Mina Baniasad

Mina Baniasad is co-founder and CEO of OptiZone, an EPFL spin-off based at EPFL Innovation Park in Lausanne. OptiZone develops a wearable that estimates dynamic knee valgus loading, the main risk factor for injuries of the anterior cruciate ligament. The device flags athletes at risk and gives personalised prevention guidance; in validation with a FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence it predicted 78 percent of injuries. The company starts with elite athletes.

Baniasad began the work in 2011 by setting up a clinical motion analysis laboratory and later developed the wearable version at EPFL, where she worked as a postdoctoral researcher and scientist. Her research on knee biomechanics includes a 2022 paper in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology on decomposing the knee adduction moment.

She founded OptiZone with CTO Soroush Bagheri. The company received Venture Kick funding in 2025, won the innovation prize and the public prize at the PERL awards of the Lausanne region the same year, and won the Startup Champions Seed Night at EPFL in 2026.