Nicolas Fortin-St Gelais, AquaHacking ’16 alum, at Atlantic Canada AquaHacking Challenge Kick-Off event

Nicolas Fortin-St Gelais, co-founder of CANN Forecast based in Montreal, QC, and alumn of the 2016 AquaHacking Challenge (United for the St. Lawrence River), was part of the Atlantic Canada AquaHacking Challenge Kick-Off at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax on February 26, 2020, organized by regional AquaHacking partner, the Atlantic Water Network (AWN).

“Being able to go to Halifax for the Atlantic Canada AquaHacking Challenge Kick-Off was great for two reasons — firstly, to be a part of the Kick-Off event and share my AquaHacking experience with potential participants, and, secondly, to be able to meet contacts from Halifax Water, who has been a client for CANN Forecast for about 1 year now,” said Nicolas.

“It was also great to meet the team at AWN. I was amazed at how connected they are with the local water quality testing and citizen scientist community. The quality of the water issues in the Atlantic Canada AquaHacking Challenge is great (algal blooms, treatment of drinking water in rural and First Nations communities, microplastics, private well safety, agricultural runoff) and they are championed by passionate and knowledgable water issue leaders,” said Nicolas.

“Meeting in-person with Halifax Water was a great opportunity to strengthen what has been, to date, a relationship just over phone and email. Halifax Water has been using our InteliPipes solution, and are exploring options to also use InteliSwim. They are helping us test new interfaces, and will be part of a research & development proof of concept project that we are leading with a number of other towns and cities across Eastern Canada,” said Nicolas.

“I was really glad to be a part of the Atlantic Canada AquaHacking Challenge Kick-Off and to offer perspectives as a member of the AquaHacking alumni community at the event. Based on my conversations with some of the potential participants, I am confident that some really interesting ideas are going to emerge through this Challenge to help water throughout Atlantic Canada,” added Nicolas.

To learn more about the Atlantic Canada AquaHacking Challenge and for information on the 5 water issues tackled in this Challenge click here.

To learn more about other AquaHacking alumni startups, click here.