Interview: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Optech with Maroun Massabki, Director of Development and Innovation

Article published on October 14, 2020 by CScience IA

Original article (in French): Dans les coulisses d’Optech

Behind the Scenes at Optech

Based in Montréal and La Pocatière, Optech is a College Centre for Technology Transfer (CCTT) specializing in optics and photonics. Affiliated with Cégep André-Laurendeau, Cégep de La Pocatière, and John Abbott College, it is one of the 59 centers that are part of Synchronex. We spoke with Maroun Massabki, Deputy General Director and Director of Development and Innovation.

From SMEs to major corporations like Apple or Bombardier, Optech’s mission is to help companies develop new products and processes. Specialized in optical technologies such as cameras, lighting systems, and photonics applications, the CCTT aims to support businesses in their innovation journey.

“When a company contacts us, it’s because they are facing a technological challenge. They ask us if optics can help with their project. With a team of 27 specialists, we provide expertise, know-how, and access to a $10 million equipment park — including one of the most advanced photo-radiometry labs in Canada,” explains Mr. Massabki.

Unique Equipment

In recent years, many organizations have sought to apply AI to existing data. “There’s a lot of talk about the value of accumulated data, but in reality, companies often process very little of it and extract limited added value. We see things differently. Data has value, but we tell companies: imagine if you could develop equipment that lets you gather new information you actually own — not just the data itself, but also the way you capture it,” says Massabki.

He gives the example of Google: “The information they have about users is immensely valuable — that’s what they monetize. But without an interface, without the search engine, they could never have gathered that data in the first place. That’s precisely what we do for our partners: we develop unique equipment.”

One example is Optina Diagnostics, a Montréal-based company specializing in retinal measurement science. Their goal is to image the retina to identify a key biomarker: beta-amyloid plaque. “That’s not possible with a conventional camera. They needed a specialized camera capable of capturing high-resolution retinal images across different wavelengths. To run their AI algorithms on this data, the camera had to be built — and that’s where we stepped in. We helped develop it, and today they own the technology, giving them access to unique data.”

An Innovative Approach

Optech continually strengthens its expertise to remain a leader in the development of optical systems. “In AI, it’s often said that 90–95% of the work is cleaning data so that it’s usable by algorithms, leaving only 5–10% truly useful. Our approach is different: we help companies design, prototype, and validate equipment so that the data they acquire is directly useful,” Massabki emphasizes.

Predicting Failures

Among the equipment Optech designs are fiber optic sensors, used to measure temperature, pressure, strain, or vibration. “When we talk about AI-based optical sensors, we’re talking about value-added sensing — measuring aspects that can’t be captured conventionally, and combining measurements with predictive analysis. For example, vibration monitoring in turbines or generators used in hydroelectric plants. These environments have strong electromagnetic fields, making them very harsh for electronic sensors. Instead, we design fiber optic sensors that are immune to electromagnetic interference. They capture optical signals, which we translate into vibration data. With AI, we can track normal equipment aging versus signs of imminent failure — and predict issues in advance,” he explains.

Recently, Optech has seen growing demand from the medical instrumentation sector, but also from industrial production, manufacturing, environmental applications, and even multimedia.

“We’ve had clients developing new technologies for events like the Olympic Games or the Super Bowl. For specialized LED-based lighting or animated projections, they turn to us. In multimedia, creators increasingly want interactive experiences — systems that can read audience intent and respond in real time. That’s where AI comes in,” Massabki concludes.

Proven Impact

Since 2002, Optech has contributed to the development of over 1,200 innovative projects and supported more than 500 companies.