Let’s TAC™ About It: Models for Private Data Service

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For the second installment of our blog series, we will cover VIA’s Models for Private Data (MPD) service. So, are you ready to TAC™ about it?

Companies are awash with data. To make sense of the growing data volume, AI models continue to proliferate in number and improve in performance. Even better, many of the best models are open sourced. Leading companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others have made freely available AI models for everything from facial recognition to text analysis. 

So, why aren’t more companies taking advantage of these models for analysis of their corporate data?

One of the top challenges is data privacy. Many companies are fearful of sending their data to the cloud or to an external AI provider. Data and AI regulations from Europe (GDPR) to California (CCPA) are complex to navigate. Even without government oversight, companies worry about the reputational cost of a real or perceived privacy violation. 

VIA’s TAC™ platform solves this with its Models for Private Data (MPD) service. 

TAC™’s MPD service makes machine learning models available for download and easy incorporation into data science workflows. This has the dual benefit of eliminating the need to send data outside the organization or to the cloud and also the need to have internal AI experts to run state of the art machine learning models. The result is that data is kept private and secure.

As an example, imagine a company capturing images about their equipment to identify corrosion. Through TAC™’s MPD service, a data scientist can choose a corrosion analysis model (e.g., a pre-trained TensorFlow algorithm) and easily incorporate that model into their workflow. The MPD service accomplishes this by using containers to make the models easily accessible through their Python scripts. The models use input from their local databases and return a list of predictions locally. Data remains on premise in their local VPC at all times. This is one way that we keep data private across our Global Data Asset Collaborative™ (GDAC™) with multiple energy utilities.

Stay tuned for a video demo of this service in the coming weeks!

VIA’s TAC™ Simultaneously Runs on Multiple Cloud Platforms

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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 Hosting First Installment of GDAC™ Virtual Mini-Series

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VIA is proud to host the first session of its GDAC™ Virtual Mini-Series on June 24th at 5:oopm ET. Participants in the mini-series include GDAC™ founding members and features a presentation from Andrew Bright, former ABB executive and VIA advisor.

Need a laugh?

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We’re back at it – this time giving you some laughs from our remote team. See our video below for the funniest moments since working remotely.

 

 

Meet the Team: Annvie Nguyen, UX Designer

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Through a Q&A-style interview, you will hear from VIA team members about things like a typical day at the office and favorite foods.

What does a typical day at VIA look like for you?

The only typical part about my days at VIA is that it changes every day! As the go-to media person, I’m lucky to have the opportunity to collaborate with different teams and work on a variety of projects. Some days, I’ll be working on filming and editing videos for VIA (check out the careers video produced by yours truly). Others, I’ll get to flex my design eye and work with our developers to create user interfaces for our products. Today, I’m updating our website and writing a fabulous blog.

What’s something you have worked on at VIA that you are most proud of?

There are so many cool things I want to talk about, it’s difficult to choose!

For one, I really enjoyed working on the interface for the GDAC™ Transformers  30-Minute Pilot. In that project, I designed the user experience for a data analysis demo. It presented an interesting challenge: how can we make complex analysis simple for others to understand, operate by themselves, and see the value? I was able to participate from the conceptualization stage all the way to the user interface and experience. It was so rewarding to see the pilot go from its baby stages to a full-fledged site.

What’s your favorite VIA memory?

My favorite VIA memory might have to be this past holiday party. We made gingerbread houses, ate some delicious desserts (essential to the VIA brand), and played a ridiculous reindeer ring toss game that had us crying with laughter. Hats off to Jackie for being our star party planner!

via GIPHY

 

If you were given an extra hour in your day, what would you spend it doing?

I can’t deny that I’d be playing Animal Crossing on Nintendo.

What’s your go-to food?

Nothing can outrank my comfort food of choice: a nice, warm bowl of pho. It’s Vietnam’s most famous noodle soup, light but also flavorful. But to me, it’s like getting a hug from Grandma.

What’s something everyone may not, but should know about working at VIA?

You should know that at VIA we’re always working on improving ourselves. With retrospectives at the end of each sprint, open ears during one-on-one’s, and offsites each year, being open to feedback is an essential part of VIA culture.

Working Remotely? Us too!

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Along with people all over the world, the VIA team has adjusted to a new normal over these last few months. 

Given our distance apart, we asked some of our team members what they look forward to each day of working remotely.

Check out our video below to see what our team has to say (spoiler: this will give you all the feels!)

 

 

Colin Gounden Presenting at EDP Innovation Immersion Program Virtual Event

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VIA’s Colin Gounden has been invited to speak at EDP’s Innovation Immersion Program virtual event on May 14th. The program was developed internally at EDP “to promote innovation within the group and establish EDP as a leading player in the global energy market.” Colin will give a presentation on how VIA’s software platform, Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™) can help companies like EDP unlock the value of their data.

Tracxn Includes VIA in “Top Renewable Energy Tech” List

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Tracxn, a market research platform that tracks startups, private companies, and innovative sectors, has included VIA for the second time this year in one of its 2020 Emerging Startups lists. In January, VIA earned a spot on their “Top Emerging Blockchain Startups” list. This time, VIA is among nine companies in the “Top Renewable Energy Tech” list and is again considered a “Minicorn.”

Tracxn describes what it means to be one of their Emerging Startups:

“Tracxn Emerging Startups provides a handpicked selection of high growth and high potential companies, founded since 2013, that are making an impact in the new-age sectors. The shortlisting is based on a combination of multiple publicly available signals and detailed analysis of the company by our internal sector specialist teams. The companies that make the cut are the ones that show promising performance on multiple parameters – market size, investment by marquee investors, execution excellence and future growth prospects.”

For more on the “Top Renewable Energy Tech” list, visit the Tracxn website.

 

VIA and HSLU Co-Presenting at Virtual SUEID 2020 Event in June

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VIA’s Joe Babiec will be co-presenting alongside Ben Bowler and Antonios Papaemmanouil of the Lucerne School of Engineering and Architecture at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences (HSLU). VIA and HSLU met during the SUEID event in 2019 and have since been working on a collaboration. The virtual event will take place on June 4th beginning at 10:30am ET, with VIA and HSLU’s joint presentation at 11:15am ET.

Kate Ravanis Interviewed for Profile of a Founder Blog

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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.

The Tech Tribune Includes VIA in 2020 Best Tech Startups in Somerville

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VIA is pleased to share that we have been included in The Tech Tribune’s 2020 Best Tech Startups in Somerville list. The list includes eight startups in Somerville with solutions that range from 3D printing to 360 degree smart video conferencing cameras to software for the rental real estate market.

According to the Tech Tribune, there were four factors in deciding the top startups including (1) revenue potential, (2) leadership team, (3) brand / product traction, and (4) competitive landscape. 

For the full list of startups, check out their website.

 

Meet the Team: Emma Fechney, Senior Lead, People and Operations

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Through a Q&A-style interview, you will hear from VIA team members about things like a typical day at the office and favorite foods.

What does a typical day at VIA look like for you?

One of the things that I love about my job is that for me, there is no such thing as a “typical day.” Because my role encompasses the entire candidate and employee experience, there are often lots of different projects going on at any moment. Examples include planning recruitment events, working with the team on our professional development program, or even ordering a whole lot of pizza for our regular lunch and learn sessions.

I always try to start my day by consulting my to do’s and then from there, it can be a mixture of meetings, catch-ups with team members, interviews, or planning the next team event.

What motivates you to come to the office each day?

People! I am motivated by the idea of enhancing people’s work experience, whether it’s exploring ways to support professional development or strengthening the connection between our team and our vision. Plus, finding ways to celebrate and have fun together never gets old!

What’s something you have worked on at VIA that you are most proud of?

Introducing Lattice, our performance management platform, was a big win for me. Lattice is a tool that helps us plan and track goals, organise 1:1’s, and is an excellent vehicle for supporting a feedback-rich culture. We love the integration with our #shoutouts channel on Slack for constant praise and appreciation! (Not a paid plug, I promise).

What’s your favorite VIA memory?

My first official day is something that sticks out. Not only were lots of pastries involved, but the whole office pushed pause in whatever they were doing to welcome me over breakfast and to get to know more about me and my background. This really set the tone of inclusivity and respect that has not faded since!

If you were given an extra hour in your day, what would you spend it doing?

The angel on my shoulder says learning french, but the devil on the other says catching up on some z’s.

What’s your go-to food?

I can’t go past a really good Kiwi meat pie!

What’s something everyone may not, but should know about working at VIA?

In addition to being a kick-ass energy tech company, our team could have a side career in the food industry. Everyone is either an excellent home cook and/or just genuinely enjoys the ritual of eating great food.

Meet the Team: John Muddle, Team Lead, Data Science

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Through a Q&A-style interview, you will hear from VIA team members about things like a typical day at the office and favorite foods.

What does a typical day at VIA look like for you?

My typical workday starts with a coffee, from either one of the local third-wave coffee shops or the machine at work. Once I’m settled, I look at my calendar and plan my day, this can be anything from looking at notes from a previous meeting to making sure I’ve booked a room. When that’s complete, I look for something I can quickly finish before Scrum of Scrums or continue with the task from the day before.

Each day at 10:30, I attend Scrum of Scrums. As a technical lead, I need to know how my epic is progressing, so typically, I will check in with my colleagues before the meeting for any updates and check that the JIRA board reflects our current progress. Typically, there are a few meetings to take a deeper dive on topics raised at Scrum of Scrums. These are a great way to make sure that we are aligned across our epics and to share knowledge. 

Having conditioned myself over many years that 12 o’clock means lunchtime, I take a break at 12 to either buy lunch or heat up some leftovers. Lunch is a great opportunity to socialize with my colleagues on different epics and to give my brain some time to process in the background. Conversations range from the latest computer game, movies, and hockey, but mostly food. 

After lunch, my afternoons consist of meetings, customer calls, and development time. My time tends to be split into hour-long chunks which I’ve planned out in the morning. A lot of my work revolves around supporting my colleagues by answering questions, problem-solving, and pair-programming. One of the favourite ways to tackle a problem is to jump into a spare room and rubber duck the problem. Basically, by describing a problem to a rubber duck, you verbalise the issues you are facing and through this process, you tend to have a better understanding of your problem. Luckily, VIA has hired people rather than rubber ducks, so in fact, you can also get feedback, questions, and suggestions from your colleagues. 

At the end of the day, which is typically signaled by the sending of GIFs on Slack that it’s home time, I make sure to leave my work in a state that allows me to continue the next day.

What’s something you have worked on at VIA that you are most proud of?

At VIA, I have had the opportunity to work on many different projects. I’m proud of every single one of them, but if I have to choose one, then I am most proud of the GDAC™ Transformers project. The reason I have chosen this project is because it is the first application built on top of TAC™. I’m proud to have helped develop TAC™, but it’s even better to use it for the benefit of our partners. The partnership aspect is another element that makes me proud to have worked on GDAC™ Transformers. I have worked closely with our partners for almost a year and to see how far we’ve come together is fantastic. Having had the opportunity to meet our partners in person, I was able to see how the work we have done together will benefit them going forward.

What’s your favorite VIA memory?

VIA is a great place to work, I have so many memories from my time here. One that stands out to me, in particular, was “Game Night”. Each offsite (a company-wide in-person event where we talk about wins, solve project challenges, and plan for the next big thing) typically has an activity where we have a chance to socialize such as bowling, mini-golf, and a scavenger hunt. But, nothing quite beats seeing your own office converted, in-secret, to the ultimate “Game Night” experience to the point where it is almost unrecognizable and something I will never forget.

If you were given an extra hour in your day, what would you spend it doing?

One thing I say to myself quite often is “If only I had more time”, but what would I do with that extra time. If I had an extra hour in my day, I would like to improve my French. Montreal is a fantastic bilingual city and very little French is actually necessary, but to really appreciate its culture and to get the full Quebecois experience a good handle on French is essential.

What’s your go-to food?

My go-to food has to be a sandwich, you can’t beat the convenience, variety, and taste of a good sandwich. In particular, I’m a big fan of a bacon butty, which, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is a very basic sandwich with bacon and butter filling. Bacon buttys tend to be eaten in the morning at home or out and about. They are an excellent way to start the day if camping, at a sports event, or just a day of gardening.

What’s something everyone may not, but should know about working at VIA?

If you have the pleasure of working at VIA then you should know that using GIFs in presentations and on Slack is encouraged. Communicating context and meaning using just text can be difficult at times, but GIFs can add so much more. A strong GIF game is essential to signal it’s time to go home, go to the pub, play badminton, get bread, or celebrate the latest prize that VIA has won.

 

 

Meet the Team: Antoine Dozois, Software Developer

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We’re thrilled to launch a new blog series at VIA called “Meet the Team.” Through a Q&A-style interview, you will hear from VIA team members about things like a typical day at the office and favorite foods.

What does a typical day at VIA look like for you?

Like most startups, we are working on lots of exciting projects. Here are some of the challenges that I’m involved in on a daily basis.

  1. Infrastructure: This means having the right data storage and resources through AWS necessary for our workloads. This is in constant evolution because every new project or project phase has different needs. So, we always look for improvements ranging from storage capacity and ease of use to performance and access management.
  2. Data (management, cleaning, processing): To deliver the best AI solution, data needs to be widely available, in the proper format, with good workflow, and overall managed well. This part of the work is more around trying to structure the workflow and the processes involved in the team’s recurrent tasks. We also need to understand the data to manipulate it and find insights that are most relevant for our customers and internal teams.
  3. Building software to empower the team: Software can be built to access data, compute some metrics, build a machine learning model, or display some insight. We build libraries to help us automate and optimize our workflow. Overall, we are always trying to create efficiencies internally through streamlining and automating recurring tasks.
  4. Collaborating with the team: This relates to reviewing code, meeting to organize our work, and helping each other when needed.

What’s something you have worked on at VIA that you are most proud of?

It is hard to pick just one piece of work that I am the most proud of since we are tackling lots of exciting new projects and challenges. But, in the first months of being at VIA, I wrote code to help us better ingest and manage data. It was the first time that I was put in charge of developing some code to solve a problem and make tasks more efficient for the team. We still use part of the code today and are continuously improving it. I think it was a real issue and being able to solve that problem was really rewarding.

What’s your favorite VIA memory?

My first offsite was really special for me, it was the first time I saw the whole team in-person and was able to learn more about every member of the team. It was also really nice to learn about the next challenges we were going to take on as a company.

If you were given an extra hour in your day, what would you spend it doing?

I like to learn, so anything from reading, learning a new skill, watching a documentary, or building something new would be mostly what I would use that hour for.

What’s your go-to food?

As a proud Montrealer (born and raised) I must go with Poutine (from La Banquise for the best in Montreal). I wouldn’t eat it every day because it is not the healthiest food, but I never say no to Poutine when proposed to me.

What’s something everyone may not, but should know about working at VIA?

The different backgrounds and diversity of every person in the company makes it a unique and fun workplace.

 

 

VIA Selected as a Finalist for EPRI’s Incubatenergy Labs Challenge

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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.