A little over a month ago, Fetch.AI’s lead research scientist Marcin Abram moved from Cambridge in the UK to America, where he is setting up the company’s US office. In his first report, he explains how he is settling in.

Finding an office

We have chosen to locate the new office in New Haven in Connecticut. Its proximity to New York and Boston makes it an excellent base to travel anywhere along the east coast of the country. The prestigious Yale University is also in New Haven. We hope to collaborate with the university and create a research unit, focussing on applications of the Fetch.AI network in sectors such as the smart energy market and smart cities.

New Haven is located 85 miles northeast of New York

The office we hope to move into is in a recently opened Net.Work hub located 100m from New Haven Green in the city centre. From the office it will take just 10 minutes to walk to the Yale Science Campus and around 15 minutes to the train station.

A meeting room in the Net.Work hub

Reaching out

It has been a busy month, full of various meetings, workshops and seminars. The effort has paid off and we have made connections at the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking, Yale Open Lab, the Information Society Project, Yale Quantum Institute and the Computer Science Department.

A view of the Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University’s main library

We have also spoken to various local professional groups, such as the Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Blockchain Technology Meetup group, NewHaven.IO and the Decentralized Application Developer Community.

This early success has validated our decision to choose New Haven as the location of our first US office. The city is a hub for innovators, scientists and professionals. Most events are open to everyone and are free of charge, such as the recently held Yale Hackathon, the (Im)Perfect Enforcement Conference and the First AI, Ethics, and Society Workshop.

Ongoing work

We have started working on a new case study to show how Fetch.AI’s unique platform can help to build a smart city. Using cheap cameras, we can deploy a system to monitor traffic conditions and the availability of parking spaces. It can also be used to monitor roads, junctions and potential congestion points: this data can be represented by agents in the Fetch.AI world and can deliver that value to other agents or people directly. This allows agents embedded in cars to optimise route planning. Additionally, it provides humans with useful, actionable information which is pushed to them to keep them informed on decisions. Individuals will be able to receive messages such as “it’s time to leave work now, traffic is building” or “it’ll take you half an hour to go home, but the other route will be quicker today”. This type of information will reduce traffic congestion, saving drivers both time and money.

Traffic on 5th Avenue in New York City. The footage was taken on the 2 April 2019

Free time

Walking in the city, it is easy to forget the ocean is just a few miles away. The region is gorgeous: full of beautiful parks, hills and long, clean beaches.

Madison’s beach near New Haven

The month ahead

By opening a US office, we have opened ourselves up to a new market and we have already established many important scientific connections that will lead to new and exciting projects.

The plan for the next month is to clarify the scope of the projects we want to conduct in the US and to further strengthen our ties with new collaborators. We will start looking for people to hire in New Haven too. Our list of open positions include: a computer scientist, a machine learning engineer, a research scientist, an economist and a cryptographer. We are also always looking for people specialising in system design, game theory, reinforcement learning, multi-agent systems, decentralised protocols and consensus design. If this sounds like you, please send an email to careers@fetch.ai.

Yours faithfully,

Marcin