Tomorrow's digital workplace

Motivated by the advancing digitalization in industry and science, ScienceDesk offers a platform that simplifies the handling of data, documents and measurement results.

While today, research at universities and research institutes as well as development and quality laboratories in industry often still work with a large number of different programs and networks side by side, the platform should be the central digital workplace in the future where all information and processes are organized. With it AI should also be made simple to use for all users.

In our interview, founder Dr. Stephan Meschke explains the vision and functions of ScienceDesk.

Team ScienceDesk: Dr. Carlos Viol Barbosa, Prof. Dr. Ehrenfried Zschech, Thiago Cangussu, Dr. Stephan Meschke

What is ScienceDesk?

ScienceDesk is a browser-based platform for process documentation, data acquisition and data analysis. We offer the possibility to centrally store and organize all documentation, files and samples used during a project, so that everything important is quickly available in one place.

Our smart notebooks for project documentation, based on classic laboratory books, supplemented by the advantages of digitization, are at the heart of the system.

For example, it is possible to integrate data as it is emitted from the measuring instruments directly into the project documentation. Especially when several employees or partners work together on a project, it is helpful if documents are bundled and work steps can be traced. The use of cryptographic procedures by means of block chaining ensures traceability and provides more transparency in everyday work.

ScienceDesk also makes it easier to work with large amounts of data in various file formats, for example, by providing a function for converting file formats or linking analyses and samples with each other. Especially for large data volumes generated in research and development, but also in process and quality control in industry, our platform provides an efficient solution for merging files in different file formats.

We have also implemented a range of functions that are regularly used in R&D and can be applied directly from the platform. For example, ScienceDesk can easily be used to plan tasks as tickets, assign rights for data access or perform data analysis. AI algorithms in expert modules reduce the access time for information required for decision-making processes.

Thus, ScienceDesk not only provides an overview of process flows, but has the potential to become the central workplace for R&D work in industrial laboratories or academia.

ScienceDesk: a platform for process documentation, data acquisition & analysis

How did the idea for your platform come about?

Our founder, Dr. Carlos Barbosa has been working for more than ten years in physics and materials science, including at Max Planck Institutes, and has experienced first-hand how data management in science is increasingly reaching its limits. In his opinion, it was difficult for users of the experimental infrastructure to efficiently generate information from the huge amounts of data during research stays in large research centers, for example.

The idea for ScienceDesk arose from the need to simplify and optimize data management.

What makes you special as a team?

On the one hand, we are characterized by the fact that we have a broad scientific expertise, which is incorporated into the development of our software. With Carlos Barbosa we have an excellent materials scientist in our team, Thiago Cangussu and Daniel Debonzi are computer scientists and I am a business economist. In addition, Prof. Ehrenfried Zschech brings many years of experience in knowledge and technology transfer at the interface between science and industry.

On the other hand, it is our interculturalism that makes us special. Our startup was born out of a German-Brazilian cooperation. So we are used to implementing solutions quickly in virtual teams and from a global perspective - just as our customers expect.

We now have cooperation partners not only in Germany, but in a wide variety of countries. Our business language is English, but through our international team we can also offer Italian, Portuguese, Polish and of course German on a very high level for communication.

What are your goals for the future?

In October 2019 we relaunched our platform - ScienceDesk 2.0 - and are currently focusing more on the needs of industry. Being at the interface between industry and research remains important for us. A common platform like ScienceDesk can strengthen the cooperation between both areas in a way that makes sense for both sides, simplifies work in projects with several partners and shortens the time-to-market for new products.

We are open for new collaborations with the goal to sharpen and expand our portfolio and to grow as a startup. We have the ambitious goal to make a name for ourselves in the field of digitalization and especially in data management and AI-based information retrieval. We will convince both industry and academia with our ScienceDesk platform - for the benefit of our customers, who will be able to introduce digital processes faster and implement them more efficiently.