Members of the UB community who want to learn more about the regional ErieHack competition are invited to attend an information session from 2-5 p.m. Feb. 28 in the South Lake Community Center, North Campus.

ErieHack is a tech-driven international water innovation competition and accelerator program organized by the Cleveland Water Alliance (CWA) and taking place in several cities along Lake Erie, including Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo and Windsor, Ontario. The event is being coordinated with partners from each participating city. Buffalo collaborators include the Greater Buffalo Community Foundation, UB Sustainability and the Blackstone LaunchPad Program at UB.

At Tuesday’s information session, representatives from Blackstone LaunchPad and UB Sustainability will outline the event timeline, rules and prizes, and will provide details on forming teams and development resources that will be available to ErieHack participants. Information session attendees are welcome to stay the full three hours, or pop in and out as schedules allow.

Hackathon teams can compete for more than $100,000 in prizes, including cash and entrepreneurial acceleration services. Teams of coders, developers, engineers, data experts and water professionals will be asked to develop solutions that address one of six challenge statements created for the competition:

• Mitigate nutrient loading and its environmental impacts.
• Reduce and remediate urban pollution.
• Cultivate resilience in water infrastructure systems.
• Manage aging water infrastructure systems.
• Connect communities to the value of water.
• Drive the creation of meaningful data.

“We’re excited and proud to present these challenges and look forward to the solutions that talented innovators and thinkers around the world will create,’’ says Bryan Stubbs, CWA executive director.

ErieHack officially kicks off today with a launch party in Cleveland. The competition runs through May 3 and culminates with a two-day water summit in Cleveland.

A number of UB faculty, staff and students attended an ErieHack ideation session at the Buffalo Yacht Club in January, where some of the challenge statements were developed.

Visit the ErieHack website for more information on the competition.