Ingenium Innovation Challenge 2024: Clean water and sanitation

Four images appear in circles, from left to right: three young male adults smile around a table, a young Indigenous woman stands with her hands behind her back wearing traditional garments, an aerial view photo of an expedition ship, a group of young adults gather around a table to listen to a presentation.

Are you passionate about tackling hard problems? Looking for ways to do your part in creating a better future?

What better way than to pool your talent and creativity with the next generation of innovators to inspire change, and to take action!

The theme: Clean water and sanitation

Currently over half the world’s population does not have access to safe sanitation facilities, causing unnecessary disease and death. In Canada, over 28 First Nations communities do not have access to clean, treated water. Ensuring sustainable management of water and sanitation services is critical and requires meaningful action, unconventional thinking and bold courage.

Diversity and Inclusion

Ingenium strongly believes that inclusivity requires social and cultural diversity. This will be achieved by increasing equity group representation (including persons with disabilities, visible minorities, Indigenous peoples, those who represent gender diversity, and women) as part of all our initiatives. Ingenium is committed to ensuring an accessible experience for all.

Programming

Throughout the weekend, participants benefited from a variety of programming -

Downstream Networking gave participants an opportunity to meet water industry professionals to cultivate an inclusive, diverse, and thriving water sector
Keynote and Q&A with Autumn Peltier, renowned International Indigenous rights and water advocate
Panel Discussion by various experts from private and public sectors including:
- Patrick Kiely (SENTRY CEO and Founder)
- Layla Staats (Activist, Film Maker, Musician)
- Karissa Aubie (ECCC Acting Manager of the Wastewater Program)
- Jose Torcal (Civil Engineer with focus on Sustainability and Public Space through Water)
- Moderated by Corrine Lynds from Water Canada
A collection tour of behind the scenes water-related artifacts led by Ingenium Curators
Mentoring from experts in the fields of programming, digital accessibility, design, and more.
Pitching was live broadcasted.
Documentary Screening of The Water Walker produced by Seeing Red Media.
Awards ceremony featuring the announcement of the Blue Futures Pathways Expedition winner, Popular Vote winners, and the grand prize winning team.

2024 Winners

A group of five young male adults smiling, holding an oversized cheque for the amount of $2,500.

The winning team of the 2024 Ingenium Innovation Challenge is The Pool Boys. The team includes:

Andrew Brien
Logan Ladurantaye
Luke Bowlby
Peter Gao
Simon Yin

Their proposed game presents an augmented reality experience linked to water and wastewater networks called H2Go, which aims to educate, eliminate stigma, raise awareness, and drive careers in clean water and sanitation for our next generation.

The winning team was awarded $2,500 along with dedicated funding and mentorship guidance to further develop their proof-of-concept into a marketable product for the general public to use.