Their innovative applications were presented by three distinguished “MIT Innovators Under 35 Europe”, in the context of the 1st MIT “EmTech Europe” in Greece, which takes place on January 17 and 18 at the Athens Concert Hall, in collaboration with Kathimerini newspaper.

Specifically, Yiannis Assael, scientist-researcher at Google DeepMind, who has also been distinguished in Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30 Europe”, Frederiki Michailidou, scientist and entrepreneur, who has been a lecturer at ETH Zurich, and Angelos Tsereklas -Zafirakis, managing director of SOTIRIA Technology and “MIT Innovator Under 35 Europe spoke with Ted Hu, Senior Manager of International Partnerships at MIT Technology Review.

Mr. Assael told how he decided in 2014 to get involved in isolating external noises from devices that recognize the human voice, which led to the creation of a startup, which was subsequently acquired. Referring to his role at Google DeepMind, he talked about the application “Ithaca”, which “fills in” the gaps in ancient inscriptions. Applying deep learning models provides valuable insights to researchers and historians. “Since history has a tendency to repeat itself, we can use it to predict the future,” he explained.

Mrs. Michailidou she talked about her passion for chemistry and how it led her from Ioannina to Zurich. She spoke about her research into the chemistry and sustainability of fragrances, pointing out that their market “involves thousands of ingredients and is worth $16.1 billion.” She had set as her goal the production of sustainable perfumes and for this reason she used scientific experiments without intrusive technology, while she studied the social impact, i.e. the acceptance or not of these new perfumes in product terms.

Mr. Tsereklas-Zafirakis, he mentioned the development by ‘Sotiria’ of special sensors, and explained how we can use them in underwater technologies. He noted that “underwater not all technologies are functional” and referred to the sabotage of the Nordstream pipeline and the possibility of similar damage to critical underwater infrastructure. He pointed out that “Sotiria” uses magnetic sensors that send data to land with many uses, such as in defense technology. This particular technology is linked to the objectives for the sustainability of marine life, as it gives passive solutions that do not cause pollution or nuisance.

In the discussion that followed, the three scientists praised the role of the honorary degree they received from MIT in broadening their horizons and insisted that their return to Greece is related to the availability of supply in their home country.