QuesTek Innovations LLC has been named to TechRound’s 2024 Saas66, a list of the most innovative SaaS companies and initiatives. This recognition is based on the success of the ICMD® Materials Design and Engineering Platform, which was launched last year. The cloud-based platform puts the power of QuesTek’s Materials by Design® technology into the hands of its subscribers. 

This is the second recognition QuesTek has received from TechRound, the United Kingdom’s best-known and fastest-growing startup and tech news site. Earlier this year, QuesTek was also named to TechRound’s Sustainability60 list, reinforcing its commitment to a sustainable future.   

Here is the write-up that accompanied QuesTek’s placement in the Saas66: 

QuesTek Innovations is a materials engineering firm that recently launched the ICMD® Materials Design and Engineering Platform, a SaaS for materials engineering, qualification and certification. ICMD® allows clients to design their own materials using the systems, models and educational materials the company has developed over its 25 year history. QuesTek has locations in Chicago, Sweden and Tokyo.

Launched in July 2023, the cloud-based SaaS enables the digital transformation of materials engineering and the materials value chain for organizations of all types. Innovative companies, including Daido Steel, Caterpillar, and Aubert & Duval, have subscribed to the groundbreaking technology to innovate and resolve their materials-based challenges.

Even before the launch of its SaaS, QuesTek has long empowered innovators through engagements that utilized physics-based digital modeling to develop novel materials that meet specified needs. The Materials by Design® technologies developed by QuesTek have enabled new products and new thresholds of performance with clients across a wide range of industries, including aerospace, automotive, energy, medical devices, consumer electronics and luxury goods. It is both a market leader and a pioneer in Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME), the foundational technology of ICMD®.

ICMD® — which stands for “Integrated Computational Materials Design” — allows organizations to bring the proven physics-based models and technologies at the heart of QuesTek engagements in-house with the option of additional support and collaboration with QuesTek engineers.

ICMD® is built on computational models developed by QuesTek in order to resolve client challenges in hundreds of engagements, including those completed on behalf of clients such as NASA, SpaceX, Apple, GM, Boeing and Audi. The software also uses state-of-the-art AI and machine learning techniques when it is relevant and beneficial to solving a particular materials challenge.

This technology facilitates and streamlines materials concurrency — the simultaneous development of high-performance products and novel materials that enable them. In addition to designing novel materials to enable greater performance, clients can use the breadth of toolkits in the platform to benefit a range of materials processes, such as using the qualifications toolkit within ICMD® to dramatically speed up the process of testing and certifying materials.

ICMD® can shave years off the timeline of qualifying new materials in industries such as space exploration and medical devices, where materials innovation is increasingly an effective means to advance performance and differentiate products. One subscribing client told QuesTek that “individual engineers were able to save between 20 and 80 percent of the time it took for various steps or phases of delivering service engagements.”

The software is also a highly effective tool to help OEMs and suppliers meet sustainability targets through lightweighting and developing alloys with greener compositions that exclude or minimize rare earth elements.

With ICMD®, QuesTek is able to dramatically increase the reach and impact of its expertise while bringing greater scale to its mission to drive innovation through materials science.