VIA Accepted Into Plug and Play’s Energy and Sustainability Accelerator Program

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Joe Babiec, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives During Selection Day

VIA is pleased to share that we have been selected for the Spring 2019 cohort of Plug and Play’s Energy and Sustainability accelerator program. Plug and Play is one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent startup accelerators and venture investors. They connect competitively selected startups with their ecosystem of 280 major corporate partners and more than 200 VCs. Among the most notable program alumni are Paypal and Dropbox.

VIA is one of 15 companies chosen from more than 200 candidates to participate in Plug and Play’s intensive 10-week Energy and Sustainability program. During the final stage of the selection process in February, VIA’s own Joe Babiec pitched to a group of international utility companies and energy-focused venture capital firms.

Plug and Play’s Founder and CEO, Saeed Amidi, touches on the potential of the startups accepted into the program:

“It is fantastic to see such a talented group of entrepreneurs accepted into our programs. We aim to give our startups the best chance for success and these next three months will give them the tools and connections they need to thrive,” said Saeed Amidi, Founder and CEO of Plug and Play. “I am excited to see what they can accomplish when integrated into our ecosystem.”

For more information, see Plug and Play’s recent announcement.

 

BitcoinExchangeGuide.com Emphasizes Potential of GDAC

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BitcoinExchangeGuide.com (B.E.G.), considered one of the “fastest-growing bitcoin and blockchain media outlets on the Internet”, recently shared details of VIA and Vector’s GDAC™ announcement, and describes how it will help energy companies improve operations:

“The fact that this collaboration has VIA means that GDAC™ will be AI-based. And indeed it is at its core given that when it’s finally rolled out, GDAC™ will help power distribution corporations leverage Artificial Intelligence to foretell imminent power faults. Essentially, it will help them take a proactive approach when managing electricity transformers.

AI will also allow the company to conduct regular maintenance works on transformers safely and with greater precision. This way, the company will achieve significant operational efficiencies and subsequently deliver better services for its clients.”

For the full article titled “New Global Data Asset Collaborative (GDAC™) by VIA and Vector for Energy Transformer Data,” please visit their website.

VIA’s Joe Babiec Attends DistribuTECH Conference & Exhibition in New Orleans

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Earlier this month, VP, Strategic Initiatives, Joe Babiec attended DistribuTECH, the utility industry’s leading conference on electric power transmission and distribution. Hosted in New Orleans, the event featured speakers from Exelon, FERC, and Siemens, among others, and welcomed more than 12,000 attendees over two days.  

“Speakers like Paul Hinnenkamp of Entergy, and many vendors emphasized the importance of customer and operational data. A major theme of the conference was the value of gathering and analyzing this data in order to improve current operating efficiency and create new services. I spoke with representatives from a number of utilities about this issue, and I was delighted they felt that VIA’s TAC™ application offers a great solution to the difficult challenge of making customer and operational data more easily available for analysis,” remarked Joe.  

For more information on the event, please visit DistribuTECH’s website.

 

Vector and VIA Partner to Establish Global Data Asset Collaborative™ (GDAC™), a Multi-Company Transformer Database

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VIA is thrilled to announce our partnership with Auckland-based energy company, Vector, to build the world’s first privacy preserving, multi-company database for machine learning-ready transformer data, called the Global Data Asset Collaborative™ (GDAC™): Transformers.

Simon Mackenzie, Group Chief Executive Officer at Vector, comments on the importance of this collaborative:

“With a larger, smarter and more collaborative data asset like the GDAC™ we can refine the information we depend on to keep our network assets in the best possible shape. This is becoming increasingly important as we transition the network to meet the needs of the new energy future, where new technologies like distributed energy resources and battery storage will integrate with the network at scale. We have a responsibility to make this transition as efficiently as we can, and without burdening customers with excessive infrastructure costs. Improving our data and analytics capability will play a central role in that.”

To read the full press release, visit Vector’s website.

VIA’s Colin Gounden and Jeremy Taylor Attend Opening of Innovation Center Denmark in Boston

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Earlier this week, CEO Colin Gounden and CSO Jeremy Taylor were among a select group invited to the inauguration ceremony for Denmark’s Innovation Center in Kendall Square. VIA has established a presence within Denmark’s innovation community, thanks in large part to the support of Accelerace’s Cleantech program. This center is part of a partnership between the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Boston now joins Silicon Valley, Shanghai, Tel Aviv, Munich, New Delhi/Bangalore, Sao Paolo, and Seoul on the list of cities home to Danish Innovation Centers.

The new center will create opportunities for Danish researchers and companies to connect with Boston’s universities and cutting-edge start-ups, with a focus on cleantech and sustainable energy solutions.

Jeremy Taylor joined the roundtable discussion led by Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science Tommy Ahlers. “Denmark has established an innovation cluster for artificial intelligence and robotics. One topic we discussed was the challenge with supporting ongoing development of these technologies in a socially and ethically responsible way. Montreal recently released its Declaration for Responsible AI, and I think that could be a great roadmap for Danish researchers and entrepreneurs as well,” said Jeremy.

 

VIA Denmark Innovation VIA Denmark Innovation

Joe Babiec Speaks at EUCI Conference on Blockchain, Energy Sector

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In October, VIA’s Joe Babiec, VP, Strategic Initiatives, was invited to present at EUCI’s conference: “The Blockchain Technology Revolution: Implications for the Energy Sector”. Hosted in New Orleans, the event welcomed thought leaders and decision makers from leading utilities and energy providers, local government agencies, research organizations, and technology companies to discuss business use cases of blockchain in the energy industry.

In his session, “Valuation of Utility Data Through Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence”, Joe discussed the ways customers are using VIA’s TAC application to reduce costs and monetize operational data in secure and privacy-protected ways. He explained how TAC’s blockchain-enabled smart contracting capability allows data owners and analysts to reach agreements with one another much faster than by traditional methods, and with the confidence that the terms of their agreement will be observed by all parties.

Fellow presenter Kristen Brown, a principal of technology innovation at Exelon, touched on implications of the transformation taking place in the energy industry. Specifically, she called on energy companies to embrace the transition from business models that prioritize “pipelines” to new approaches that emphasize generating value from “platforms” that connect energy providers and consumers in new ways.

For information on upcoming EUCI conferences, visit their website.

VIA’s Joe Babiec Invited to Speak at Cleantech Group’s Executive Summit

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In October, Joe Babiec, VIA’s VP, Strategic Initiatives, was invited to speak at Cleantech Group’s Executive Summit, “Blockchain in Energy & Mobility”. The summit, hosted in New York, invited top leaders in energy and blockchain to discuss the technical, commercial, and regulatory challenges of scaling blockchain-based applications within the energy industry.

Joe spoke on the opening panel, which focused on the value propositions and business models being used by innovating companies like VIA. He explained how VIA’s Trusted Analytics Chain (TAC) application generates revenue by helping energy companies reduce operations and maintenance costs, and by providing secure, private data access to external analysts. Joe also noted that TAC has an important advantage as a new product: unlike some future-oriented blockchain applications, TAC helps energy companies address challenges and opportunities they already experience, so using TAC allows companies to realize substantial benefits right away.

VIA is now engaging in a series of proof of concept pilots to confirm TAC’s evolution from a prototype to a production-ready application. The company plans to officially launch TAC in 2019.

VIA CEO Colin Gounden Gives Keynote Speech at Siemens, Intelligent Energi Event

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Earlier this month, VIA CEO Colin Gounden gave the keynote speech during an event hosted at Siemens’ Denmark offices. The Danish Intelligent Energy Alliance, Intelligent Energi, organized the event for its members. Intelligent Energi’s goal was to encourage dialogue between network companies, suppliers, and academics about opportunities and challenges to adapt to variable and renewable generation in the electricity distribution network.

Colin shared VIA’s AI and blockchain expertise, with a particular focus on its AI results to improve operations and maintenance and its Trusted Analytics Chain (TAC) application. One major topic of discussion at the event was related to the massive transformation that electrification is having (e.g., changing consumption due to electric vehicles and electric heat pumps). In particular, participants agreed that to ensure the reliability of the grid under new stresses like electrification and renewables, improved sharing of digital information and AI are necessities.

So, You’ve Updated Your Privacy Policy

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If you’re like me, your inbox has been flooded since late April with emails announcing updates to privacy policies and terms of service. Consumer brands like Yelp and Etsy, social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, and, it seems, everyone in between all sent emails. It’s no coincidence. The newly implemented General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) means any company operating in the European Union (EU) needs to update its existing privacy policies to comply with this legislation. And as it turns out, that’s quite a lot of companies.

While it was specifically passed in the EU, GDPR has far-reaching implications for companies around the world. The policy addresses consumers’ growing need for transparency and privacy, which, at first glance, seem to be competing interests. But WIRED offers this helpful explanation: GDPR “gives people the right to ask companies how their personal data is collected”, stored, and being used, and to “request that personal data be deleted. It also requires that companies […] get your consent before collecting it.”

Consumers’ growing need for greater data privacy, security, and anonymity, as well as transparency from companies that collect data, extends to the energy industry. Smart meters are a great example of this: EU Member States “have committed to rolling out close to 200 million smart meters for electricity and 45 million for gas by 2020″, at which time it is “expected that almost 72% of European consumers will have a smart meter for electricity while 40% will have one for gas.”

In theory, utilities could leverage the massive volume of consumer data collected by these meters for AI initiatives that seek to improve predictive maintenance and energy efficiency. However, utilities don’t own this data, consumers do. And the EU wants to safeguard it. So, how can utilities balance consumers’ rights to data privacy, security, and anonymity, while leveraging this wealth of new information to improve service reliability and efficiency?

At VIA, we are enhancing our Trusted Analytics Chain (TAC) platform to address this challenge. TAC Permissions is a new feature that allows energy companies’ customers to determine who has access to their personal data and how it is used. Permissions are stored in TAC’s blockchain, making them immutable and auditable by consumers, corporate compliance departments, and government agencies. VIA’s solution helps to alleviate the tension between:

  • Customers’ needs to protect their data
  • Energy companies’ and algorithm providers’ needs to access data to develop and implement valuable services such as improved energy efficiency and reliability.

Smart meters are just one example of the many digitalization technologies that energy companies are using to transform their operations. The industry as a whole is more data-dependent than ever before. In parallel, consumers are more aware than ever of the consequences associated with misuse of their personal data. Legislation like GDPR requires companies to know and comply with customers’ preferences about using personal data. VIA is proud to offer TAC Permissions as a solution for ensuring that customers’ wishes are respected while AI initiatives yield new ways to improve service and efficiency.

Colin Gounden Shares Expertise on Panel at Elemental Excelerator’s Interactive Event

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VIA’s CEO Colin Gounden was handpicked to speak on a panel, moderated by California Energy Commissioner, Carla Peterman, at Elemental Excelerator’s (EEx) Interactive Event held in San Francisco last week. The panel, titled “Energy’s Digital Grid”, touched on the ways data is changing electrical grid operations in terms of predictability and visibility.

Over 200 people were in attendance, including some of the world’s largest utilities, as Colin talked about the ways VIA is applying artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to reduce risks associated with the aging electrical infrastructure. EEx captured a memorable quote from Colin, which was shared to Twitter:

For more information on VIA’s involvement in the EEx program, visit their website.

Iberdrola Innoday Recap: “We rely on power for everything”

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In late May, VIA was invited to Iberdrola’s Innoday at its international campus in Madrid, Spain. The invite-only event was attended by over 600 people, with 25 companies showcasing the latest technology innovations to hit the energy industry. There were a number of technologies like drones for wind turbine inspection and AI solutions for the electrical grid being exhibited at the event.

CEO Colin Gounden attended Innoday and was the only participant to both be invited to speak on stage and give an exclusive video interview with Iberdrola. In the interview, Colin talked about the current state of the energy industry, how it will change over time, and the critical role VIA will play in the future of the energy. Check out the full video interview below, featured on Iberdrola’s website:

 

Colin Gounden Presents at FERC Technical Conference

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Colin Gounden, CEO of VIA, gave a presentation last week at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) conference, “Increasing Market and Planning Efficiency and Enhancing Resilience through Improved Software.” This is the second time Colin has been selected to present at this invitation-only conference.

During his presentation, titled “AI for forecasting and resiliency in energy” Colin discussed the issues that limit AI learning to improve grid resiliency. These include too little data / signal, too much data, physically distributed data, and information privacy. His presentation focused on how VIA’s application, Trusted Analytics Chain (TAC), addresses these four common AI training data issues.

The three-day conference culminated with a final session with multiple speakers focused on the importance of data access and data sharing. There was widespread consensus from participants that improved access to energy data and modeling frameworks would allow faster and better analytical solutions. In particular, widening the scope for expert collaboration would have a dramatic impact on the quality of technical solutions that could improve grid resiliency and day ahead forecasting.

View the presentation slides:

For a copy of Colin’s presentation, please visit the FERC event page.

Six Values in Six Months: A Co-op Reflects

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My name is Meg Foley. I have worked as the marketing execution co-op at VIA’s Davis Square headquarters since January. And this is the story of how that became the most rewarding experience of my life (so far!).

That’s me!

In my two years at Northeastern University, I have already made major progress towards some of my life goals, like traveling the world, earning a college degree, and getting real-life work experience (and I still have three more years to go!). I studied abroad in Dublin my first semester, went to classes in Boston for the next two semesters, and worked at a startup in Davis Square for the past six months.

These experiences have all made me who I am today and my time at VIA is no exception. I gained essential professional experience, and each lesson stemmed from VIA’s company values.

Respect a good challenge and challenge with respect

We believe in facing challenges head-on with passion and excitement. We’ve created an environment where team members feel psychologically safe to raise alternative ideas and share their personal concerns, helping us reach better outcomes in the end.

The team loves to step out for ice cream on a hot day! And after a particularly warm day in February, J.P. Licks even featured one of our ice cream photos on their social media.

As the marketing execution co-op, one of my primary responsibilities was maintaining our Zoho CRM (a database that helps us manage all our relationships with our ever-expanding network). But more than just maintain this system, I made it my mission to make it even more efficient and effective. One component of that meant making data reports, like our sales pipeline, more visually appealing. To do this, I worked closely with VIA COO, Kate Ravanis, to hash out the goals and strategy for how this would work.

For me, the biggest challenge was putting my Excel knowledge to work and being patient with changing formats and preferences. Through many versions and rounds of feedback with VIA’s executive team, I eventually found a way to incorporate everyone’s input and all the essential details. Now that visual report is a part of the team’s biweekly demo, and this challenging project led to a new staple piece of internal communications!

Learning never goes out of style

Learning is all about feedback and trying new things. Each person, at every position in the company, has frequent feedback sessions with their manager to set goals and priorities, reflect on accomplishments, and discuss areas for improvement and additional support.

Somerville team at our brand launch (this was a huge deal to be a part of)

One of my friends, who is also on a co-op at another organization, was shocked to hear how often I speak with my supervisor on the marketing team. “I wish I could get any feedback at all!” he said. I was proud to have such an open line of communication, which has been so important and useful for my personal growth.

This open communication also meant I was able to speak up about projects I wanted to pursue, like becoming the VIA Culture Coordinator, and skills I wanted to develop, like written communication, so I was really able to shape my role at VIA to better fit me. With each new responsibility I took on, I created a comprehensive process guide so future co-ops can continue building on projects I started, like our new Instagram account. I hope these guides allow for many future smooth transitions from one co-op to another, and that it’s one way I can continue contributing to VIA’s learning-focused environment.

Be each other’s biggest fan

Everyone deserves a high five once in a while! The more we support each other, the more we encourage wide ranging contributions from diverse backgrounds to solve problems.

The marketing team treated me to a fun brunch on my birthday.

Every person on the team is recognized and celebrated for any number of reasons: professional accomplishments, personal victories, or even birthdays.

In fact, on my birthday I was taken to a lovely brunch by my marketing team. This is a fond memory I’ll treasure forever. Celebrating the individual, like we did on my birthday, is central to VIA’s culture. As the Culture Coordinator, I was proud to be a part of creating even more structure around what we celebrate and how, like birthdays (of course), work anniversaries, and fun holidays like Pi Day and Star Wars Day.

Ready, set, RESILIENCE!

We are solving problems that others have considered unsolvable. Difficult problems require patience and grit. Individuals require resilience to approach a major challenge and overcome all the smaller challenges along the way.

During my co-op, VIA achieved a lot of exciting milestones. One that stands out in particular was winning the MITX Best Technology Innovation Concept Award. We were thrilled to learn we were finalists, but in order to qualify for the next round of review, someone from VIA would need to present a demo of our blockchain-based Trusted Analytics Chain (TAC).

Due to the very busy travel schedules of our client and business development teams, the only person available on the night of the demo was a member of our marketing team. She needed to learn (in just one weekend) the inner workings of TAC and how to demo it, and prepare for any number of questions that might come up with the judges (I was happy to help her prepare by asking the most challenging questions I could think of, and many of those were actually asked on the night of!). Without her determination and ability to deal with high stakes situations, traits that come naturally to everyone on the VIA team, this feat couldn’t have been accomplished.

Love in = Love out

We believe that if you love what you do, it will show in the quality and productivity of your work. Twice a year we get together for a company-wide offsite where team members’ contributions are recognized and new ideas are discussed.

The team has grown from then to now, we have 20 employees as of June 2018.

We had an amazing company offsite this April. This experience was one of the times I felt most immersed in VIA’s love in=love out culture. For example, during the offsite we had an ongoing activity: a fun fact scavenger hunt. Everyone received a list of fun facts with blank spaces next to them, and our goal was to match the anonymous fun fact to the right person. You would not believe how much we committed to this scavenger hunt! I had so much fun getting to know everyone on the team through this activity, while enjoying some friendly competition (people even formed alliances to pool their answers!). It just goes to show that when people really love what they do, it shows, even in small moments of downtime during an all company meeting.

Stay curious

Technology today is moving at a super fast pace. Curious people who constantly explore new approaches and think outside the box help find the best possible solutions.

Some of the marketing team at a recruiting event at Northeastern.

AI and blockchain technology are two of the hottest buzzwords in the tech world (and beyond) right now. But, explaining what they mean exactly is not so simple. The marketing team stays curious about how we can better make writing about what we do more accessible, and our CEO Colin Gounden does a great job of sharing creative anecdotes and analogies to help us.

One example of that is his Van Halen story: the band’s 1982 world tour contract explicitly stated there shouldn’t be any brown M&Ms backstage. Colin explains how this seemingly bizarre request actually illustrates how Ethereum’s smart contracting functionality works. People’s eyes light up every time he explains this (a real A-ha! moment). Marketing was even able to use this to write one of our latest blogs: “Rock Science: How Van Halen Invented Smart Contracts”.

Goodbye and thank you!

That’s my team (on St.Patrick’s Day) rocking green.

I will miss VIA. It was an adventure, one I couldn’t have trekked without the team here in Somerville (shout out to Marketing!). It must seem cliché at this point, but there is not a single thing I would change about my co-op. Being at a company that cares about the individual as much as the company is rare, and I think the strong set of values is to thank for that.

VIA Accepted into Top European Accelerator Program, Accelerace

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Somerville, MA – June 12, 2018 – VIA, a leader in solving energy industry problems using artificial intelligence and blockchain, has been accepted into Accelerace, one of Europe’s top seed accelerators, as part of their Cleantech program.

“I was excited to be in Denmark a couple weeks ago to kick-off our participation in the Accelerace program. Accelerace is a well-respected and very well-connected clean energy program that is already helping us expand our presence with energy companies throughout Europe,” said Jeremy Taylor, Chief Scientific Officer at VIA.

Accelerace is a Danish accelerator that offers five unique programs tailored to the needs of startups. VIA will participate in the Cleantech program for six to eight months. Through this program, Accelerace will provide assistance in establishing a corporate presence in Denmark, introductions to leading European utilities (such as Enel), and mentorship from experienced Danish entrepreneurs, cleantech executives, and industry experts.

“The European energy industry is going through one of the biggest transformations in history. We are rapidly moving from fossil fuels and nuclear to renewable energy sources. At the same time, the recent implementation of GDPR in Europe is requiring both privacy and transparency of personal information,” said Jes Nordentoft, Business Accelerator and Investor at Accelerace. He continued “VIA’s new blockchain application, Trusted Analytics Chain, is the only solution we’ve seen to help the industry securely collaborate on critical analytics problems. This is exactly what the energy industry needs during this transformative time.”

About VIA
VIA helps energy companies across the globe realize the value of their data through AI and blockchain. Since 2016, the company has worked with the world’s largest utilities and government agencies on AI initiatives like predictive maintenance and contingency planning. VIA has developed a blockchain-based application, Trusted Analytics Chain (TAC) to help energy companies reduce the burden of preparing and sharing their data. TAC (patent pending) is the bridge that securely connects power company data, distributed across many locations, to potential AI solutions. 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.

About Accelerace
Accelerace is one of the world’s top 10 seed accelerators. Since 2008 Accelerace has spotted, trained and invested in more than 500 of the most promising Danish and international startups and growth companies. 88% of the companies are still on the market today. As part of the national Scale-up Denmark initiative Accelerace is scaling up startups within tech, foodtech, cleantech, life sciences & biotech and medtech & health care technologies through guidance and mentoring from skilled serial entrepreneurs, camps and network. Accelerace has invested in more than 69 promising startups, who have been through the Accelerace program and have started partnerships with Maersk, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Arla, Foss, NRGI, Business Lolland-Falster, Bang & Olufsen, SE, Endesa & Enel. Accelerace is also organizing the Nordic NOME (Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship) mentor network for life science startups.

VIA Wins MITX Best Technology Innovation Concept Award

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Somerville, MA – May 29, 2018 – The Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange (MITX), the premier organization representing the digital marketing and technology community, last week announced the winners of the 22nd Annual MITX Awards, celebrating New England’s thriving tech innovation ecosystem. VIA accepted the award for Best Technology Innovation Concept.

The award recognizes VIA’s blockchain-based application, Trusted Analytics Chain (TAC), which currently has a patent pending. VIA developed TAC with its energy clients in mind: the application establishes secure access to highly sensitive data, which is one of the biggest challenges to widespread AI implementation across the energy industry.

Using blockchain technology and distributed learning, TAC ensures clients’ data remains on premise and completely anonymous, allowing multiple companies to anonymously pool sparse data to improve analytical outcomes. Additionally, TAC is able to securely allow AI experts to learn from many different, distributed data that has never before been available in the energy industry.

“The celebration is an annual exchange of ideas and connections with hundreds of the best and brightest minds showcasing the latest innovative technology and work shaping the future of customer experience,” said Amy Quigley, president of MITX. “There was some very tough competition this year, but it was a fun-filled evening with all who participated!”

Hundreds of organizations participated and were judged by an esteemed committee of industry experts on their submission’s value proposition, unique innovation, and results. Marketing Operations Leader Laura Montorio accepted this honor on VIA’s behalf at the ceremony hosted at Royale Boston.

VIA MITX Technology Innovation Concept

Every winner was allowed a five-word acceptance. Ours? “Guys, let’s take a selfie!”

VIA MITX Technology Innovation Concept

The event was MITX’s 22nd annual award ceremony, hosted at Royale Boston.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About VIA
VIA helps energy companies across the globe realize the value of their data through AI and blockchain. Since 2016, the company has worked with the world’s largest utilities and government agencies on AI initiatives like predictive maintenance and contingency planning. VIA has developed a blockchain-based application, Trusted Analytics Chain (TAC) to help energy companies reduce the burden of preparing and sharing their data. TAC (patent pending) is the bridge that securely connects power company data, distributed across many locations, to potential AI solutions. 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.

About MITX
Inspire. Connect. Provoke.
At MITX, we’re building valuable connections between the people and ideas behind technology and its impact on the future of customer experience, all to create a community that’s finding tomorrow’s solutions together. Celebrating 22 years of connecting tech and innovation professionals in New England, MITX is a dynamic community of more than 20,000 thought leaders and collaborators. MITX is headquartered in Boston, MA. For more information, visit http://www.mitx.org/.