Friday, February 6, 2026
Young innovators squared off in Calgary, Alta on Feb. 6 for the Aquahacking Prairies Challenge with the top teams winning $35,000 in seed funding.
Five projects were presented addressing critical water issues, an AquaAction release said, including efficient water use in agriculture, community decision-making tools for extreme hydrological events and invasive species management.
The contest spanned eight months culminating in a “Dragon’s Den” style finale where the finalists gathered at Calgary’s Platform Innovation Centre to pitch market-ready solutions to the escalating water issues facing the Prairies, the release said.
First prize worth $20,000 went to Consilience, consisting of Sam Lucy Behle and César Pedrosa Soares. Their solution, Drift-Eye Swarm is a compact self-operating device for for large-scale aquatic surveillance for local communities.
Second prize of $10,000 was awarded to Purus Aqua with Daniel Bielecki, Justyn Deenoo, Om Shah and Tejas Sarkar. Purus Aqua is a passive filtration system designed to sit in prairie trenches and capture contaminants from runoff and snowmelt. Purus Aqua also won the Two-Eyed Seeing Award of $1,000 for their product.
Third prize worth $5,000 was Reverblo with teammates Matthew Gaiser and Nicholas Lor. Their solution uses bioacoustic monitoring (underwater microphones combined with AI) to listen for the unique sound “fingerprints” of invasive species like Prussian Carp, goldfish, and zebra mussels, the release said.
The People’s Choice award of $1,000 went to Princess Cortes and Manju Thomas of NAID Solutions.
“The Prairies are facing unprecedented water challenges. These young innovators represent the future of how we will overcome these challenges through cutting-edge innovation and secure our precious freshwater resources. Congratulations to all the finalists for your care and commitment to building the change we want to see,” AquaAction president Soula Chronopoulos said.
An expert panel of judges were supported by Alberta Innovates, Prairies Economic Development Canada, and the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources.
