The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It produces emotions, thoughts, memories and reactions, weighs around 1.4 kilograms and contains around 100 billion neurons or nerve cells.

The complexity of these cells is staggering. Each neuron makes contact with tens of thousands of other cells and our brains can form a million new connections each second.

With a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Southern California (USC), LebNet member Walid Soussou works on Brain-Computer-Interfaces to develop new wearable sensor technologies for commercial applications.

During an event in Beirut, we met with Soussou and talked about his company Wearable Sensing – which uses non-invasive techniques to monitor brain activities – the complexities of developing such wearable technologies and the most popular applications. We also had the chance to test their virtual reality headset, which monitors brain activity while screening 3D visuals for patients to enjoy. Read our interview with him below:

How do you describe Wearable Sensing?

Wearable Sensing is a company that develops, manufactures, markets and sells wearable sensors for research and professional applications.

We are currently focusing on wearable brain monitoring, as we have developed a revolutionary technology that allows us to record high-quality signals from the brain in a practical and non-invasive fashion, which allows brain monitoring outside of the confines of laboratories or specialized medical centers. The brain signals we record are called Electroencephalograms (EEG), and they represent the electrical activity of neurons as measured from the scalp (the surface of the head).

Walid Soussou (Image via LinkedIn)

Conventional EEG requires skin abrasion (a painful process of rubbing the dead cell layers, much like an old-style Hammam scrubbing!) and the application of gooey gels and a painstaking process of attaching electrodes to the head and plugging them into large equipment. What is revolutionary about our technology is that we use dry electrodes that do not require skin abrasion or gels and that are built into easy-to-use, comfortable and wireless headsets. This makes the entire process of setting up and collecting brain data achievable with minimal training. Of course, we take great pride that this simplification of use does not compromise the signal quality, making our devices still very useful for delivering high-quality brain signals in real-world settings. We have 6 principal products on the market and their peripherals, which we distribute through a global distribution network spanning 37 countries.

The products sound revolutionary and provides much better alternatives. What type of audience would benefit from them?

We currently sell our products to researchers in diverse fields ranging from neuroscience and psychology to marketing, education, and computer game development. The brain provides a rich set of data from which these researchers extract insight into our cognitive states (such as attention, memory, effort), brain health (such as depression, ADHD, autism), emotions (desires, fears, enjoyment, arousal) and which they use to understand the brain or to develop useful applications.

We also sell our products to a subset of medical professionals who use it to conduct neurofeedback training, which is a type of non-pharmacological brain therapy that can be used for rehabilitation (after stroke, depression, ADHD, concussion) or for peak-performance augmentation (such as enhancing memory, focus, acuity).

Furthermore, we collaborate and partner with businesses and companies to develop custom hardware for their specific applications, such as sleep enhancement, stroke rehabilitation, neuromarketing, gaming in virtual reality and more.

The areas you’re tapping into directly impact people’s lives. Can you give us more specific examples on products helping people live better?

There is a wide range of neuro-applications that could be useful and desirable to society, that is currently not possible due to a gap in brain monitoring technology. Current mainstream brain monitoring is either very expensive, difficult, tedious, and invasive, or produces low-quality brain signals that are not really usable for most applications. Our technology fills this gap by providing easy-to-use yet high-quality brain monitoring that can be done in real-world settings.

We are already working on the following applications with some of our partners: using brain signals to control computers, prosthetic limbs or robots; using brain signals tocontrol computer games; using brain signals recorded while shoppers walk in a supermarket to determine which products appeal to which consumers; using brain signals to enhance learning outcomes; using brain signals to improve brain function, to improve airport security, to improve artificial intelligence, to teach meditation, to screen for autism, etc. All of these and more are applications we are working to bring out with our partners.

Reine Farhat, LebNet’s Communications Specialist, testing Wearable Sensing’s headset after her interview with Walid Soussou at ArabNet Beirut event.

Why did you pick this area of work?

As an undergraduate student, I transitioned from a French educational system to an English system and found myself reading frustratingly slowly! I wished I could download books into my brain directly. I later heard of researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) working on brain Implants. This was in 1994, way before the current brain implant frenzy. So I applied to USC for graduate school and joined that lab, only to realize that this was a long-term mission and that I would be working on dissected brains and cell cultures for many years before there would be any human trials and books to download. After my post-doctoral fellowship, I decided to venture out of academic research into applied science that could directly benefit humans. I knew nothing about starting a company, had no funds, or business plan, I just reached out to a company that had just developed the right kind of non-invasive sensor that my project would have needed. They offered me a job, lab and office space, and access to the team and technology. So on my first day as an entrepreneur, I sold out and took the job! And I am very glad I did as I have learned so much about how to develop products from concepts, how to fund and manage research towards commercialization, how to keep a sustainable company alive, how to start a new one, and how to evaluate business opportunities. And in the process, I have been very fortunate to be developing applications for brain monitoring that are finally reaching market readiness, which was my ultimate goal.

You operate in a capital-intensive industry. How are you sustaining your business financially?

We have two companies that work together in synergy:

1-QUASAR is an R&D company that is funded by research grants from the US government to develop new technologies. This non-dilutive funding allows us to keep innovating and developing cutting edge technology. We have raised over $28M over the past 20 years to develop our technology to where it is today. QUASAR licenses its technology to other companies to commercialize.
2-Wearable Sensing is a company that has an exclusive license on QUASAR’s EEG sensor technology and manufactures and sells these products globally. It is funded solely through its sales. We are now raising VC funding to accelerate our growth and bring out some of our next-generation products faster to the market.
QUASAR and Wearable Sensing share a team of 20 people, who are a mix of scientists, engineers, technicians and administrative personnel.

Your technology is very complex. Can you walk us through the manufacturing process?

Our products have both high-end electronic components and complex mechanical structures, which mandates tedious management of suppliers and inventory, careful assembly and extensive testing during manufacturing. Our team has developed procedures to manufacture these products at the small scales that our current market requires. As part of our growth, we plan to re-engineer our products to allow us to scale up manufacturing.

How important it is to be passionate about the field you’re involved in?
You have to face so many challenges every day of running a business, in everything from operations, to competition, to customers, to regulatory, to team members, etc., that the only way not to give up, is to be passionate about what you do. So that whenever you stop and ask yourself: “why am I doing this?” you can safely answer with this question: ” well, what would I rather be doing?”.

The more positive view is that work is most rewarding when it is in a field one is excited about and doing well at. Passion leads to a perseverant effort which hopefully yields excellence and success, which ultimately produces satisfaction and bolsters passion… For now, I’m still at the perseverant effort stage and hoping the rest will indeed follow. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Rola Dagher describes herself as a proud Lebanese and grateful Canadian.

Dagher, who recently joined LebNet’s Senior Advisory board, began her career in technology 30 years ago and her focus on customers, people and leadership continues to define the leader she is today – a servant leader.

She was the Director of telecommunications company Bell Canada for 15 years before leading the enterprise solutions area for Dell in Canada.

In 2017, she became the president of Cisco Systems Canada. Dagher oversees all facets of Cisco Canada’s business, including sales operations, engineering, services, finance, and marketing, backed with over 25 years of experience driving growth, establishing impactful partnerships, and achieving aggressive targets.

At Cisco Canada, Dagher aims to create the best place to work for employees. She truly believes that in the digital age an empowered, inspired, inclusive, diverse and adaptable workforce is fundamental to any company’s success.

If you had a rewind button, what would you change about your journey?

Taking care of my health and making sure to put myself first. Your mental wellbeing is your superpower – don’t discard it. I use the analogy of putting your oxygen mask on first. When you are on a plane – the first thing they tell you is in case of an emergency, put your oxygen mask on first before helping others… that stands true for life. If you are not investing and nurturing yourself, you won’t be able to grow.

What are your 3 biggest accomplishments?

My Children. They make me want to be a better mother everyday.

Transforming Cisco Canada’s culture because culture is the backbone of success. It is the ultimate enabler and when I came in to Cisco Canada it was my number one priority. Because of that, we were the fastest growing country for Cisco in 2018. Today, Cisco Canada has been named the Best Place to work in Canada from an inclusion perspective, a young perspective and from a giving back perspective.

I am one of six girls and back in my village they would question my father’s decision to leave Lebanon and take six girls to Canada. We all proved everyone wrong and today I am proud of the daughter I am to the father who had six girls.

What’s the best lesson you learned?

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Even if you make a mistake, get back up and use the opportunity to learn. If you have a victim’s mentality you will never go forward – you need to have a winner’s mentality.

Who is your role model?

My father for his strength leaving Lebanon with nothing to provide a better life for his children. His vision, his sacrifice and his attitude has been my inspiration.

How did surrounding yourself with a good support system help you advance in your career?

Family played a huge role – mother and father were instrumental in helping me with my children that allowed me to grow. My mentors/sponsors were my accelerators. They saw something in me that I didn’t even see and pushed me to be a better leader and to do things I would never think possible.

What is one habit you worked hard on breaking to improve your life or career?

Learning never stops and there are always habits you need to unlearn. One of the main habits is listening to listen and not to react.

What characteristics do you look for in people you choose to work with?

Hungry to learn: If you are not willing to learn no one can help you, but if you are hungry to learn no one can stop you. Humble to work with: I don’t care how smart you are, if you aren’t humble there is no place for you. Emotional Intelligence: Hire for EQ and train for IQ… that is the future in the Era of digital transformation.

What skills did you work so hard on acquiring?

Being able to translate technology into business impact. Listen to listen not listen to speak.

What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?

Life owes you nothing. Life is a chance to make something of it. Be more confident and don’t focus on the negatives.

What excites you and what worries you about the impact of technology on the future?

Technology is intrinsically neutral. It’s how you use technology that defines its position as good or evil. I’ll give you an example of mental health – through tech we are working with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) to transform mental health services. On the other hand, social media has become a tool for bullies. We need the right people driving the progression of technology.

Dislaimer: The author of this post is Reine Farhat, LebNet’s Communications Specialist. She has tested both Instabeat products and this is her review]

As someone who personally tested both the old and the new product of Instabeat, I can appreciate the time it took to launch the new version.

Instabeat is a swimming device that gets attached to swim goggles to monitor swimmers’ heart rate in real-time and display the results through color coding on the corner of their goggles. Each of the three colors (green, blue and red) signal a different heart rate range and pushes swimmers to go faster or maintain their pace.

After the swimming session is over, the 27 gram-device takes about 30 seconds to sync with the smartphone application before displaying information about the distance, workouts, the average pace, lap time, peak performance among other data.

The new version of the product was officially launched on July 18, 2019 and can now be ordered from the website.

The reason why founder Hind Hobeika, a competitive swimmer and engineer, wanted to create Instabeat is because when she used to train, she often had to stop her workout for a minute to measure her heart rate – which she calls the most important indicator for enhancing performance. She did not want to use devices like the watch, the belt or the finger clip because they added too much drag to her movement.

I pre-ordered the first version of the product back in 2013 from the crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo and tested it months later. It didn’t fit most of the swim goggles I brought and I honestly wasn’t impressed with the performance: the light wasn’t always working, water was leaking inside my goggles and I had synching problems. I wasn’t the only person facing such issues.

“When we launched the first product, we started too big. We had a crowdfunding campaign, we started shipping and started having many functional and manufacturing problems until it didn’t make sense to keep manufacturing anymore. We decided to stop and start again from scratch,” said Hobeika in an interview with LebNet.

Another mistake Hobeika admitted making was testing the product with Lebanese swimmers only. “Most of the head shapes and swimming styles [in Lebanon] are fairly similar and when we shipped to different countries we understood the complexity of other faces. One of the advantages of being in the US is that it’s so multicultural. In our second testing, we made sure to bring people from different [ethnicities].”

Olympic swimmer Sabine Hazboun using Instabeat.

In 2016, while in London, Hobeika met Jawbone co-founder Alexander Asseily, who worked closely with her on redesigning the product, picking key contractors, building a new team and avoiding previous manufacturing mistakes.

Hobeika and her team approached around 50 manufacturers in the US but none of them had the right machinery, expertise nor were they willing to take a chance on her. She teamed up with a big manufacturer in China but shortly after, the company changed its project manager and its priorities and sadly Instabeat was no longer part of them.

“That’s the problem with working with big partners. You don’t know when their teams and priorities change and when you’re a super small company, you don’t move the needle when it comes to money. When that happened we started looking for smaller manufacturers.”

That’s when Hobeika moved to China to monitor manufacturing closely and get the ball rolling.

“It was hard to look at photos [from the US] and trying to understand what the problem is without testing the product. So I went to China to stay for a week or two, but I saw that everything moves so quickly there.” She would brainstorm the problem with the manufacturing team, go to the pool and test and the next morning try to implement a new solution.

She ended up staying in China for 9 months before the new product was ready to hit the US market again. According to Instabeat’s press release, the development of the product included over 250 swimmers and triathletes including Olympic swimmer Sabine Hazboun and Ironman World Champion Leanda Cave. Testers swam with 11 different swim goggles each – pushing, flipping and turning – confirming the device’s ultra low-weight and low-profile design make it feel nonexistent without sacrificing accuracy. The company has raised a total of $6M in funding to date from Berytech Fund, Wamda Capital, Jabbar Capital, and angel investors. It has spent a total of 8 years on R&D between Lebanon, China and the US.

The product can now be ordered from the website for $249 and shipped within the US in less than 10 days.

From someone who has been familiar with some of the technical issues found in the first version of Instabeat, and who has tested the second one, I am happy to see how Hobeika has come a long way to improve swimmers’ experience and introduce a seamless product that will help them every stroke of the way.

Dr. Magid Abraham is the CEO and co-founder of NeuraWell, a mental health therapeutics company. He also co-founded ‘ComScore’, where he focused on innovation and industry leadership, and was CEO of ComScore for 14 years and took it public in 2007. He was the founder and CEO of Paragren Technologies, producing CRM systems and president of IRI, a major international research company, which he led through sustained growth and innovation.

Dr. Abraham received a Ph.D. and an M.B.A. from MIT, and is an Engineer of the École Polytechnique, France. He became a Visiting Scholar at Stanford in 2015, where he taught at the Graduate School of Business for three years. He serves on a number of commercial and institutional boards. Abraham is a world expert on consumer and market measurement and analytics and has authored seminal award-winning articles. He received some of the most prestigious awards in the field, was https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press-Releases/2008/05/Abraham-and-Fulgoni-Ernst-and-Young-Entrepreneur-Of-The-Year-Award-Finalists named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and inducted in the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame and designated “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum.

What’s the best lesson you learned?

The most important lesson for me is to believe in yourself. People rarely believe in someone who does not believe in himself. We are sometimes lucky, and we have people who encourage us along the way, but there are also plenty of people who doubt us, expect us to fail, and feel their dismissive opinion validated when we do. Since failure is unavoidable in life, self-confidence is what makes us stand up and fight another fight.

If you can describe your journey in one sentence, what would it be?
I liked what I was doing and learned a lot along the way.

If you were to prioritize one aspect when hiring, which one would you pick: culture or skills?
I would never hire someone whose values run AGAINST the culture, but I would prioritize high skills when I think the person can adapt and learn the culture, over a perfect culture match in an average candidate.

Magid Abraham

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I like hiking, boating and Golf, but I am always in learning mode even in my free time.

What excites you about the future?
Exponential progress is happening on most fronts. I wish I could be a student again.

If you had a rewind button, name one thing you would change in your journey?
I would have worked harder on upgrading my management team.

What or who is your biggest support?
I am blessed with a great family, and a wife who is really my best friend, always supportive but also honest with feedback.

What are your three biggest accomplishments?
My family, my career, and what I am now working on.

Who is your role model?
Abraham Lincoln, the ultimate self-made man who led by principle and example.

What advice would you give to someone starting their professional journey?
Make the most of the opportunity you now got, and, if you do your best, bigger and better opportunities will present themselves along the way.

Nora Denzel is a Silicon Valley software industry veteran with over 30 years experience in technology. She currently serves on the board of directors of AMD, Ericsson and Talend software.

She retired from Intuit in 2012 as the SVP of Big Data and started her career in 1984 as a software engineer for IBM.

She is also a trustee at AnitaB.org, a non-profit dedicated to getting more women in computing.

What’s the best lesson you learned?

Failure isn’t the opposite of success, it’s part of it.

If you can describe your journey in one sentence, what would it be?
Anything is possible if you work hard enough.

If you were to prioritize one aspect when hiring, which one would you pick: culture or skills?
Culture because skills can be taught.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I like to read and take classes.

What are your three biggest accomplishments?
I’ve worked for over 10 years with a non-profit to get more women into computing. I raised thousands of dollars to combat domestic violence in Northern California. I graced the cover of Computer Storage Magazine in the 90s.

What excites you about the future?
The changes technology will have on how we live and work.

If you had a rewind button, name one thing you would change in your journey?
I would have worried a lot less. It all works out.

What or who is your biggest support?
My husband supports me unconditionally.

Who is your role model?
Ada Lovelace. After reading about her, I decided to become a software engineer.

What advice would you give to someone starting their professional journey?
Make sure you’re enjoying yourself because time goes by so quickly!