Shifted Energy, a Hawaii-based technology startup that accelerates renewable energy integration, boosted its staff with the hiring of Matt Motoki as its Chief Data Scientist. This comes on the heels of Electric Power Research Institute’s selection of Shifted Energy as one of the companies to evaluate machine learning-based load control through its Incubatenergy Program.

“We are thrilled to have Matt join our team as we work on advancements in smart energy use,” said Shifted Energy CEO Forest Frizzell. “Matt is respected across the industry as a world class data scientist and he is a subject matter expert in water heater control technologies. Shifted Energy is looking forward to expanding its machine learning capabilities as we continue to grow.”

Motoki has placed in the top 1% in multiple learning competitions and has been ranked as high as 18 in the world as a grand master on Kaggle’s leaderboard. Motoki’s team took 1st place in the Great Energy Predictor contest where they developed the best models to assist in pay-for-performance energy improvement financing for buildings with multiple controllable asset classes. In his new role at Shifted Energy, Motoki will expand the company’s advanced machine learning offerings in Demand Response markets world wide.

He earned his bachelor of science degree in mathematics  and masters of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His interests lie at the intersection of data science and applied machine learning. Prior to joining Shifted Energy, Motoki was a senior data scientist at H2O.ai in Mountain View, CA where he developed new methods for the company’s machine learning product offerings.