will host Constantinos Drosatos, Professor at Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in the framework of the ‘’ Fostering Metabolic Biology research in three Greek Universities via research collaborations‚ graduate teaching and student mentoring’’ programme.
• Maria Kosmidou, Professor at the Department of Psychology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, will host Dr. Alexandra Touroutoglou from Harvard Medical School in the framework of the ‘’Fostering clinical neuroscience training and research at AUTh through fMRI experiments‚ curriculum development and mentoring: Phase II’’ programme.
• Christoforos Kotsakis, Professor at the Department of Agronomy and Surveying Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, will host Dr. Dimitrios Bolkas from the Pennsylvania State University Commonwealth Campus in the framework of the ‘’ Collaborative Research on Improved Algorithms for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) Data Analysis in Aerial Photogrammetry and Earth Surveying Applications’’ programme.
• Sotirios Natsiavas, Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki will host Dr. Alexandros Vakakis from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the framework of the ‘’ On the application of NES (nonlinear energy sinks) to railway bridges; Collaborative research on the application of NES to complex mechanical systems including moving mass and unilateral and bilateral constraints; Co-Develop a system for vibration control and damage limitation of bridges; Collaboration of research groups’’ programme.

The online and mobile app services company Infalia has left its imprint in dozens of cities around the world over the last years through the application ‘’Improve My City’’, enabling citizens to bypass bureaucracy and participate in the creation of a better urban daily life. The ‘’Improve My City’’ application is currently installed in over 30 cities around the world; from Corsica, where Biguglia residents inform the municipality about street potholes, to Namibia, where residents complain about delays in recharging aquifers through the application. At the moment, Infalia is in contact with Bangkok, Thailand, and Lagos, Nigeria, so as to spread and install the application there as well.

So far this application, which is essentially an open-source software (provided free of charge but is subject to maintenance and support fees), has been downloaded by over 4,000 bodies worldwide. Since 2016, the Municipality of Thessaloniki, which also uses the application, has received 60,000 requests from 13,000 users, paving the way for an interactive relationship and a better city.

Infalia started in 2014 as a spin-off company of the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies (IPTIL) of the National Center for Research and Technological Development (CERTH) and began to commercialize some of the Institute’s research projects. Today 80% of the company’s sales take place in foreign markets, while its presence is constantly expanding in Greece, where 10 municipalities have already adopted the platform to get to know their citizens better and solve their issues.

Apart from smart city applications, the Thessaloniki based company has also significantly developed the field of data science by providing social media online content analysis services – for example, it performs multimedia content analysis for fake news detection – as well as visualization of big data analysis for policy makers, while it is getting ready to enter the area of cyber-security. It is currently involved in a major European collaborative project, Spider, which focuses on the study of 5G protocol and the possible cyber-attacks the introduction of this new technology will cause. In the framework of this involvement, Infalia is aspiring to create new services in this field, so as to be a pioneer in providing protection against cyber-attacks, but also offering IT experts training on the subject.