Interview with Bryan Arndt, Founder at opseyes

Throughout my career, I was often on the frontline when a wastewater plant broke down. I was brought in to fix the problems Plant Managers, Wastewater Directors and Wastewater Operators found themselves facing.

Critical to a safe and functioning plant is testing to ensure there is a balance of ‘good’ bacteria meaning water is being treated successfully, while any abnormalities or imbalances signal problems.  Wastewater plant problems likely  mean someone down river is getting bad water into the drinking water plant

Given the importance of this test, I was frustrated that current testing methods were expensive, resource-heavy, and time-consuming. The industry needed a better and simpler way to test the health of wastewater. It needed a test that produced real-time, accurate, and actionable results in 10 minutes, not 10 days, so that managers, and regulators, can understand exactly what’s going on inside a plant.

That’s how opseyes was born – I was inspired to create the business after hearing from my brother, a doctor, about how AI technology was disrupting medical testing. Why couldn’t this technology disrupt wastewater testing?

Opseyes is an AI-powered testing platform for Plant Managers, Wastewater Directors and Wastewater Operators – the only technology of its kind disrupting wastewater testing. The technology enables professionals in the wastewater industry to check the quality of the wastewater in their plant via a smartphone with just one photo, and get the results back in under ten minutes.

 
 

Lightning-Fast Microscopy from Your Phone - opseyes

 

What advice would you give to other aspiring entrepreneurs?

 

I’d encourage people to always follow their own path and not to be put off by misconceptions. After graduating 20 years ago, I began my career in the wastewater management industry – a sector that’s not readily associated with younger people, but one I was immediately drawn to and was ideal for my skill set after completing a chemical engineering (BE and MBA) at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

I’m sure many people around me questioned my choice of career path, as not only is it a sector that often fails to appeal to younger people, but my role involved travelling all over the world from Russia, to Oman, Canada and across the United States. This isn’t for everyone but it worked for me and provided invaluable experience studying the operations of plants, fixing problems and developing new plants – enabling me to build up an extensive knowledge base which, without doubt, helped me to get to where I am today – opseyes wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t have travelled so far afield, gaining such incredible first-hand experience along the way.

I’d also remind people of the importance of hard work and ‘putting in the years’. Being in the muck and amongst the action in a role over a number of years teaches you so much.

Throughout my career, I was often on the frontline when a wastewater plant broke down, and was brought in to fix the problems Plant Managers, Wastewater Directors and Wastewater Operators found themselves facing. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the knowledge I built up during this time.

 

 

What can we hope to see from opseyes in the future?

 

My goal over the next 12 months is to get opseyes into the hands of Plant Managers, Wastewater Directors and Wastewater Operators for testing, before rolling out packages and subscriptions, as well as one-off tests, to plants throughout the United States over the next four years. Additional services will also be added to opseyes in that time, to create a digital operator to assist the human ones.