Connecting Entrepreneurship and Research

StartupAmsterdam and TTT-AI want to bridge the gap between AI academia and the entrepreneurial community. How can a researcher collaborate with different stakeholders? How do you find a business-minded co-founder? How do you assemble a winning team? These and other questions will be answered at the Connecting Entrepreneurship and Research Meetup on the 24th of November.

Who is this event for?

• AI researchers (thinking of) setting up a startup
• AI researchers looking to join a startup
• Entrepreneurs looking for technical co-founders

Programme

• 15:45 Walk-in
• 16:00 Introduction TTT-AI & StartupAmsterdam
• 16:05 Talk #1: Initiating collaborations by Siddique Sheikh (Lab42)
• 16:25 Talk #2: Best practices from an AI spinoff by Bart Geerts
• 16:45 Break
• 16:50 Panel discussion: The importance of a balanced team
• 17:10 Borrel
• 18:20 End

Talk #1: Initiating collaborations by Siddique Sheikh (LAB42)

Siddique grew up in Canada but recently moved to the Netherlands and works as a Business Developer for LAB42. In Canada Siddique worked as Director of Operations for an accelerator for seven years, as well as a business consultant, and taught business courses part-time at a local college. Siddique has many years of experience working with companies to help them grow and manage problems. Siddique primarily works as the Business Developer for LAB42 located at Science Park. He’s responsible for attracting and developing Artificial Intelligent and Digitally Innovative companies to LAB42, among other things to work with researchers and students. Siddique also works on a LTP centred around making the Netherlands a global AI hub. On this project, Siddique is working on creating a SME clinic to help companies become for digitalised through student led consulting projects.

Talk #2: Best practices from an AI spinoff by Bart Geerts (Healthplus.ai)

Bart Geerts is founder and CEO of Healthplus.ai. Bart has a background as a biomedical scientist, anesthesiologist-intensivist and clinical pharmacologist. He has worked in several hospitals such as LUMC, UCLH, Amsterdam UMC and Spaarne gasthuis. In recent years, Bart specializes in creating, validating and implementing AI systems that should support the healthcare provider in her work. He has published in journals such as Nature Medicine and JAMA on this topic. Next year, Healthplus.ai’s first tool, PERISCOPE, will be certified. PERISCOPE reuses EHR data to predict early risk of infectious complications.

Panel discussion: The importance of a balanced team by Paul Groth (INDE Lab, UvA), Marieke Peeters (Mooncake AI) and Heather Devereaux (Slimmer.ai)

It’s often being said that the quality of the team determines the success of a startup. While academics and entrepreneurship seem like a great fit on paper, there are challenges to overcome when bringing both worlds together. In this panel we will dive into these challenges and ask ourselves what are common pitfalls, how can we make it work and why is it essential to bring these worlds together.

Paul Groth is Professor of Algorithmic Data Science at the University of Amsterdam where he leads the Intelligent Data Engineering Lab (INDElab). He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southampton (2007) and has done research at the University of Southern California, the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Elsevier Labs. His research focuses on intelligent systems for dealing with large amounts of diverse contextualized knowledge with a particular focus on web and science applications. This includes research in data provenance, data integration and knowledge sharing. Paul is scientific director of the UvA’s Data Science Center. Additionally, he is co-scientific director of two Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI) labs: The AI for Retail (AIR) Lab – a collaboration between UvA and Ahold Delhaize; and the Discovery Lab – a collaboration between Elsevier, the University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam.

Marieke Peeters has been active in the field of human-centered and responsible AI for over 10 years. She has aqcuired research experience through applied cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, ethics, and user-centred design in the context of socially relvant problems. Through her life she has come to the conclusion that she is a mission-driven person and that for her there is nothing more inportant than contributing to society as it is now and how it could be in the future.

Heather Devereaux is head of Slimmer AI’s Talent and Innovation and is currently scouting for the next great founders and tech talents. For 20 years, Heather has built her career in the tech and information industry. This includes roles in AI product development, sales, marketing, operations, management, HR, recruitment and more. While she’s worn many hats and played many roles, her greatest joy is bringing out the best out of people and; unlocking their potential and helping them delight their customers and wow their markets. Slimmer AI is a venture studio based in Amsterdam. (www.slimmer.ai)