We specialize in helping organizations understand, apply and architect technologies that are redefining the way work gets done. It can be overwhelming to see new AI and cyber-physical capabilities threaten to outmode your current processes. After a decade of experience working at some of the most innovative companies and nonprofits Andrew Vaziri saw a need for leaders to have flexible access to expert technical guidance and engineering. He founded 4thRev to offer his services, and those of the network he has grown over years working for Microsoft, Apple, and many successful startups.

The name 4thRev is a reference to the idea that we are presently in the fourth industrial revolution. There are different ways to account for the previous three revolutions. One common view is that the first revolution was agricultural (~10,000 BCE), the second was industrial (18th-19th century), and the third was digital (~1960-90). Each of these revolutions came with broad changes to daily life, societal attitudes and market conditions. The present, so-called 4th revolution centers around cyber-physical systems. Fields like robotics, artificial intelligence, and Web3.0 where individuals increasingly collaborate with technology rather than simply use it as a tool. As the name revolution suggests, these technologies are changing things dramatically. At 4thRev we will help your business navigate these challenges and emerge stronger than ever.

About Andrew

Andrew earned a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech. As a student, his team won the top prize at the GT Business Plan Competition and secured seed funding for a consumer-facing startup. Although the project eventually closed, Andrew had developed a passion for startups. He went on to work at Moog as an engineering consultant to Google X, Zoox (then seed-stage, now an exited Unicorn and part of Amazon) and multiple space and defense projects. After working on autonomous balloons, self-driving cars, and quadruped robots at Moog he went on to work on warehouse automation robots at Fetch Robotics (then series-A, now acquired for $290M as part of Zebra Technologies). 

He was hired by Apple to work as a Research Engineer in their Special Projects Group, specifically to apply deep reinforcement learning to their self-driving car. He continued to work in deep reinforcement learning as Lead Engineer at Bons.ai, a cloud based ML startup. Microsoft acquired Bons.ai and Andrew stayed at Microsoft before being lured back to the AI startup world. He was hired as the first Senior Engineer at Covariant.ai and helped grow the company through three funding rounds, during which it doubled in size twice. He wore many hats as a project manager, engineer and leader of the patent and IP generation process. The project he ran was featured in a front page article in the New York Times.

Most recently, he worked for GiveDirectly a charity which gives money directly to people in poverty. Famous for streamlining charitable giving through innovative approaches, GiveDirectly hired Andrew as an inaugural member of their Innovation Team. His team’s work in collaboration with UC Berkeley was highlighted on the cover of the March 2022 edition of Nature. Their new approach to humanitarian aid leveraged mobile phone data to deliver funds faster, more effectively and with reduced bias. Finally, he led GiveDirectly’s experiments with the use of Cryptocurrency to bring financial inclusion to the world’s poorest people. He was invited to speak about this work on the main stage of Ethereum’s DevCon conference.

Over his diverse and successful career Andrew has had the pleasure of working with many talented people. Originally beginning as a few individual projects, it evolved into 4thRev Consulting due to the growing demand for experienced professionals to address challenges in AI, robotics, and cyber-physical systems.