DETROIT – TechTown Detroit is one of several partners producing Erie Hack 2017: Innovation Around Our Great Lake presented by the Cleveland Water Alliance (CWA). Erie Hack is a data and engineering competition that is uniting coders, developers, engineers, and water experts to generate enduring solutions to Lake Erie’s biggest challenges. The competition includes $100,000 in prizes for the most creative and effective hacks.
Working from the challenge statements derived from ideation sessions with NASA representatives and regional stakeholders, teams are charged with creating digital tools, hardware innovations, and engineering solutions that build “the Blue Economy”: the emergent economic sector dedicated to the sustainable stewardship of bodies of freshwater around the globe. The Erie Hack enables regional high school students, college students, and professionals the opportunity to combine their own expertise with solid mentoring to create technologies with the potential to invigorate Lake Erie’s environment and economy.
The Erie Hack includes a number of hacking days and events across the Lake Erie Basin. The competition kicked off on February 23 with the official launch, and concludes with the Water Technology Summit on May 2–3.
Listen as Melissa Birnie interviews Lara Treemore-Spears of Wayne State University, and Paul Riser of TechTown Detroit as they discuss the launch event held on Feb 23rd, the continuing progress of the initiative, and its potential impact on Michigan’s Great Lakes.
