Toni Trias-Bonet and Regina Llopis, 2019 entrepreneurial trajectory Prize

Antoni Trias-Bonet, co-founder of Grupo AIA and Regina Llopis, president and co-founder of Grupo AIA received the 2019 entrepreneurial trajectory Prize from Matilde Vilarroya, General Director of Generalitat de Cataluña, during the Investment Forum organized by  ACCIÓ, Agència per la Competitivitat de l’Empresa held last May 8th.

Agència per la Competitivitat de l’Empresa has rewarded Regina Llopis and Toni Trias-Bonet for their 30 years of outstanding career with Aplicaciones en Informática Avanzada, AIA.  Over the years, Grupo AIA has developed Artificial Intelligence and solutions to leading companies in Spain and abroad.

Antoni Trias-Bonet has led the R&D area in Grupo AIA and is the inventor of the HELM algorithm (Holomorphic embedding Load flow Method), an innovative method for computing the solution to the power flow problem and DC grid devices state estimation. which has been successfully implanted in power grids Grupo AIA has collaborated with during the last 15 years.

Moreover, since 2014, this method has been adapted to intelligent and autonomous systems for NASA´s projected spacecraft for deep space missions beyond Mars. This collaboration project with the U.S. agency is the fifth project AIA has developed for NASA after concluding successfully four former research STTR and SBIR projects. All of them are intended for spacecrafts and stations power systems management and distribution.

This algorithm is a non-iterative power load flow computing solution. In other words, it is a constructive, direct and reliable solution as it guarantees a mathematical consistent solution for the right operation (the power flow is a multiple solution problems) and it also indicates correctly when there is no possible solution).

On the other hand, Antoni Trias-Bonet during his acceptance speech said that while he was developing the R&D area, Regina Llopis brought the company forward as AIA´s CEO by consolidating it as an international Group. Thanks to her leadership, affiliated companies, Elequant Inc. and EQ-KIDS- were created in the U.S. and the KDP-Joint venture with Caixabank-in Spain. “She is a constant source of inspiration” expressed Trias-Bonet during his intervention.

For her part, Regina thanked the companies that trusted Grupo AIA since the beginning and still today and mentioned a few company names: Transportes Metropolitanos de Cataluña, Unión Fenosa, Gas Natural (actual Naturgy), Agencia Tributaria and more recently, NASA.

They were visionary companies that bet for Artificial Intelligence AIA was developing back in the 80s and early 90s. Regina Llopis remembered these technologies were disruptive back then” when nobody knew it was Artificial Intelligence”.

She also encouraged new entrepreneurs to “stand for their dreams, vision, teams and technology” as key elements to remain in the innovation business world for over 30 years.

This prize rewards the consolidation and internationalization of a company established in Sant Cugat del Vallès in 1988, based on knowledge, science and a strong commitment to working for the society, empowering women´s development in all STEM areas, from training to entrepreneurship. Thanks to this commitment, Women Angels 4 STEAM was born.