SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 30
June 2021 - Two teams have emerged as winners of the inaugural Digital Water
Hackathon, organised by ripple2wave incubator (r2wi) and Singapore University
of Social Sciences (SUSS). This event is supported by A*STAR Central,
Enterprise Singapore (ESG), Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and PUB,
Singapore's National Water Agency.
47 entries from eight countries/regions, namely
France, Taiwan, India, Denmark, USA, Bulgaria, Israel and Singapore
participated in the nation's first digital water hackathon. From the
participants, eight teams were selected as finalists to present their solutions
at the virtual Digital Water Hackathon DemoDay@SIWW. The eight finalist
teams who presented were ESGnie, Neptune, WaterFutureTech, Groundup.ai, Fieldbox.ai,
Datakrew, Teredo Analytics and Memsing. The winners were announced on 23rd
June at the prize presentation ceremony.
Ripple2wave Water Prizes
The ripple2wave Water Prizes were awarded to the two
teams with the highest scores during the Digital Water Hackathon 2021
DemoDay@SIWW. The final scores are
determined by a team of esteemed judges. The winner for the ripple2wave Water
Prize (Entry level) is Neptune. The team received USD $5000 Alibaba Cloud
Credits and $1000 cash prize. The winner for the for the ripple2wave Water
Prize (Advanced level) is Datakrew. They walked away with a USD $5000 Alibaba
Cloud Credits and $2000 cash prize.
Proof-of-Concept Pilot Trials by PUB
In addition to the water prize winners, two
teams-Teredo Analytics and Memsing (in partnership with SGlab), were selected
by PUB to test their solutions at PUB's facilities and receive guidance from
the organisation's in-house experts.
Teredo Analytics' project uses its proprietary
hardware and a machine learning based algorithm which was developed in-house to
provide timely and comprehensive insights on the integrity of water pipelines
before leaks occur. As for team Memsing, the prototype involves the development
of miniaturized hydrophone sensors (that consumes little power) to perform leak
detection, and an AI algorithm for leak prediction.
Michael Toh, Director for PUB
Industry & Technology Collaboration Department, said, "PUB is constantly
seeking innovative water solutions to meet its water needs and solve its
challenges. PUB is glad to support the inaugural Digital Water Hackathon
organised by ripple2wave and SUSS, as it provides another platform for PUB to
discover new innovative digital water technologies and work together with
start-ups, mid-career professionals and even fresh graduates to develop and
deploy these technologies at PUB's plants and networks."
Proof-of-Concept Pilot Trials by Sembcorp
Industries
The organisers also announced that team Datakrew
has been selected to explore a Proof-of-Concept Pilot Trial supported by
Sembcorp Industries. Together with other industry partners, Sembcorp
contributed a list of problem statements that are relevant to the water
industry, one of which included the exploring of a low-cost and reliable remote
monitoring solution for smaller-sized industrial wastewater treatment plants.
Dr Adrian Yeo, Senior Vice President, Innovation
(Water), Group Centre of Excellence at Sembcorp and a member of the Hackathon
judging panel, said, "Sembcorp is actively developing and supporting technology
innovations that will help solve the global challenges facing the water sector.
Through this Hackathon, we are heartened to see the diversity of ideas provided
by young passionate innovators, and we look forward to nurturing, guiding and mentoring the next generation of
talents joining the industry to combat climate change together."
Further to the
sponsored awards by supporting agencies, the event has also produced a special
incentive category known as she1K fast track to C-Shark Tank
Finalist. Team Datakrew was selected to
become one of the 9 finalists of the she1K C-Shark Tank season 5 programme.
These finalists will get 1 out of 3 chances to secure funding in each season of
C-Shark Tank in which the cash are committed upfront and guaranteed for the top
3 winners by the investors.
Andrew Tan, Managing Director, Enterprise
Development Group, Temasek International, said, "Great to see many of
the teams leveraging on the latest developments in sensors, big data and AI/MI
to come up with innovative, scalable and commercialisable digital water
solutions that can address the growing needs of the global water markets, not
just in Singapore."
Lin Zhiyuan, Director of Business Development of
Singapore, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence also shared, "Our future is ultimately in
the hands of the youth. As the leaders today, our responsibility is to nurture
their innovative and entrepreneurial spirit so they can realise their fullest
potential as the leaders of tomorrow. Through platforms like the Digital Water
Hackathon DemoDay@SIWW, Alibaba Cloud is pleased to be able to provide the
teams with access to experienced mentors who can help them succeed and the
resources they need to unlock the next stage of growth."
Quote
from Winners
Ripple2wave Water Prize (Entry Category) Winner - Neptune
Choo Jing Yuan, representative of Team Neptune, said " Team
Neptune is honored to participate in the Digital Water Hackathon. It has
provided a platform for SUSS Biomedical Engineering and UIT-VNUHCMC Data
Science to present our combined cross domains multi-disciplinary solution,
addressing critical global challenges encountered in the digital water space.
Our team hopes to progress further by collaborating with the problem statement
owners and the global scientific / engineering communities with a cost-saving
predictive model and reduce untimely material failures. Deeply appreciate the
opportunity provided by the organizers to showcase our solution to the
international communities and making this hackathon a valuable and fruitful journey."
Ripple2wave Water Prize (Advanced Category) Winner - Datakrew
Fast Tracked to she1K C-shark Tank Finalist Winner - Datakrew
SEMBCORP POC Awardee - Datakrew
Sumanta Bose, Founder and CEO of Datakrew, said, "The Digital
Water Hackathon has been an upward growth journey for Datakrew, as it has
presented us with the opportunity to apply our product and technology to solve
some of the most challenging issues in the digital water space. We are excited
to work together with problem statement owners and deliver sustainable value
through the implementation of our solutions. A special thanks to the
organisers, judges and fellow participants to make this event a success."
PUB POC Awardee
Teredo Analytics
Wong Liang Jie, Co-founder of Teredo Analytics said, "Joining the
DWH has allowed Teredo Analytics to further fine-tune their existing solution
to meet PUB's operational requirement needs. Not only that, Teredo Analytics
has also gained numerous insights from fellow participants on their different
approaches towards solving the problem statement."
PUB POC Awardee
Memsing, in partnership with SGlab
Tyler Huang, Co-Founder of Memsing, said, "It's our great honor to
be part of the learning journey with DWH team. A fantastic experience for us to
polish our novel acoustic sensors and solutions and to address the real world
issues from problem statement owners. We appreciate the opportunities provided
through the Digital Water Hackathon platform and the various mentoring sessions
to bring us to securing a POC pilot trials with PUB. Most importantly, we also
find like-minded local tech company SGLab to partner with to provide a more
holistic solution. 1+1>3. Together, we can innovate for a more sustainable
and liveable future."
More information can be found at https://digitalwaterhackathon.com.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.