This year’s Power Up! had a $1,000 prize for the team that found an easy way for AI to boost productivity at VIA. We share the winning team’s solution and are open sourcing it for the developer community.
We’re pleased to launch VIA GPT as a way for our customers to get first line technical support on our core components.
VIA’s company culture and mission-driven initiatives are featured in a recent ESG report published by the Westly Group.
It’s that time of year again! We’re gathering up our VIAneers for a three-day company-wide event we call Power Up! During the hybrid event, team members will get together in Somerville, Montreal, and join virtually to work together to stop “bumping our heads” #IYKYK. The theme of this Power Up! is “Bringing your A(I) Game!”. With Generative AI on the rise, we’re brainstorming ideas, collaborating on topics, and having a healthy competition for the best Generative AI project, with the goal of harnessing the power of GAI and LLM. Follow along on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, as we share more on our Power Up!
VIA is honored to be featured as a top emerging company for the third time by Tracxn. The most recent award is for achievements in renewable energy tech.
Mark your calendars for June 27th from 2:30 – 3:15pm ET: VIA is hosting a live streamed event (on YouTube) where CEO Colin Gounden will interview Senior Director, Communications and Policy at Circle and former White House Correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, Jared Favole 
. This exclusive interview will cover the intersection of blockchain and domestic and foreign policy. Don’t miss out – RSVP on the LinkedIn event page and select the option to add to your calendar 
#blockchainunboxed
VIA’s CEO Colin Gounden was invited to participate on a panel at Harvard’s Belfer Center in late April. The Web3 insights from the workshop are included in a comprehensive report.
VIA’s CEO Colin Gounden has been invited to speak as a panelist during the session “Challenges of Data Use in the Evolving Smart Grid” on July 19, 2023 from 8:00 – 10:00am ET. The panel is sponsored by the IEEE Digital Privacy Initiative.
The panel is part of the larger conference taking place from July 16 – 20, 2023 at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando, FL. The theme of this year’s conference is “Meeting the Energy Needs of a Dynamic World”. Bringing leaders in the electrical and power engineering industry together, the event will cover an array of topics from decarbonization to best practices during extreme weather events.
To register and learn more, visit the event website: 
Registration
This comprehensive report covers the ways organizations are using blockchain to support global sustainability efforts.
TiE has invited VIA’s CEO Colin Gounden to speak on the panel “Activating Capital for Transitioning to a Low Carbon Economy.” The panel takes place at 9:45am on Friday, April 28th at TiECON East 2023 in Waltham, Massachusetts. TiECON East brings together industry leaders, innovators, and emerging entrepreneurs.
According to TiE’s website, “TiE Boston is focused on supporting entrepreneurs throughout their lifecycle — from ideation to creation, through growth, wealth creation and ultimately, support of future founders. By encouraging collaboration between our members throughout the entrepreneurial process, with programs, events, other forums created by entrepreneurs, TiE has created a repeatable cycle to foster the next generation of entrepreneurship.”
Register and learn more here: 
TiE Boston | TiECON EAST | Conference | Boston | Startups
VIA’s Chief Commercial Officer, Joe Babiec and Director, Client Delivery, Haden Snyder will be attending AFCEA TechNet Cyber 2023 in Baltimore, May 2-4, 2023. The event focuses on, “leveraging innovative technology, advancing cybersecurity and building new relationships between the military and industry sectors.” For more information on the event, visit the AFCEA website.
IEEE Power and Energy Society Switzerland has invited VIA’s CEO, Colin Gounden, to give a presentation during its online, interactive workshop, “NILM for demand response – solutions for the energy crisis.” Colin will talk about advances in privacy and security for NILM, more specifically, how VIA uses Web3 to address NILM data privacy concerns.
The workshop will take place on Thursday, May 11, 2023 from 9:00am – 12:00pm ET (3:00pm – 6:00pm Bern).
For more information and to register for the event, visit IEEE Switzerland PES Chapter’s page.
Harvard Belfer Center’s Technology and Public Purpose Project alongside Polygon Labs and Impact Plus invited VIA’s CEO Colin Gounden to speak on the intersection of sustainability, blockchain, and foreign policy at the invite-only Harvard Blockchain for Impact Workshop.
The half-day event, taking place on Tuesday, April 25th from 9:00am – 1:00pm, will explore “the potential of blockchain technology to promote positive social change in three domains: International Development, Public Goods, and Regenerative Economy.”
For more information, visit the Belfer Center event page.
AWS has invited VIA to join their panel session at the upcoming South by Southwest (SXSW) conference and festival. Joe Babiec, Chief Commercial Officer at VIA, will join a panel entitled “Space Data for Sustainability,” taking place at 1 PM CT on March 13th. Jason Cahill, Global Head of AWS Sustainable Cities, will moderate the session that will also include Myrna Bittner, CEO of Run With It, and Abhishek Dash, VP of Engineering at BlocPower.
VIA was selected to participate given its leadership role in Web3 for verification, integration, and analysis of private data, including space and satellite data. Join us as we look forward to hearing the insightful questions from Jason and the lively discussion from all the panelists.
Register here: 
Join Us at Capital Factory House During SXSW 2023
Polygon has invited VIA’s CEO, Colin Gounden, to speak at its upcoming invitation-only event in Washington D.C. on February 28th. The topic of the presentation will be VIA’s use of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and their application in real-world scenarios. Colin will host an interactive session during the event, and share case studies to give a look into where VIA’s technology has been implemented and its cybersecurity, data privacy, and data ownership benefits. Polygon and SID-US selected VIA based on our track record in deploying Web3 technologies at U.S. Government agencies like the Department of Defense, and more recently our testing of zero-knowledge proofs with the Department of Energy.
Learn more about the event here.
John is focused on implementing best practices for software development at VIA. He co-invented VIA’s core platform and currently develops, integrates, and quality assurance tests the platform for VIA’s applications.
Before VIA, John was a freelance consultant at the Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG), where he focused on updating their Python Library. Prior to this position, he was a technical sales support engineer at NAG in Oxford, where he developed technical marketing material and provided pre-sales assistance. John was awarded the best thesis in gravitation physics in 2016 by the Institute of Physics (IOP). His research focused on developing new numerical methods that capture the physical behavior of fluid interfaces permeated by high magnetic fields while taking into account relativistic effects.
John earned his master’s degree in physics and his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the University of Southampton.