The Great Lakes are an important and vulnerable resource that supplies safe, potable drinking water, which promotes better quality of life and economic prosperity. Ontario collaborates with government and community stakeholders to preserve the Great Lakes’ water quality and ecosystems. In 2014, the new Canada-Ontario Agreement (COA) identified 5 major priorities, which includes the following: serve to protect waters; improve wetlands, beaches and coastal areas; protect habitats and species; enhance understanding and adaptation; and promote innovation and engage communities.
AquaHacking is a movement that was created with the aim to conserve the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Basin, specifically Lake Erie. It was intended to foster the quality and responsible use of its waters. The event has attracted some of the brightest young minds in technology, water management, engineering, and entrepreneurship to participate in a five-day challenge to create innovative, technology-centric solutions for Lake Erie. The applications they developed were designed to maintain the health of the lake, its watersheds, and its local communities.
Founded partly by IBM Canada, the event was hosted by the de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation and the Water Institute at the University of Waterloo. It brought together representatives from federal and provincial ministries, NGOs, communities, water experts, local incubators, and technology firms, and dozens of AquaHackers all eager to work towards the responsible use of precious fresh water resources.
Seventeen teams competed in the semi-finals, which was held at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo. A jury of experts and local technology industry leaders then selected five finalists: ImPONDerable, Fertilizer Burn, Polygone, SIM Labs, and Emagin.
ImPONDerable
Developing a citizen science monitoring kit to help people who live near and swim in lakes to know when blooms might pop up, in order to know if it is safe to swim.
Fertilizer Burn
Working on a hardware retrofit for agriculture fertilizer sprayers that will enable farm equipment to detect levels of fertilizer in the soil, and adjust how much is applied.
Polygone
Tackling the issue of microplastics by capturing microfibres in the clothes dryer.
SIM Labs
Building a hardware device to automatically classify and enumerate cyanobacteria.
Emagin
Aiming to fight untreated wastewater overflow.
After careful deliberation by a panel of five experts in water conservation and technology fields, the declared winner was SIM Labs. They received $25,000 in seed money and an opportunity to work with a local incubator which includes 25 hours of consultation and mentorship from experts in technology and startups. SIM Labs’ solution entailed the development of a quick and robust method of immediately identifying and counting various species of cyanobacteria and predicting HAB (Harmful Algae Blooms) patterns. Gathering this information will help key stakeholders to better understand cyanobacteria behaviour in specific environments, which will essentially lead to HAB predictions before they happen. Visit the AquaHacking 2017 website to learn about each of the five finalists projects.
The 2017 AquaHacking Summit was made possible through the generous support of philanthropic partners, including Founding Partner IBM Canada, GHD, Keurig Canada, Ovivo, Ontario Power Generation, and the Region of Waterloo.
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