HydroSense — a team led by UW CSE graduate student Jon Froehlich and advised by UW CSE faculty members Shwetak Patel, James Fogarty, and James Landay — finished 3rd out of 90 entrants in the 2009 University of Washington Business Plan Competition. HydroSense received the $5,000 WRF Capital Finalist Prize, and was named the “Best Clean-Tech Idea.”
Hopes were high as HydroSense won the $10,000 UW Environmental Innovation Challenge in early April, then made it to the Round of 16 and the Round of 5 in the 90-entrant Business Plan Competition. Much of the $10,000 Environmental Innovation Challenge prize was spent by Fogarty purchasing his first suit in the hopes of influencing the final judging of the Business Plan Competition, but wearing it over a t-shirt with an orange tie probably doomed the outcome.
HydroSense attacks the problem of water leakage in the United States, which accounts for 10 percent of average household water used. As part of their strategy, the team developed a device that screws onto a single water faucet and uses an analysis of acoustic vibrations and pressure differential signatures of water flow to determine usage.
Congratulations to Jon and his team!