2017 Aquahacking challenge : United for Lake Erie names its finalists

Waterloo, ON, (Monday, June 26, 2017) – The de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation, in collaboration with the Water Institute at the University of Waterloo, is proud to announce the 2017 finalists of the AquaHacking Challenge: United for Lake Erie. Over the last three months, some of the brightest young minds in technology, water management, engineering, and entrepreneurship took part in five challenge days to create innovative, tech solutions for Lake Erie. These applications aim to sustain the health of the lake, its watersheds, and its local communities. On June 21st, seventeen teams competed in the semi-final at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo, where a jury of experts and key players in the local technology industry selected the five finalists:

• 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.

Each team will be awarded $2,000 in funding from the Region of Waterloo, as well a two day, all-expense paid expedition of the region to engage with various stakeholders. Finally, teams will compete in the AquaHacking Summit on September 13th, during Elsevier’s 4th Water Research Conference. The teams will receive up to $25,000 in support to develop and market their solution. The AquaHacking Challenge would not be possible without the kind generosity of its major sponsors, namely IBM Canada, GHD and Keurig, and numerous field partners. About the de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation Founded in 1990, the de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation is a family-run philanthropic organization dedicated to water conservation and to supporting family businesses. The foundation employs an approach known as entrepreneurial philanthropy in its aim to support individuals, families in business, and organisations in becoming responsible agents of positive and sustainable change within their communities. About the Water Institute at the University of Waterloo The Water Institute is an interdisciplinary hub for more than 150 UWaterloo faculty members and 400 graduate students who use research and education to address complex water problems.