Student Innovators Shine at Grainger Computing Innovation Prize Competition
A team of Illinois Tech engineering students, who developed sensors for sewer drain covers that will help mitigate flooding, earned the $15,000 first-place award at the fifth annual Grainger Computing Innovation Prize on November 6.
Drain Watch sends real-time data collected during rainstorms to municipal wastewater crews to help them operate flood mitigation tools such as gates and pumps. Over time, the data collected by these sensors can help prioritize a maintenance schedule for a sewer system, as well as predict flooding events in future storms.
Team member Michael Sansone (CE, M.Eng. USE 5th Year) says participating in the competition helped him learn how to work with an interdisciplinary team to develop a solution to a real-world problem.
“To see an aerospace engineer and a civil engineer find a meeting point speaks volumes as to how important it is to have a holistic vision through a multidisciplinary team,” he says. “I was able to learn and be taught by them, and it gave me an opportunity to share my knowledge.”
Trevin Cox (M.S. MAE 1st Year) says Drain Watch has built a prototype of the device, which will be installed for testing in Â鶹APP’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood. The team has been working with Alderperson of Â鶹APP’s 26th Ward on a pilot program, which will help the team improve the device.
Felix Nkurunziza (M.S. ENVE 2nd Year) says that he learned a new programming language while working on Drain Watch. That’s just one problem he had to solve while helping to develop the prototype.
“We had a circuit board with no WiFi and had to figure out how to connect it to the system,” he says. “These are problems that you just can’t Google. You have to figure it out.”
The Grainger Computing Innovation Prize was established by Illinois Tech’s College of Computing in 2021. It challenges students to exhibit computing skills in big data, artificial intelligence, and data science through interdisciplinary team projects that have the potential to positively impact society. This year’s theme, “Computing with Data and AI for Social Good,” addressed real-world problems in education, health, energy, public safety, transportation, economic development, sustainable smart infrastructure, climate change, and more. It is open to all Illinois Tech students who are enrolled in a bachelor’s or master’s degree program.
The competition attracted 26 teams of student researchers, with prizes of $15,000, $10,000, and $5,000 awarded to the top three teams, respectively. Teams worked throughout the semester to develop their prototypes.
The $10,000 second-place award went to SeismoAI, which comprises Charlie Yonkura (CS 4th Year), Kadidjatou Yattassaye (CS 2nd Year), Yessenia Nicasio-Rosales (CE 4th Year), and Humza Ali (EE 4th Year). SeismoAI is a low-cost, AI-powered seismometer for homes and infrastructure. It detects seismic activity, structural strain, and air quality, delivering alerts and insights through a mobile app to help communities prepare and respond.
The $5,000 third-place award was earned by Ocean’s Four-vArI, which comprises Vishnu Thampuran (CS, M.S. 4th Year), Pranav Kuchibhotla (AI 4th Year), Ishaan Goel (AMAT/DS, M.A.S. AI 5th Year), and Lalith Kothura (CS, M.S. 5th Year). Ocean’s Four vArI is a volunteer computing platform that runs ocean-drift simulations on users’ devices. It aggregates thousands of lightweight AI-informed trajectories to predict plastic hotspots, nearly in real time, without supercomputers.
College of Computing Dean Nicole Beebe called the competition a symbol of the partnership between the college and The Grainger Foundation.
“For five years now, the Grainger Computing Innovation Prize has brought multi-disciplinary teams of Illinois Tech students together to use computing in its many forms to make our world better,” she says. “It’s not surprising that many of this year’s teams leveraged AI to solve pressing social, environmental, and health care problems, as well as problems in many other areas that challenge us. It is truly inspiring to see the creativity, technical skill, and caring hearts of more than 140 students who entered this year’s competition.”
Adds Brian Walker, Illinois Tech trustee and vice president and chief product officer at W. W. Grainger, Inc., “These students served as an inspiration by thinking about problems that are hard to solve and came up with inventive prototypes. With this competition, we are hoping to engender interdisciplinary solutions to address society’s biggest problems.”
A generous endowed gift funded by The Grainger Foundation—an independent, private foundation established by William W. Grainger, the founder of Grainger—supports the Grainger Computing Innovation Prize annually.
“By bringing together students from different disciplines to use computing to solve problems, we see where the magic happens,” says Jonny LeRoy, senior vice president and chief technology officer at Grainger. “It’s exciting to see the next generation work together on these issues.”
Image: (From left to right) Team members Felix Nkurunziza, Michael Sansone, and Trevin Cox who developed DrainWatch, an AI-powered stormwater detection system, and earned the $15,000 top award at the fifth annual Grainger Computing Innovation Prize competition.
