Dimitris Pliatsios and Thanasis Liatifis collaborate to solve problems faced by Metamind Innovations. They are both shareholders in one of the most dynamic spin-off companies in Greece, which sprang from the Ithaca Laboratory at the University of Western Macedonia. [Alexandros Avramidis]
Thanasis Liatifis stands in front of the large whiteboard, a marker in his hand, trying to solve an equation. The cold in the city of Kozani, Western Macedonia, is bitter, but he enjoys working in the warmth of the laboratory, along with a cup of coffee. This is the ideal working routine for the electrical and computer engineer and PhD candidate at the University of Western Macedonia.
A few years ago, he could never have believed that he could find a routine like this in Greece, let alone at a regional university. That’s until Metamind Innovations appeared. Liatifis, along with his academic career, works and is a shareholder in one of the most dynamic spin-off companies in Greece. These are ventures that are founded as offshoots of applied research at universities. Metamind Innovations sprang from the Ithaca Laboratory at the University of Western Macedonia, investing in the results of the European programs it implemented on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence and in the know-how acquired by the students who participated in them, such as Liatifis.
It all started in a small, windowless room in the university’s old facilities, where researchers were forced to cram everything they built into boxes to fit. “Now we all have a beautiful workspace. We can do our research more efficiently,” he comments, pointing to the endless rows of boards and cables that create a makeshift 5G network on the large table across from his desk.
By transforming research into products attractive to the market, the Metamind Innovations spin-off currently has offices in Kozani and Thessaloniki, records significant profits and has reached the point of employing 26 employees, 10 of whom are shareholders and the vast majority of whom are graduates of the same university, aged up to 38. The level is extremely high: One in four holds a doctorate, while 75% already hold master’s degrees. “They are the cream of the crop of the country who came from the region and we managed to keep them so that they also have a business interest, and not just a research one. We combine research results with market needs with a clientele that goes beyond the borders of Greece,” notes Panagiotis Sarigiannidis, associate professor at the University of Western Macedonia and initiator and co-founder of Metamind Innovations.
He himself had a dream of going abroad after his studies. Instead, he decided to bring the opportunities found abroad to Greece. His need for extroversion inspired him to collaborate on major European programs with other universities and research centers and then, in 2021, to establish the spin-off, before the legal framework for spin-offs was even voted on.
The services provided by the research team have reached such a level that the company is part of Ukraine’s defensive shield against cyberattacks, mainly targeting energy and transportation infrastructure. “There are areas that remain without electricity for days due to cyberattacks,” Sarigiannidis says, explaining that such moves aim not only to bring down the systems, but also to damage the morale of a people who have now endured more than two years of war. “Without electricity, people suffer: They cannot heat themselves, use the internet, communicate, or work. The attacks are trying to send the message to the people that their government cannot protect them.”
He says cyberattacks against Ukraine are now a daily occurrence and are carried out by groups in Russia, China and North Korea. These are large groups of hackers, with a political orientation and great economic power. Having established cooperation with groups of Ukrainian IT engineers even before the war, Metamind is now a member of a close consortium that, in cooperation with NATO, is working to repel these attacks. “Cyberattacks are constantly evolving and becoming more complex, using new methods. We are trying to help Ukraine by detecting the attack and identifying and analyzing the way it affects the system. In this way, we force the attackers to use a new strategy next time,” Sarigiannidis explains.
The spin-off has developed a communication channel with the Ukrainian forces and is now informed about the attack through encrypted messages and each time offers the appropriate solutions to deal with it, while also calculating its footprint and how it will be isolated before it “infects” other systems.
Panagiotis Radoglou-Grammatikis, 32, one of the company’s founding members, describes working on such a project as a huge experience. “I’ve received phishing emails from Russia,” he says. The young researcher had traveled to Kyiv to meet with his Ukrainian colleagues before the war. “Now they tell us they’re having a hard time. Sometimes they couldn’t even join the teleconferences.”
A Metamind researcher experiments with devices for building networks in the spin-off company’s new, spacious laboratory at the University of Western Macedonia, in Kozani. [Alexandros Avramidis]
Smart agriculture
Metamind is also active in other sectors, focusing on networks and artificial intelligence. It is currently in discussions to expand to the United States, trying to either create its first branch or another type of company, with its products in smart agriculture as a vehicle. “We hope that by 2025 there will be the first branch of a Greek spin-off in the US,” says Sarigiannidis, adding that the company has developed tools in the areas of smart and digitalized agricultural production, such as field monitoring and optimal irrigation systems. As he says, contact has already been made with Texas, an area with a rich clientele, as the agricultural lands there are vast and the farmers have drones and tractors on which the systems developed by the spin-off can be installed.
Talent that stayed in Greece
Asked what the motivation was for doing all this and not just being content with being a professor, but the creator of something much bigger, which will provide them with work and experience, Sarigiannidis answers, “I couldn’t stand the lack of challenges!”
Despite the measurable achievements of the spin-off, for him the greatest achievement of Metamind Innovations is that it kept talented people in northern Greece who until recently would have left directly either to Athens or abroad, by offering them good salaries, opportunities for development and an entrepreneurial spirit.
Dimitris Pliatsios, a postdoctoral researcher and shareholder in the company, who was born and raised in Kozani, feels lucky that he can work in a laboratory with such equipment that allows him to check at any time which of his theoretical ideas are put into practice and to be able to open windows to the whole world from a city in Western Macedonia. “We participate in major conferences and collaborate with large companies and organizations that shape the technologies of tomorrow, the new networks. We could not do this easily either individually or through another company,” he explains.
The company has been set up in such a way that financial incentives are given to the working researchers through the acquisition of shares, to work on its further development. Sarigiannidis’ vision for the future is for the shareholders and employees of the company to gradually develop their own ideas on the technologies they are researching and in turn create new businesses that will be able to employ specialized personnel who graduate from Greek universities.