We’re proud to celebrate a major milestone in the mission to make Artificial Intelligence more human-centred. Following our update in May 2025 regarding the successful completion of the EXPLAIN project, we have more news to share: the project was officially honoured with the ITEA Award of Excellence for Innovation during a ceremony in Estoril, Portugal, late last year.
To put the scale of this win into context, the ITEA program (the Eureka Cluster on software innovation) manages a vast global network of over 350 projects and 2,400 partners. Out of the dozens of active, multi-million Euro initiatives currently running across 36 countries, the Award of Excellence is an incredibly exclusive honour.
In 2025, EXPLAIN was one of only four projects selected for this recognition. Being singled out in the Innovation category is a massive achievement for Mek and our partners. It underscores the importance of the work we’ve done to bring “Explainable AI” to the factory floor, proving that our approach to transparent, operator-friendly AI technology is leading the way for the entire European software innovation community.
The Bigger Picture: What is EXPLAIN?
The EXPLAIN project (Explanatory Interactive Artificial Intelligence for Industry) was a major European collaboration involving 15 partners across Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands. It was run by ITEA and supported by national funding agencies, including the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) in our region.
The goal was to solve a massive hurdle in manufacturing: the “trust gap” in AI. While AI has enormous potential, it is often held back because it acts as a “black box” that experts can’t easily understand. EXPLAIN set out to create a new way for humans and AI to actually work together.
By the project’s conclusion in May 2025, the consortium delivered a suite of eight industrial prototypes and a specialised MLOps infrastructure. The project also produced a comprehensive XAI Guidebook, providing a clear roadmap for companies to implement transparent and explainable AI in their own industrial processes.
Mek’s Role: Bringing AI to the Factory Floor
As a core industrial partner, Mek focused on the practical application of AI within electronics manufacturing. We worked to take high-level AI research and turn it into practical tools for real-world inspection.
Our contribution focused on empowering operators by:
- Visualising Decisions: Developing tools like heatmaps that highlight the exact area of a PCB that triggered an AI flag, removing the guesswork.
- Building Operator Trust: Moving beyond a simple “Pass/Fail” to provide actionable insights.
- Real-World Application: Ensuring these advanced algorithms can eventually work seamlessly within high-speed AOI and SPI inspection workflows.
A Collaborative Achievement
We are honoured to share this Award of Excellence with our partners, including industrial leaders like ABB, Signify, and Prodrive Technologies, as well as academic pioneers from TU Delft, the University of Hildesheim, and Umeå University.
Leading the AI Evolution
The breakthroughs from the EXPLAIN project have provided us with a powerful foundation for the future. While our 3D inspection systems are already highly advanced, the insights gained from this project put Mek in a leading position to take AI-driven inspection further than ever before.
As we move through 2026, we are focused on evolving our technology so that AI isn’t just a hidden feature, but a transparent, reliable partner for our customers. By refining how our machines “explain” their findings, we are helping manufacturers achieve higher yields and more consistent results with every board.