Hello Miriam, could you please introduce yourself?
I am Miriam Huijser, I am 28 years old and I am Co-Founder & CTO as well as Head of Research at Aiir Innovations. I hold a master’s degree cum laude in Artificial intelligence from the University of Amsterdam and I currently live in Spain with my partner.
In my spare time, I love traveling, engaging in activities in nature and finding fun ways to nurture creativity.
The market of borescope inspections is a very specialized one, why did you select it?
We were advised that it was impossible so we accepted the challenge and here we are!
On a more serious note though, it was a lucky alignment of several factors including our expertise in computer vision and the opportunity spotted during a student project at KLM. We found an interesting opportunity, investigated it further and eventually decided to launch our own adventure.
As CTO and Head of Research, do you collaborate with universities?
Yes indeed! We have been supervising student projects from the AI programs at University of Amsterdam and TU Delft since we started and continue to do so.
Additionally, one of our co-founders, Jan, is heading the Computer Vision Lab at the Delft University of Technology, which is also one of the top European universities in the Aerospace industry. I make time to read new research papers in my weekly work routine and build mutually beneficial relationships with other researchers and universities.
What is the company culture like at Aiir Innovations?
Aiir Innovations is a young company with a strong culture. We focus on creating a great work environment by encouraging values such as learning, communication, respect, trust, customer satisfaction and optimism.
Everyone is entitled to express their feelings without judgment nor fear of office politics. We strive to continually better ourselves and input is welcomed from all team members, new and old.
How do you attract new talents?
The struggle is real for startups and small companies fighting against big corporations to attract new talent. However, we market some of our strengths such as being a diverse team, working in a relaxed environment and remote work options and hope for the best. We have been lucky so far!
Our employees are encouraged to travel and work from a new country for a couple of months. We appreciate the value of experiencing new cultures, new people and discovering new parts of oneself. I’d say it is a win-win.
Thank you Miriam