ERC 2016 Info Session ERC-PoC Testimony Danaë Delbeke, PhD, IOF BD manager PLATEAU - Photonics Innovation Center Ghent University September 15 2015

Résumé Danaë Delbeke, PhD IOF Technology and Business Development Manager TT and BD in the field of Photonics at UGent Consortium: Plateau @ UGent (21 ZAP, 250 researchers) Managing IP portfolio (> 50 patents) International and national industrial collaborations BD coordination of incubation projects 3 spin-offs and 4 spin-off incubation projects Entrepreneurial lectures 6 ERC grants in Plateau (finished and ongoing, excl PoC) 5 ERC-PoC e.g. ERC- PoC www.plateau-photonics.eu Confidential

ERC-PoC guidelines The ERC Proof of Concept Grants aim to maximise the value of the excellent research that the ERC funds, by funding further work (i.e. activities which were not scheduled to be funded by the original ERC frontier research grant) to verify the innovation potential of ideas arising from ERC funded projects. The objective is to provide funds to enable ERC-funded ideas to be brought to a pre-demonstration stage where potential commercialisation opportunities have been identified. verify Confirm/ establish www.plateau-photonics.eu Confidential

ERC-PoC guidelines Verify and establish the innovation potential of their idea during the pre-demonstration phase by (12M, 150 Keuro): establishing viability, technical issues and overall direction Market research clarifying IPR position and strategy providing feedback for budgeting and other forms of commercial discussion providing connections to later stage funding covering initial expenses for establishing a company www.plateau-photonics.eu Confidential

Example ERC-PoC: CUP The idea ERC-Starting Grant NaResCo (Prof. P. Bienstman): photonic reservoir computing We will develop nanophotonic reservoir computing as a novel paradigm for massively parallel information processing. Reservoir computing is a recently proposed methodology from the field of machine learning and neural networks, which has been used successfully in several pattern classification problems, like speech and image recognition. However, it has so far been used mainly in a software implementation, which limits its speed and power efficiency. Photonics could provide an excellent platform for such a hardware implementation, because of the presence of unique non-linear dynamics in photonics components due to the interplay of photons and electrons, and because light also has a phase in addition to an amplitude, which provides for an important additional degree of freedom as opposed to a purely electronic hardware implementation. www.plateau-photonics.eu Confidential

Example ERC-PoC: CUP The idea ERC-Starting Grant NaResCo (Prof. P. Bienstman): photonic reservoir computing Caphe: software developed in the framework of NaResCo to facilitate the simulation of photonic reservoir computing We will develop nanophotonic reservoir computing as a novel paradigm for massively parallel information processing. Reservoir computing is a recently proposed methodology from the field of machine learning and neural networks, which has been used successfully in several pattern classification problems, like speech and image recognition. However, it has so far been used mainly in a software implementation, which limits its speed and power efficiency. Photonics could provide an excellent platform for such a hardware implementation, because of the presence of unique non-linear dynamics in photonics components due to the interplay of photons and electrons, and because light also has a phase in addition to an amplitude, which provides for an important additional degree of freedom as opposed to a purely electronic hardware implementation. www.plateau-photonics.eu Confidential

Example ERC-PoC: CUP The idea ERC-Starting Grant NaResCo (Prof. P. Bienstman): photonic reservoir computing Caphe: software developed in the framework of NaResCo to facilitate the simulation of photonic reservoir computing ERC-PoC CUP (12M): PoC extending the software to bring it to commercialisiation in fields outside of photonic reservoir computing. Innovation potential: Caphe is aimed at narrowing the "design gap" experienced by photonic IC designers today Unexistent today. We will develop nanophotonic reservoir computing as a novel paradigm for massively parallel information processing. Reservoir computing is a recently proposed methodology from the field of machine learning and neural networks, which has been used successfully in several pattern classification problems, like speech and image recognition. However, it has so far been used mainly in a software implementation, which limits its speed and power efficiency. Photonics could provide an excellent platform for such a hardware implementation, because of the presence of unique non-linear dynamics in photonics components due to the interplay of photons and electrons, and because light also has a phase in addition to an amplitude, which provides for an important additional degree of freedom as opposed to a purely electronic hardware implementation. www.plateau-photonics.eu Confidential

Example ERC-PoC: CUP Caphe is aimed at narrowing the "design gap" experienced by photonic IC designers today

Example ERC-PoC: CUP Expected impact (at the moment of application) Economic/societal benefits Bridging the design gap: making better and faster design cycles possible Commercialization process The final exploitation strategy can be either through a new university spin-off company or licensing to an existing software vendor. Preliminary business plan Competition, users/customers, IPR and license model, etc www.plateau-photonics.eu Confidential

Example ERC-PoC: CUP The proof of concept plan (application + in facts) development of a roadmap Technical/product plan and business plan Financial plan and partner selection technical improvements to make the tool commercially viable demonstrate and document user cases (alpha-customers). elaboration of a licensing scheme (pre-commercial and commercial) www.plateau-photonics.eu Confidential

Example ERC-PoC: CUP Budget Post-doc (100%) Software engineer (60%) (did his PhD in the framework of ERC-Starting Grant) Software engineer (60%) Industrial expert (future CEO) (5%) (small amount of working costs) www.plateau-photonics.eu Confidential

Example ERC-PoC: CUP Spin-off: Luceda Established in 2014 Photonics IC design software Incubated 2-3 months after ERC-PoC CUP finished 6 people active Licensing Caphe software from UGent www.plateau-photonics.eu Confidential