International Erie Hack & Water Innovation Summit in CLE

CLEVELAND, April 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cleveland Water Alliance, along with partners from throughout the Lake Erie basin, including NASA Glenn Research Center and the Great Lakes Observing System, present the first Erie Hack Competition and Water Innovation Summit.

Erie Hack is a tech-driven competition and accelerator program that will culminate in this two-day summit at the Global Center for Health Innovation on May 2 & 3 in downtown Cleveland. Participants will present innovative solutions to challenges around Lake Erie such as algal blooms and urban pollution.

"Our goal is to raise awareness about our precious freshwater resource and turn the teams' big ideas into start-ups that will drive innovation and economic development in Northeast Ohio and the Lake Erie region," CWA executive director Bryan Stubbs said.

Nine teams will compete for a grand prize of $40,000 in cash at the finals on May 3:
MicroBuoy (Detroit), Water Warriors (Akron/Cleveland), Fish.io.ai (Cleveland), Hydrosense (Akron/Cleveland), Orbitist (Buffalo), WaterWatcher (Buffalo), Purily (Detroit), Plex Net LLC (Toledo), and ExtremeComms Lab (Buffalo)

Teams will present their solutions to a panel of judges, including Cleveland Metroparks CEO Brian Zimmerman and Jeff Hoffman, co-founder of priceline.com. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson will participate in the summit, which will feature speakers such as Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA's jet propulsion laboratory, and Rebekah Eggers, Global Water Leader at IBM.

CWA is presenting this event in collaboration with local champions, startup incubators and accelerators, and funders from each of Lake Erie's major metropolitan areas [Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Windsor, Erie, and Toledo]. Key partners include NASA GRC, the University at Buffalo, Kent State University, Case Western Reserve University, IBM, GE, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Cleveland Water, Wayne State University, the University of Toledo, TechTown Detroit, LaunchPad Incubation at the University of Toledo, Thinkbox, HIMSS, Great Lakes Science Center, WEtech Alliance, Innovation Collaborative in Erie and the Blackstone LaunchPad in Buffalo.

Key sponsors include the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Cleveland Division of Water, AT&T, GLOS and HIMSS Innovation Center. Significant support also comes from The George Gund Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, The Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, The Cleveland Foundation and the Burton D Morgan Foundation.

The Summit is open to everyone and people can register at Event Brite or at our web site: http://www.eriehack.io/summit. For more information on Cleveland Water Alliance or Erie Hack, follow us at https://www.facebook.com/clevelandwateralliance/ or on Twitter @ErieHack

About the Cleveland Water Alliance: Established in 2014, CWA is a non-profit organization that seeks to better utilize the economic and job-creating potential of Lake Erie while also urging greater care of this valuable, natural asset. It works to bring together Northeast Ohio's water providers, business and political leaders, researchers and environmental organizations to establish Cleveland as a nationally recognized center for water innovation.

SOURCE Cleveland Water Alliance

Related Links

http://www.clevelandwateralliance.org