Developed for space and applied today in pharma, Rombio, the flagship solution of the spin-off Genko uses artificial intelligence to plan company operations and maximize their production capacity.
From November 11 to 17, it is global entrepreneurship week. The opportunity to highlight one of the recent success stories of promoting the research carried out within UCLouvain. Genko is a spin-off that puts artificial intelligence at the service of planning the operations of companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and hospital sectors.
Still very often managed using Excel files, the planning aspect of operations in these companies is being revolutionized by technology developed as part of Michael Saint-Guillain’s doctoral thesis. “ Rombio uses artificial intelligence to find the best possible schedule for its user. AI will be able to compare and consider many more plans and possible solutions than a human being. And this is how we find ourselves able to maximize production capacity while taking into account all of the fundamental operational constraints that are very important when it comes to producing drugs or vaccines. For example », explains the former student of the Polytechnic Faculty of Louvain.
Technology from Mars
During his doctorate under the supervision of Professor Yves Deville*Michael Saint-Guillain had the opportunity to participate in the UCLouvain Mars mission in 2018. “ My role was to plan and manage the operations for the various research projects that had to be carried out during this mission.. We were 8 crew members each with a finite set of experiments and tasks to complete”remembers the founder of Genko. “ I modeled each project and optimized things according to equipment usage needs and time constraints, while taking into account unforeseen events, so that everyone could have the opportunity to do everything during the mission time. “. At the end of this, Michael Saint-Guillain, spotted by the head of artificial intelligence research at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), collaborated with the prestigious American space agency, notably for the planning of the rover’s operations. Perseverance as part of the Mars 2020 mission.
From research to entrepreneurship
With his technology and algorithms under his belt, proclaimed doctor of engineering sciences and technologies, Michael Saint-Guillain decides to continue his path towards entrepreneurship. Accompanied by LouvainTRANSFER and thanks to Innoviris funding, it transfers its technology to the pharmaceutical sector. “ At this point I had to adapt the algorithm and develop a user interface to make the technology accessible for future customers », explains the young entrepreneur. “ Between the end of my thesis in 2019 and the first marketable version, there was a period of 3.5 years of co-development with Takeda which became our first client in 2023 “. Since then, the spin-off has continued to attract new companies in the pharmaceutical sector. “ And for the past year, we have also been working with hospitals. Rombio makes it possible, for example, to optimize the planning of nurses, the use of operating rooms or even the sterilization flow. ».
Towards infinity and beyond
The young UCLouvain spin-off is on the rise. Rombio has just won the “Innovation in Logistics & Supply Chain 2024 Award” from the BSMA (Bio Supply chain Management Alliance), is a finalist for another award from the “Supply Management Alliance Europe” (Your vote if you wish to support it! The results will be known at the end of November) and is in the running for a 3rd award in the digital project of the year category. “ For the latter, the project was submitted and defended by the digital innovation manager of one of our clients himself, Takeda », specifies Michael Saint-Guillain. And in January 2025, Michael Saint-Guillain will be at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the most important show dedicated to technological innovation in consumer electronics.
A faultless run for Genko then, and for the future? Michael Saint-Guillain’s ambition is “ to become profitable in a year, to raise significant funds and to develop internationally ». « And the ultimate dream would be to resume research with NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to one day be able to use Rombio for planning the operations of future space missions., or even the lunar village imagined by the ESA ».
Walt Disney said, “To do something extraordinary, you have to start by dreaming it.” For Michael Saint-Guillain, the dream is indeed becoming a reality…
