Yiyao Technology (Wuhan) Co, a startup based in the Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone (Optics Valley of China, or OVC), has welcomed two distinguished international talents who will advance the company's pioneering efforts in glass storage technology.

Rokas Drevinskas, former chief researcher at Microsoft, has joined as a co-founder, chief scientist, and vice-president. Alongside him, Ausra Cerkauskaite who previously worked as an optical engineer at Light Conversion, has been appointed as a product designer.

Yiyao Technology holds a welcome ceremony for Rokas (left) and Ausra (right). [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

Founded in 2024 by a team from Huazhong University of Science and Technology led by researcher Zhang Jingyu, Yiyao Technology is devoted to developing glass-based multidimensional optical storage technology. This innovation aims to provide low-cost, nearly permanent data storage solutions.

The company's glass hard drives have already entered small-scale production and are being used in several domestic archives and hospitals. Each disk theoretically offers a capacity of up to 360TB, capable of storing 25,000 HD movies for over 100,000 years, with virtually zero offline energy consumption.

Zhang Jingyu (left) and a research team member discuss the technical solutions for glass-based hard drive storage. [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

Rokas, who relocated from the UK to OVC, said, "The high concentration of storage industry enterprises here provides fertile ground for developing glass-based storage technology, reinforcing my confidence in pursuing innovation in OVC."

In recent years, OVC has attracted a growing number of international talents. The zone aims to further draw top global experts, with plans to recruit over 10 leading scientists and more than 20 industry leaders this year, establishing a vital platform for talent exchange and collaboration.