The tension between long-term planning and short-term flexibility is everywhere, including data science methodology. Is it possible for product development teams to reconcile rapid iteration with the slow-moving behemoth of the deep research process, or must they pick one? Spoiler alert: not only is it possible to reconcile fast and slow approaches to data science experiments, but the lessons BrainQ has learned along the way offer a roadmap your team can follow. BrainQ's mission is to treat neuro-disorders with AI-powered technologies. If you were about to humor our discussion of agility, that probably stopped you in your tracks -- we're dealing with a behemoth's behemoth: medical research data science.

BrainQ, an Israel-based startup that aims to help stroke victims and those with spinal cord injuries treat their injuries with the help of a personalized electromagnetic treatment protocol, today announced that it has raised a $5.3 million funding round on top of the $3.5 million the company previously raised. When we last talked to BrainQ earlier this year, the team was working on two human clinical trials for stroke patients in Israel. At that time, the company had closed its first funding round and had also recently started to work with Google's Launchpad Accelerator, too. The general idea behind BrainQ is to use the patient's brainwaves to generate a tailored treatment protocol. No AI company would be complete without data -- it's what drives these algorithms, after all -- and the company says it owns one the largest Brain Computer Interface-based EEG databases for motor tasks. It's that database that allows it to interpret the patient's brain waves and generate its treatment protocol.

Israel-based BrainQ is a new nuerotech startup hoping to take on brain-computer interface (BCI) companies like Braintree founder Bryan Johnson's Kernel and Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk's Neuralink. It's not clear yet what Musk's startup intends to do with the computer chips it plans to put in our heads but Johnson's startup says it is focused on developing "technologies to understand and treat neurological diseases in new and exciting ways." Whatever sector each company goes for, both plan to insert chips in our brains to connect us to computers -- the consequences of which could have dramatic effects on human memory, intelligence, communication and many other areas that could rocket humanity forward, should they work out. But it's early days in this industry, including for BrainQ, which plans to use a non-surgically embedded EEG machine instead to gather data and help improve outcomes for stroke and spinal cord patients. Aside from the brain implant options, BrainQ faces quite a bit of competition in this area.

With the mandate of fostering an ecosystem of applied machine learning startups, Google on Wednesday revealed the first four companies to join its Launchpad Studio and said this initial track is aimed squarely at healthcare and biotech. It--s no secret that Google and rivals Amazon, Apple, IBM and Microsoft are eyeing the $2.7 trillion healthcare market as fertile ground for technological disruption--though it appears Google is the first of the titans to formally establish a program for working with startups specific to the industry. The first four startups, Augmedix, BrainQ, Byteflies and Cytovale, get what Google deftly described as --equity-free support,-- and access to Google mentors, community engagement as well as datasets and testing environments for prototyping, as examples. Augmedix is working to minimize the time doctors spend on a computer during patient visits by leveraging Google Glass to automate scribing and collect audio, video and written notes then use natural language processing to help clinicians make sense of that information. Cantor described BrainQ as a research project concentrating on taking advances in neural networks and applying machine learning to signal processing to develop customized treatment protocols for people who cannot walk anymore, whether because of a stroke, spinal or brain injuries.

With the mandate of fostering an ecosystem of applied machine learning startups, Google on Wednesday revealed the first four companies to join its Launchpad Studio and said this initial track is aimed squarely at healthcare and biotech. It's no secret that Google and rivals Amazon, Apple, IBM and Microsoft are eyeing the $2.7 trillion healthcare market as fertile ground for technological disruption -- though it appears Google is the first of the titans to formally establish a program for working with startups specific to the industry. "Launchpad Studio is the accelerator engine of Google," said Malika Cantor, Program Manager for Launchpad Studio. "We're focused on machine learning startups, we look at technology problems and want to bridge the gap between healthcare and the frontier tech industry because there's a lot of promise but general skepticism about the role AI and machine learning will play." The first four startups, Augmedix, BrainQ, Byteflies and Cytovale, get what Google deftly described as "equity-free support," and access to Google mentors, community engagement as well as datasets and testing environments for prototyping, as examples.