Predictive Maintenance Startup Wins Tech Challenge

Norwegian startup Aqua Alarm has won The Water Council’s spring Tech Challenge for its predictive maintenance technology that helps utilities identify failures before they occur.

The challenge sought AI-native technologies shaping the future of water systems through advanced prediction, automation, optimization or decision-making capabilities. Sponsors Badger Meter, Watts Water Technologies and Xylem selected Aqua Alarm for the $10,000 prize.

Aqua Alarm turns real-time water quality data into autonomous, actionable insight for drinking water companies. Its platform pairs proprietary low-cost, low-maintenance microbial sensing hardware with machine-learning and risk-based analytics to detect contamination as it emerges, trace its pathways through distribution systems and recommend corrective action before it reaches consumers. Its system, Aqua Insights, is currently running as a pilot with Welsh Water in the UK.

“AI is revolutionizing the way water is sensed, treated, moved, recovered and managed,” said Katie Kollhoff Mouat, The Water Council director of innovation programs. “This challenge identified several technologies on the leading edge of AI advancement in global water innovation.”

The Tech Challenge connects water innovators with leading water technology companies, facilitating potential partnerships and helping new technologies gain industry exposure.

 Global Impact Spotlight: Of the challenge entries, the sponsors highlighted INFN8 VZN for its use of AI to provide remediated water to the people of Ghana. INFN8 VZN is a Canadian nonprofit and UNEP Global Mercury Partnership partner mobilizing for industrial mercury and heavy metal remediation in Ghana’s Ashanti Region, one of the most contaminated mining zones on earth. It is aligning satellite intelligence, remediation systems and partnerships to begin a restoration campaign that will outlive the next generation.