Do you have a great idea for buildings systems engineering? Could you benefit from some strategic expert guidance from a world-class engineering firm? Are you looking for investors or a community to grow your early-stage company? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, read on.
But first, some background.
A few years ago, we formed Syska (Hennessy) Innovations in an effort to invest in early-stage companies and pilot their software and products. Our goals for doing this are three-fold: leverage our core expertise, provide added value, and demonstrate industry leadership.
- Leverage Core Expertise. Leverage Syska Hennessy’s core expertise in consulting engineering to identify early-stage investable opportunities that might not be recognized by traditional venture-capital funds.
- Added-Value Approach. Add value to our investments by using non-cash resources unique to Syska Hennessy, like projects, domain expertise, connections to collaborators, and industry exposure.
- Demonstrate Industry Leadership. Serve as a model for the industry to follow by supporting a culture of innovation and technology within and beyond Syska Hennessy.
To guide our investment choices, we established the following innovation focus “buckets”:
- Eco-Innovation. We explore technologies and partner with companies that help decarbonize our world.
- Project Design. We are turning to machine learning, reality capture, and AR/VR to advance the value proposition we provide to our clients during the design process.
- Industrialization of Design. We can transform design into an industrialized process by using technologies like generative design, robotic process automation, and BIM, which minimize project costs and duration.
- Project Management. Faster synthesis of data to insights will improve our ability to manage a project by applying natural language processing, blockchain, and big data.
- Products and Methods. We invest in products and methods using advanced technology solutions, like geolocation and intelligent automation, to drive productivity and quality.
- Digitization. We can augment efficiency and increase quality by moving past the 2D drawing process in design and construction to all seven dimensions of building information modeling.
- SMART Buildings. Information technology, IoT, and advanced control algorithms can optimize the automated processes controlling a building’s operation.
Does your start-up fit in one of these buckets? If so, reach out to our Chief Technical Officer, Robert Ioanna at rioanna@syska.com.