QuMind

Independent technical studies for engineering-led companies.

A bounded technical question, answered before you commit to it. For companies facing a decision that rests on an answer nobody inside has the time to establish — and who need that answer in writing, from someone with nothing to sell them afterwards.

Fixed scope, fixed date
5–10 working days
Netherlands-based, EU only
Dutch or English

Start here

No cost, no obligation

Technical scoping session

Forty-five minutes on the question in front of you, followed by a written one-page summary you keep whether or not anything else follows.

  • What the question actually is, once it is stated precisely
  • Whether it can be settled by analysis, by measurement, or not at all
  • What evidence would be needed, and roughly what that costs
  • Whether this is worth commissioning — including when the answer is no
Request a scoping session Most of these end without an engagement. That is the point — it is cheaper for both of us to find that out in forty-five minutes.

Sectors

Where the questions come from

Technical depth in sensing, signal processing, radio and modelling, applied to industries where a wrong technical assumption is expensive to discover late.

Defence and securityDetection and classification in contested conditions, sensor performance claims, and independent assessment of what a system will and will not do in the field.
Semiconductors and photonicsComponent behaviour inside a larger chain, physical limits and what they mean for the system around them, and realistic maturity of an emerging process.
Medical devicesMeasurement and detection performance supported by evidence, and the analysis behind a performance claim that has to survive a notified body.
Telecom and connectivityPropagation, interference and crowded spectrum — what coverage and capacity figures hold up, and under which assumptions.
Energy and gridCondition monitoring, fault detection and anomaly detection on operational data, and how much of a reported detection rate is real.
Maritime and portsNavigation and positioning when satellite signals are weak, absent or interfered with, and detection over water and in cluttered environments.

Studies

What you can commission

Indicative starting prices, excluding VAT. Each study is quoted on scope after the scoping session, so the figure you receive reflects your question rather than an average one. One round of revisions is included, and turnaround is in working days starting when the inputs are complete.

Security review of an automated system
For a team about to let software act on its own against live systems. What accounts and keys it holds and which it should not; what each tool it can call is actually able to reach; adversarial testing to see what a hostile input can make it do; where data could leak; what is written to the audit log; where a person must still approve; and how to stop it quickly. Written against your ISO 27001 controls and your duty of care under NIS2.
from €9.50010 working days
Sensing and detection feasibility
Can this sensor arrangement detect what you need it to, under the conditions you actually face? Signal and noise budget, the theoretical limit on what is detectable, the error sources that dominate in practice, and a plain statement of what the arrangement cannot do.
from €7.50010 working days
Method benchmark and selection
Independent comparison of the candidate approaches on your data or a representative stand-in. Measures agreed before the work starts, a test setup you keep and can rerun, how well each candidate knows when it is wrong, and the failure cases each one hides. Negative results reported as plainly as positive ones.
from €6.5008 working days
Technology and maturity assessment
A technology on your roadmap — quantum sensing, integrated photonics, a new radio or modelling approach — assessed for how mature it really is, how long it would realistically take to deploy, which groups and suppliers matter, and whether published performance survives contact with your constraints.
from €4.5005 working days
Measurement campaign design
Designing a trial that will actually settle the question: what to measure, how many times, under which conditions, and what the result will and will not let you conclude. Optionally the analysis afterwards, statistics included.
from €5.000quoted on scope
Second opinion
An existing report, model or supplier claim read critically: what it establishes, what it assumes without saying so, and what it does not cover. Useful before a board signs off on someone else’s conclusion.
quoted3–5 working days

For the board

Evidence that holds up when someone pushes back

A technical study is usually commissioned because a decision is contested — between engineering and commercial, between a company and its customer, or between a company and a regulator. What matters then is not the conclusion but whether it survives examination.

Every study states its assumptions, its uncertainty, and what would change the conclusion. It is written so that someone who disagrees with it can see exactly where to disagree. That is harder to produce than a recommendation, and it is the only kind of report worth putting in front of a board.

Independence is the point. There is no product, no licence and no follow-on implementation contract behind the recommendation — which is why the answer is allowed to be no.

How it works

Four steps, no retainer, no lock-in

A scoping session. Forty-five minutes on the question and the decision behind it, and a written one-page summary afterwards. No cost. If it is not a fit, you hear that here.

A fixed quote and a list of what is needed. Price, date and scope in writing, with exactly what is required from you. The clock starts when that is complete.

The work, then one round of revisions. If the question changes, the change is quoted rather than quietly absorbed.

A written answer. Including what is uncertain, what was assumed, and what would change the conclusion.

Contact us

Describe the question

One paragraph on the technical question and the decision it feeds is enough to book a scoping session — or to get an honest answer that it is not a fit.

hcordova@qumindai.nl Based in the Netherlands. Work is carried out inside the EU and data does not leave it.