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Exeter sewers idea wins covid prize

It spots pandemic outbreaks

Researchers including people from Exeter university’s Centre for Water Systems (CWS) have walked away with one of the main prizes at a 'hackathon' to find answers to the coronavirus crisis.

More than 20,000 people from 141 countries competed at the event organised by the European Commission. Exeter researchers were in  a team that developed Sewers4COVID, a prototype that can quickly and cost-efficiently detect outbreak hotspots. It uses sewer surveillance and machine learning techniques to forecast pandemic outbreaks and also considers socio-economic conditions to identify the vulnerable groups that are at high risk.

The development could be used to prevent the spread of the disease and enable decision-makers to take measures tho protect communities.

The hackathon was judged in six categories - Health & Life, Business Continuity, Social & Political Cohesion, Remote Working & Education, Digital Finance, and Other. The #EUvsVirus judge panel awarded Sewers4COVID the Winner of the “Other” category.

Professor Dragan Savic FREng, professor of hydroinformatics at CWS, said: “The team has burned midnight oil over the 64 hours of the hackathon competition and showed that an excellent idea can be implemented quickly by a highly interdisciplinary and motivated team.”

Dr Mehdi Khoury, a senior research fellow at CWS, said:  “If you know in advance when the virus is coming and where it’s coming, you can anticipate. Layers of socio-economic data about the area can then be used to decide what combination of measures will have the best effects considering the available resources.”

Prof. Chrysi Laspidou, professor at the University of Thessaly, said: “It’s all about data and data sharing! And it doesn’t matter where your data comes from--in this case, from the sewers! When data is used wisely and combined with science, artificial intelligence and smart computing and visualization, it can make a strong tool that solves real-life problems and can save lives!!

Lluís Echeverria, a senior researcher of smart management systems at Eurecat Technology Centre, said: “Fascinated to see how different technologies and domains, such as microbiology or artificial intelligence, can work together to face critical situations and contribute to a better world. Sewers4COVID will become a key solution to overcome the current and future global pandemics.”

Watch an explanation here: https://youtu.be/I6RC6OrlT40

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