In conjunction with its participation at WEFTEC, the Water Environment Federation’s Annual Technical Exhibition and Conference taking place in Chicago Sept. 26 to 30, The Water Council will launch the Global Water Port, an online research and collaboration powerhouse developed to enhance connectivity within the water technology sector and among those interested in finding solutions to water-related challenges.
Through its partnership with the innovationExchange LLC and funded by a Regional Innovative Cluster contract through the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Global Water Port utilizes inno360, a cognitive intelligence and predictive research engine equipped with IBM Watson. The Global Water Port is an addition to the pool of resources The Water Council offers to water technology business professionals, large water users, utility managers and academics.
“The Global Water Port will be the cornerstone of innovation when individuals from across the world are seeking solutions to the numerous water issues that are before us,” said Dean Amhaus, president and CEO of The Water Council. “The challenges the world is facing with respect to water are best addressed through a ‘One Water’ mindset. The Port, with its ability to investigate unbounded and unstructured data utilizing powerful analytics and visualizations, will act as a platform for collaboration and innovation between all sectors, anytime, anywhere.”
The Water Council and the innovationExchange conceived the idea for the Port in fall 2014 as a way to increase and improve cross sector water-related collaborative research. Since then, the Global Water Port has gone through extensive development and testing to become a user friendly tool allowing participants to gain industry insight, pitch projects, find and create solutions, monitor innovations, connect with global experts and bring new ideas to life.
By incorporating social collaboration tools and access to relevant content including patent, academic and industry databases, the Global Water Port provides the water ecosystem with an engine for learning and networking.
The Global Water Port will be available for test runs during WEFTEC in the Wisconsin Water Innovation Pavilion (Booth #455).
Source: The Water Council
