changes What’s driving the process industry

3 questions for Benjamin Mewes

Hydrologists Dr Benjamin Mewes and Dr Henning Oppel founded Okeanos in 2019. The start-up, based in Bochum, Germany, is working on projects including AI-based solutions for flood protection, storm monitoring and optimizing water treatment plant management.

Benjamin Mewes

Your goal with Okeanos is to modernize water and wastewater management. What role do data and AI play in this?

A crucial one, considering that we have more environmental information and measurements today than ever before. Our purpose is to analyze them and from there find answers to the industry’s questions on future topics such as sustainability,
the shortage of skilled labor and the impact of climate change. AI is just one item in our toolbox to do that. It lets us link data together much faster to gain an overview of the situation and create hydrological models. Our overall mission is to combine water resources engineering with modern IT strategies.

You develop your solutions in partnership. Why do you focus so strongly on collaboration?

We can’t do everything on our own. Digitalization and modernization only work if you collaborate. That’s why we’re on the lookout for partners with whom we can develop a shared vision and generate synergies. Endress+Hauser is such a partner. Our areas of expertise complement each other perfectly. That’s also reflected in the speed with which we developed the flood warning system. Both sides brought the right basics to the table. All we had to do was refine from there. The result is a standout product, the likes of which we could only have created in this partnership.

Endress+Hauser is a large company with a long history. You’re a small and recently founded one. Do you feel that difference?

No, we have a partnership of equals. That’s exactly what co-innovation needs, along with the trust that comes from openness and communication. Plus, we only collaborate on ideas that both sides truly believe in.

Published 22.07.2024, last updated 21.08.2024.