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Particles from space let us see inside bridges

How GScan harnesses muons to understand critical infrastructure

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Concrete is an attractive material for startups, whether they’re finding new ways to make it, or new ways to fix it.

But today’s startup wants to look INSIDE concrete, and other materials, in a brand new way.

They’re also the first startup out of 200+ that we’ve profiled that wasn’t founded in the UK. But Estonia’s GScan has set up a base in Cambridge and is gearing up to serve England’s motorways as its first major market, so let’s find out what they’re up to.

But first:

  • The FT reported this week that “The new Oxford technology institute funded by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison will invest at least £100mn in joint ventures with the university in an effort to improve the UK’s poor record on commercialising scientific discoveries.”

  • If you don’t have an FT subscription, you can find out more in the University of Oxford’s announcement.

– Martin

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GScan can see inside bridges… with the help of cosmic particles

A scan of a bridge with GScan’s equipment (it makes sense to experts)

In summary:

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The clue’s in the name of course, but it really is important that critical infrastructure stays intact. 

Detecting defects before they become problems is the ideal scenario, and that’s where GScan hopes to give critical infrastructure operators a major advantage.

By observing muon particles as they penetrate structures, this startup can ‘see inside’ objects such as bridges to identify structural deficiencies before they become otherwise apparent.

Muons are cosmic particles that move like “invisible rain” through objects on Earth, explains GScan CEO Marek Helm.

The company has developed scanners to trace every muon’s trajectory as it passes through an object, via a technique called muon tomography.

“As a muon goes through a bridge, it hits cement, it hits metal, it hits corrosion, and then it goes through the bridge. And we can create the 3D image of exactly what was there in the bridge, how much metal is still there to keep the bridge together, or what is the level of corrosion,” says Helm.

After the scanner hardware has tracked the muons’ movement through a structure, GScan’s software then uses this data alongside AI and machine learning to figure out what is going on inside.

“You don’t need to operate the scanner. AI and machine learning can automatically detect the chemical composition inside an object. We are providing exact, AI-based data to the civil engineers so they can act properly in terms of infrastructure maintenance,” Helm adds.

Helm says GScan’s tech can map out the insides of many types of structure. But as a small company, the startup is focused on bridge inspection for now.

“There are 2 million bridges in Europe that are more than 50 years old, and every country has a huge backlog of how to maintain them,” he says.

A GScan test setup

The story so far

GScan was established in Estonia in 2018. Initially it took grant funding to investigate how to build an improvement on X-ray technology for security and customs use cases, such as detecting contraband.

Then two years ago, the startup signed its first commercial contract. As a former part of the Soviet Union, Estonia had an unusual problem - dealing with abandoned nuclear reactors at a Cold War era submarine training base.

The problem was that when the Russians left, they didn’t leave any documentation for the reactors behind. 

“There were no drawings… we provided exact data where the reactors were, where the pipes were, where the danger was inside.” 

Inspired by its success here, the company turned its attention to non-destructive testing of civil engineering infrastructure as a potent market for the technology. 

However, they haven’t abandoned the nuclear market. Helm says they also work with nuclear power stations to safely assess the contents of radioactive waste containers.

As you might expect, GScan's founding team includes particle physicists. Among them is Andi Hektor, who was previously part of the team at CERN who discovered the Higgs Boson particle.

GScan’s team

Helm himself has a background as a senior figure in the world of customs and internal security in Estonia, including senior positions within the Estonian Ministry of the Interior.

He was an early angel investor into, and adviser to, GScan. He saw the potential for the technology to detect cocaine smuggled in banana shipments (apparently a big problem). He then came on board full-time at the startup as CEO in 2022.

Beyond Estonia, GScan has opened a base in Cambridge as it prioritises the UK market, alongside a Munich base for the German market. Helm says the company will next year start working on commercially scanning motorway bridges in the UK.

He adds that in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, GScan is investigating how the data it collects can be used in ‘digital twins’ of buildings to help engineers make more informed decisions.

👇 Read on…

And there’s more!

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