The Energy Data Hackdays 2020 hackathon in Switzerland this past weekend marked a major milestone for VIA. This was the first time our Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™) software platform was used by multiple independent third-party analysts in a highly competitive and time-compressed environment. 

A team from Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) in Switzerland used TAC™ to analyze data in the US and Asia. No data was transferred to the analysts.

The HSLU team wearing their VIA t-shirts while using TAC™ as their data analysis platform during last weekend’s hackathon.

Why was this significant?

Swiss law prohibits many different types of data from leaving the country. This means:

1. In many cases, cloud services cannot be used to store data (e.g., AWS does not have servers in Switzerland) 
2. Use of foreign analysts, or international benchmarking and other kinds of analyses are impossible

This kind of “locally trapped data” is common across the globe. We have heard many companies who have subsidiaries in the EU, US, and China lament that they cannot analyze or compare data even internally.

VIA’s TAC™ platform was designed specifically to solve this problem (see Let’s TAC™ About It blog series for more details on how this works). For demo purposes, VIA also placed a smart meter dataset on an Azure server in Switzerland connected to TAC™. Analysts used Amazon AWS workstations hosted in the UK to analyze the data remotely.

Final hackathon presentation from Ben Bowler of HSLU.

Why use TAC™ during a hackathon? 

The promise of privacy-preserving analysis is compelling but it also has to be fast and easy. Can you really analyze data without seeing it? A hackathon is the perfect environment to validate this. That is, can analysts who are unfamiliar with this approach and the TAC™ platform learn it quickly enough to generate analytical results in a time restricted environment?

The answer at the Swiss hackathon was: yes.

Ben Bowler, Senior Research Associate – Intelligent Energy Systems, of HSLU said:

“For data analysts used to being the owner and master of their datasets, TAC™ represented a complete paradigm shift. It created the opportunity to access private, hidden datasets, allowing analysts to create insights from a global pool of data that would have been impossible without TAC™, even in a limited space of time. 

In a world where data privacy is becoming increasingly important, the ability to access data in this way will become essential. There were challenges and lessons to be learned in preserving data privacy using TAC™, but the support provided by the VIA team was excellent and allowed the analysts to equip themselves with the skills necessary to analyze sensitive data without transferring it from its owner. We are looking forward to taking the challenge forward, and are also investigating smart meter applications, where we see huge potential for this technology.”

The HSLU team was able to demonstrate that significant insights can be gained through TAC™ even while data remains remote. More details of the specific analysis will be featured in upcoming blogs.

Are you interested in a hackathon for your data while keeping it private and secure? Reach out to us at info@solvewithvia.com.

VIA, a leader in providing energy analytics while maintaining data privacy and security, has been awarded funding from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) for a project called KnowlEDGE. The joint proposal with Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), Romande Energie SA, and a major smart meter manufacturer, was the top ranked amongst submissions that were selected from a lengthy and highly competitive judging process.

“We are proud to have been selected as the top submission by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. Together with HSLU and Romande Energie, we will enhance VIA’s Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™) capabilities to run AI algorithms directly on smart meters, also known as edge computing,” said Jeremy Taylor, VIA’s Chief Scientific Officer.

The project will be delivered in Switzerland and led by HSLU. Ben Bowler, from HSLU, said, “this project is an exciting opportunity to bring together leading technology and advanced data science in a way that will benefit utilities and clean energy adoption both within Switzerland and globally.” 

Through the support of SFOE’s program, the collaborative will develop edge computing capabilities on smart meters. This will enable increased data privacy since data from individual meters will not be centralized.

The project will also increase temporal resolution of data, meaning more data can be analyzed more frequently. Traditional methods only allowed for 15, 30, or 60-minute intervals of smart meter data analysis due to the size of data and privacy concerns. With edge computing, this data can be analyzed every minute. This will allow real-time feedback to consumers on their energy usage and better preventative maintenance (e.g., upgrades to transformers because EVs are readily detected).

About VIA

VIA helps governments, regulators, and power companies deliver $200Bn in energy every year to more than 100 million customers. VIA’s privacy-preserving analytics software, Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™) reduces the cost and improves the quality of service of electricity transmission and distribution using AI and blockchain technologies. TAC™ (patents pending) is the bridge that securely connects power company data, distributed across many locations, to potential AI solutions. VIA established the Global Data Asset Collaborative™ (GDAC™), built on top of TAC™, to allow multiple companies to securely pool data for more accurate analytics. Headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, VIA has received an InnovateMass grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and has been featured in Wired and Inc. Magazine for its leadership in technology innovation. For more information, please visit www.solvewithvia.com.

James McWalter of Carbotnic, a podcast that covers cleantech founders and investors, interviewed VIA’s CEO, Colin Gounden for a podcast titled, “Energy and Data Silos”.

In the podcast, Colin answers questions about how VIA solves problems for utilities, data issues that hamper machine learning, VIA’s 30-Minute Pilot process, how COVID-19 has actually increased efficiencies of VIA’s teamwork, and more on company culture and recruiting.

To listen to the podcast, visit the Carbotnic website or click the play button below!

VIA, a leader in providing energy analytics while maintaining data privacy and security, is pleased to share that the company is moving its technology center from Griffintown to downtown Montreal. The move follows several months of scouting locations and gathering team needs and “wishlists”.

“In the last twelve months, VIA has grown five-fold and is set to double again this year. With this period of explosive growth, we needed a new location that met the needs of both our current and future team,” said Emma Fechney, VIA’s Head of People and Operations.

She continued, “We are excited to be part of the thriving AI network in Montreal. We aspire to make our space not only better suited to our growth but appealing to the academic and technical community by creating dedicated space for hosting future events and meetups. We made a decision to take an entire floor. This provides us increased room to accommodate both social distancing and growth.”

Key features of the new space includes four mother’s rooms, shower facilities, a non-binary bathroom, private access to our own floor, car parking, and space for bike storage. The new office is located just across the street from McGill University’s campus, has an exceptional view of Mont Royal, and is highly accessible by public transportation. McGill metro station is just a two-minute walk away.

Construction and personalization of the office space is currently underway. VIA is planning to allow optional attendance to the new office space beginning August 15th.

About VIA

VIA helps governments, regulators, and power companies deliver $200Bn in energy every year to more than 100 million customers. VIA’s privacy-preserving analytics software, Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™) reduces the cost and improves the quality of service of electricity transmission and distribution using AI and blockchain technologies. TAC™ (patents pending) is the bridge that securely connects power company data, distributed across many locations, to potential AI solutions. VIA established the Global Data Asset Collaborative™ (GDAC™), built on top of TAC™, to allow multiple companies to securely pool data for more accurate analytics. Headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, VIA has been featured in Wired and Inc. Magazine for its leadership in technology innovation. For more information, please visit www.solvewithvia.com.

VIA is pleased to announce the first two customer implementations of its TAC™ platform on multiple cloud infrastructures including AWS, AWS GovCloud (US), and Azure and mixed cloud environments (e.g., DVM on Azure and TAC™ nodes on AWS). 

“In order to serve VIA’s growing customer base, we have to interoperate with all major cloud provider platforms including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. For companies to benefit from pooling their data together (like our GDAC™ program does), we need to be able to support the cloud platforms where their data is located,” said Jeremy Taylor, VIA’s Chief Scientific Officer.

“Unlike other platforms, TAC™ brings analysts’ queries to the data. This means that analysis needs to be run wherever the customer has their data which could include any of the major cloud providers or even on premise. TAC™’s capability to run on both AWS and Azure expands the number of datasets available to train and test AI models,” explained Ashley DaSilva, VIA’s Team Leader, Product Development. 

For continued developments on VIA’s TAC™ platform, be sure to see the latest on our website.

VIA’s Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder, Kate Ravanis, was interviewed by The Tech Tribune for its Profile of a Founder blog. The blog features founders of companies selected by The Tech Tribune as the “Best Tech Startups,” from cities in the US. VIA was included as one of eight companies on the 2020 Best Tech Startups in Somerville list.

In the interview, Kate gives some insight on how VIA got its start, challenges along the way, and what the future holds for the company. She also gives some thoughtful advice for aspiring entrepreneurs:

“We have lots of values at VIA that I live by every day. I think the one that is most important and has made the most impact on my career is “love in = love out”. The idea behind the value is if you love what you do, it will show in all your interactions with colleagues, clients, and work. There are so many challenges that you will encounter on your journey, and it is often hard to see how you will get beyond them. I have found just focusing on the things that I truly believe in and the reasons that got me started in the first place have translated to stronger partnerships, customer relationships, and ultimately a team of colleagues who will stick by you until you come out successful on the other side.”

For the full interview, check out The Tech Tribune’s blog.

VIA is pleased to share that we have been selected as one of 17 companies, out of over 130 applicants, for the next round of EPRI’s Incubatenergy Labs Challenge. As part of being a finalist in the program, VIA will participate in Challenge Pitch Day in the beginning of April.

Incubatenergy Labs was created to connect innovative startups in the energy space with major utilities for demonstration projects. Erik Steeb, who leads the Incubatenergy Labs program at EPRI said of the selected group of startups:

“The finalists’ applications outline technologies that may provide electric power customers effective energy management solutions and utilities new tools to maintain system quality, reliability, and efficiency while supporting sector-wide decarbonization.”

For more information, see EPRI’s recent announcement.