A Data Scientist and a Machine Learning engineer, Mine Melodi Caliskan has years of experience in end-to-end product development and data-driven application in varied industries including manufacturing, energy, trading, health, retail, and transportation domains. She founded xMint, for providing Artificial Intelligence-focused software solutions and professional consultancy to companies around the globe. A thorough techie, Melodi has been particularly involved in Robotics, Computer vision and signal processing. She spoke on an array of topics. Excerpts from the interview:

Conception of xMint

Notes Melodi that after completing her graduation, she participated in Digital Product School (DPS) by UnternehmerTUM in Munich, Germany as an Artificial Intelligence engineer where she had the opportunity to practice user-centric digital product development using design thinking and lean startup methodologies. “When I returned to Turkey, I received my first offer to work as a Machine Learning consultant and in just a couple of days, the outcomes exceeded the expectations of the stakeholders. As a Machine Learning enthusiast, this success motivated me to do market research and feasibility tests of the concept to further my career.” She adds that she realized the potential of starting a consultancy to explore custom Machine Learning solutions for enterprises in different industries that would empower companies rapidly with substantive expertise while revenue/cost is high for both parties.

AI’s Role

Companies are waking up to the potential of AI and becoming increasingly interested in these technologies, observes Melodi. She however cites lack of knowledge and skilled workforce to identify areas where AI can help to increase efficiency and their profits. “There is also a fear of the changes AI can bring to the organizations and as a result some reluctance to adopt these technologies.  We want to make intelligent systems accessible, understandable, and easily applicable by any corporation in today’s world of digital business. Our goal is to leverage the capabilities of machine learning and bring the power of digitization to the organizations to leap and democratize productivity and development.”

X4Vision – The Company’s Vision

xMint provides Artificial Intelligence-focused software solutions and professional consultancy to companies in Europe and beyond. “We help companies make use of intelligent systems and accelerate their data-centric digital transformation in an agile manner.” The company developed its product X4Vision to automate the steel and automotive manufacturing quality control processes. “Our vision is to make the process more efficient, fast and cost effective. X4Vision achieves this by its intelligent visual inspection system consisting of a deep learning software and a user-friendly web interface.” The software can be easily integrated to any existing platform or can be deployed with our plug-n-run smart cameras for edge computing. Through the web interface, users can track the defect reports remotely, collaborate real-time from different locations and intervene when necessary. Users also easily can define new custom defect types and X4Vision will adapt itself automatically. This allows the functionality of X4Vision’s framework to be extended to new cases, increasing its usefulness for various stakeholders.

xMint’s Venture into Healthcare

Re-instating its commitment to healthcare, xMint is all set to release XPacs, an interactive medical image analysis software. “We developed XPacs as a cross-platform with intelligent toolkits for applying image analysis and machine learning to assist doctors on the pathology analysis, diagnosis and treatment planning. We also did collaborative research works on data science applications in health. In one of them, we used data science to improve and automate differentiation of a treatment response in people with Parkinson Disease and published in Frontiers in Neuroscience.”

AI – Challenges Galore

Though AI is the latest life-changing savior within IT, it also poses several challenges. It has drawn a lot of flak for leading to data exploitation, privacy violations, discrimination, accidents, social manipulation. “At xMint we try to better understand the potential risks and underlying causes and try to avoid them. We follow the principles of transparency, explainability, privacy and fairness. We promote collecting and storing only necessary data and informing users explicitly with its collection method and purpose.” The company builds robust models and secure platforms for deployment. “We prevent discrimination by preventing biases generated due to algorithms, user interaction or data.”

Leadership Traits

A creative and a solution-oriented professional, this technology enthusiast likes blending pragmatism with scientific diligence. “I am not afraid to ask what I need but I am also ready to listen and learn.  I like to inspire and encourage risk taking and creativity. I also like celebrating the wins and showing gratitude for every single effort along the way.”

Words of Advice

“We overcome fear of failure by seeing it as a stepping stone, an opportunity to learn and improve ourselves and not something to be avoided at all costs. This also teaches us how to handle a challenge without losing our confidence. I think we should watch out for ever-changing AI-driven technology trends, its effect on our business model, and our resources to diversify our portfolio.”

The success mantra

“I learned that a lean and output-driven approach is an efficient way of creating products. Doing what you love and loving what you do is a wonderful motivational resource to tackle the difficulties easily and succeed.”