Unexpected sixth finalist team at semi-finals
Press release / For immediate release
THE 2019 AQUAHACKING CHALLENGE – GREAT LAKES & ST. LAWRENCE BASIN ANNOUNCES UNEXPECTED SIXTH FINALIST TEAM AT SEMI-FINALS
Toronto, ON, (Saturday June 15th, 2019) – Six teams have been selected as finalists of the 2019 AquaHacking Challenge Semi-finals.
Over the last three months, bright young innovators from across Quebec and Ontario formed multidisciplinary teams to create innovative cleantech solutions to solve five of the most critical issues facing the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River Watershed.
On June 15th, fifteen teams competed in the semi-finals at Artscape Daniels Launchpad in Toronto, where a jury of experts and key players in water and technology industries spent one-on-one time with each team. New to this year was an unexpected event when the judge’s points were tallied: two teams were tied. The executives at AquaHacking decided to add a sixth team to make up the following finalists, in no particular order:
- The Green Stop (Montreal, QC; Toronto, ON): Sustainably designed water dispensing stations that are smart, fast and encourage use of refillable water bottles.
- Bello Water (Montreal, QC): Reinventing the distribution of drinking water, this team is supplying sustainable alternatives to plastic water bottles through a simple tech solution with app.
- Droplets (Oshawa, ON; Montreal, QC): This team from Montreal developed an innovative AI solution from IBM Watson that increases public trust in municipal drinking water.
- Clean Nature (Quebec City, QC; Victoria, BC): Clean Nature’s solution focuses on preventing excessive road salt through an adapted artificial intelligence model (AIM) based on real-time weather conditions.
- Chimie UdeS (Montreal, QC; Sherbrooke, QC): To combat microplastics, this team developed an additional lint filter to capture microfibers after the stock air filter on clothes dryers.
- Salt-Ed (Montreal, QC): Easy-to-implement equipment for sanding roads that’s inexpensive and does not require testing on a large scale.
Each team will be awarded $2,000 in funding to refine their solution over the summer months, as well a two-day, all-expense paid expedition on Elbow Lake, Ontario, to engage with various stakeholders.
Finally, teams will compete in the AquaHacking Challenge Fundaising Finale event on September 27th which will be held at the Grand Quai pavillion in Montreal. 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 the de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation, IBM Canada, the RBC Foundation, GHD, Keurig, Ovivo, Sanexen, City of Montreal, Ontario Power Generation and numerous other partners.
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About Aqua Forum
The de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation spearheaded Aqua Forum, which is now also supported by various partner organisations. Aqua Forum runs AquaHacking and is developing a new programme which will focus on positioning water-related issues as a health issue to raise public awareness and incite new action on water quality improvement efforts in North America.