AquaHacking to Protect the St. Lawrence River

AquaHacking: What is it ?

AquaHacking is a two-day engaging summit and a stimulating  hackathon spread out over several weeks. Water key players will work with young technologies experts (hackers) to resolve issues related to the St. Lawrence river in Canada. The theme of this competition initiated by the De Gaspé Beaubien Foundation is “United for the St. Lawrence“.

This river is one of the longest in the world. It connects the Great Lakes of North America to the Atlantic Ocean and flows in densely populated areas.

Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien III, president of the de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation, announced at École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), a partner of this event, the 2016 edition of the AquaHacking summit with his father and his son, Louis-Alexandre, the project promoter. For them, “with the great Lakes, the St. Lawrence makes up the third largest hydrographic system in North America. The St. Lawrence’s health remains fragile, with factors such as water quality degradation, bank erosion and the declining plant and animal ecosystems. That’s why we want to engage the population in finding concrete solutions to better protect this environmental asset”.

AquaHacking: New ideas to preserve the water quality

Citizens are invited to submit an issue they would like to be addressed. An expert panel will select in Spring 2016, the issues that will be submitted to the 2016 AquaHacking.

Subsequently, two AquaHacking components  will be held in parallel: a two-day summit will bring together decision makers, field experts, researchers, not-for-profit organizations, citizens and key players to discuss the most urgent challenges associated with pollution problems, spill, access to banks and adaptation to climate change. This summit will be held at the Palais des Congrès in Montreal on October 6^th and 7^th 2016.

The second component will mobilized young experts in technologies, water experts, engineers and designers to find technological solutions to the issues selected for the 2016 AquaHacking. At ÉTS, selected issues will be proposed to more than 3,000 participants from around the world on May 24^th and 25^th 2016 for the 24 hours of innovation challenge. At this event, participants will have 24 hours to find a technological solution to one of the proposed issues.

Subsequently, about 50 participants of the 24 hours of Innovation will participate in the International Summer School on innovation and technological design, June 30^th to July 29^th 2016. This intensive one-month course will enable them to improve the chosen solution and experiment it with prototypes. Drame research group specialized  in applied research on water cycle modelling and Experimental Station Pilot Process in Environment professors and researchers will participate in the project by providing technical support to the participants.

A work session held at Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec during the 2015 Summer School edition.

The winners will be honored at the AquaHacking conference on October 6^th and 7^th, 2016 at the Palais des congrès in Montreal. Fifty thousand dollars in prizes will be awarded by the De Gaspé Beaubien foundation. The winning teams will receive a year support by IBM experts and the Centech, the incubation center of ETS, to assist them in the development of the full potential of their solutions.