Florendia Fourli is the CEO and Managing Director of Hypercliq, a company specialising in AI-powered solutions for data management. She founded it in 2011, together with Mirco Sanguineti, CTO, and George Kartsounis, R&D coordinator.

“We help companies collect and create value from data by developing large-scale data management platforms that allow them to visualise and analyse data to make better decisions and provide innovative services to their clients.”

In this interview, she explains the work her team is doing at HumanTech, the positive impact they expect it to have and her views on the viability of a net zero future for the construction industry.

Keep on reading!

Florendia Fourli, Hypercliq_HumanTech
Florendia Fourli, CEO and Managing Director of Hypercliq

Q: To start with, can you tell us a bit about your background, what you are passionate about and what drives you personally and professionally?

A: I have an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and a BSc in Computer Science, and I’ve taken on many roles in the IT industry over the past 20 years, including AI researcher, software developer, and project manager. I’m passionate about innovation, technology, and creative problem-solving and challenges that require mental shifts and continuous learning drive me both professionally and personally.

Q: That sounds very interesting and ambitious. Now, tell us about your company, Hypercliq. What is its role in HumanTech?

A: Our role is to design and support HumanTech’s overall System Architecture. This will be the glue that binds all the innovative technologies our partners are working on into a cohesive, integrated whole that can provide value to the construction sector while making it safer and greener. Our team also manages the intellectual property rights created in the consortium to ensure their protection and the unimpeded exploitation of the project results.

Q: And what is the most rewarding thing about your work on the project?

A: The most rewarding is closely following the research going into the various innovative components to facilitate their integration into the HumanTech System at later project stages.

Q: We look forward to seeing how your work develops once the project progresses further. In particular, what are the activities that excite you the most? And what is the positive impact you think they can generate in the construction sector?

A: Analysing the various interactions and interfaces between humans, robots and wearables and defining the interoperability modules that will enable them is very exciting, as it can have a big impact on the safety and well-being of construction workers. In addition, establishing links between the digital representation and the physical aspects of construction sites is an activity with great potential to add value, not only to the construction industry but also to other sectors where it can be applied.

I hope we will create a system that protects and empowers its workers while also improving efficiency in using resources and lowering the environmental impact of the construction industry.

“I hope we will create a system that protects and empowers its workers while also improving efficiency in using resources and lowering the environmental impact of the construction industry.”

Q: Q: Sounds great! What are the next milestones you hope to achieve?

A: We are actually very close to achieving an important milestone, which is the first version of the HumanTech System Architecture. After this, we hope to be efficient in refining it and implementing the required interfaces for the system to come together as an integrated solution.

Q: Well, good luck with the work ahead of you! We would like your opinion on the feasibility of the construction industry becoming net zero.

A: Construction errors and nonoptimal material usage contribute greatly to excess waste and CO2 emissions. Technological innovations being developed in HumanTech, such as digital twin monitoring and data sharing on-site, can greatly reduce these aspects and allow us to envision a net zero future.

“Technological innovations being developed in HumanTech, such as digital twin monitoring and data sharing on-site, allow us to envision a net zero future for the construction industry.”

Q: What do you think are the biggest challenges to achieving it? And the keys?

A: The biggest challenges lie with the adoption of these technologies by the industry. The key is introducing technologies that keep humans in the centre and in control, which is exactly the aim of HumanTech.

Q: That’s right. We hope our innovations make a great difference and contribute to accelerating the green transformation in the sector while making it safer for its workers. Finally, can you tell us about other projects aiming to make the industry safer and more sustainable you have worked on that have inspired you?

A: BIONIC was a project my team worked on, which focused on developing smart wearables for construction workers. BIMprove is another project that has laid the groundwork for HumanTech.


Learn more about our work at HumanTech and the team behind it.

Know Jason Rambach, our project coordinator from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Bharath Sankaran, CTO and Co-founder of Scaled Robotics, Gabor Sziebig, Research Manager at SINTEF, Gloria Callinan, Project Support Officer at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), and Fabian Kaufmann, Researcher at the Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU).

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