SINGAPORE – 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.”
About ripple2wave (www.r2wi.com)
ripple2wave (r2wi) is a Singapore based incubator building emerging water technology leaders to serve global markets.
r2wi is a joint venture between VFT Ventures(Singapore) and Emerald Technology Ventures, a globally recognized Cleantech Investor with a twenty-year investment history. Part of this history has been a unique traction in the water space including successful exits to major industry players (SUEZ, XYLEM and BASF). Meanwhile, VFT successfully commercialised technologies from A*STAR through ZWEEC Analytics. r2wi is supported by Enterprise Singapore and PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency to create a unique ecosystem for emerging water technology start-ups.
