Emirates Lab
Contact
Applied AI engineering studio · Est. 2020

A laboratory for
applied intelligence.

Principal-led boutique for enterprises that need real applied AI, not presentations. Based in London, working with partners across the Gulf and Europe.

A laboratory,
not an agency.

Emirates Lab was founded on a simple premise: artificial intelligence should be crafted with the same rigour as any serious scientific discipline — hypothesis, experiment, measurement, iteration.

This is a principal-led boutique. Every engagement is led directly by the founder — never handed off, never diluted through layers. Scope expands with carefully selected senior specialists only when a project genuinely requires it, keeping the bar consistently high.

We don't chase trends. We don't ship demos. We ship machinery that works in production.

  • Principal-led, always. The person designing the system is the one writing the critical code and sitting in every meeting.
  • Evaluation before training. If you can't measure it, you can't ship it. Metrics come first.
  • Production over demos. A working system in one workflow beats a deck of capabilities.
  • Rigour compounds. Small, careful iterations over months yield the reliable systems that matter.

Four capabilities,
one principal.

[01]
Autonomous Agents Multi-step AI agents that operate software, reason about goals, and complete knowledge work autonomously within defined guardrails.
[02]
Applied ML Custom forecasting, classification and recommendation models trained on your data, shipped with full MLOps pipelines and monitoring.
[03]
Generative Systems Production-grade generative AI pipelines for text, image and structured data — with evaluation frameworks and safety review from day one.
[04]
AI Strategy Executive advisory for leaders deploying AI at scale. Architecture reviews, team structures, build-vs-buy decisions, governance frameworks.

Six years shipping
production code.

From Dubai Internet City's innovation hub to front-end infrastructure for global fintech partners — across web, AI, and blockchain. Formal training from MIT, Oxford Saïd, Harvard, Cambridge, and Goldsmiths, University of London.

Every engagement starts as an experiment. No demos, no slideware — just working systems, instrumented from day one.

AI / ML Python · PyTorch · TensorFlow · Agents · LLMs
Backend Node.js · FastAPI · PostgreSQL · GraphQL
Frontend React · Next.js · TypeScript · Flutter
Infra AWS · Azure · Docker · CI/CD
Web3 Smart contracts · MIT Certificate
Experience 6+ years in production · Since 2019
Based Knightsbridge, London · Remote worldwide

Recurring problem
shapes.

Project Patterns are recurring problem shapes we've studied, scoped, or delivered for clients whose identity we protect under NDA.

Each pattern captures a class of problem, the technical approach, the phases of engagement, and the stack deployed. Real client details are shared during scoping.

Catalina Jorquera — Founder of Emirates Lab

Catalina Jorquera Velis

Founder & AI Engineer

Software engineer with six years building production systems — from Dubai Internet City's innovation hub, where I shipped AI-enhanced applications and blockchain solutions, to front-end infrastructure for global fintech partners. Currently reading Computer Science with a specialism in Data Science & Machine Learning at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Formal training
MIT Oxford · Saïd Harvard Cambridge Goldsmiths, UoL
Direct contact

Notes from the laboratory.

The laboratory works with
a limited number of partners
each year.

Write to the laboratory
ESC