Calgary Water Element Sensor

Local Calgary start up FREDSense is currently spending two months in California, as part of a program to expand their product reach from the oil sands of Alberta, to affect one billion people world-wide

The first ever Accelerator program through Singularity University, a think tank located in the NASA research park, has selected 10 companies from around the globe to help them develop their technology.

FREDSense’s technology in this case is a portable sensor that detects different elements within water.

“I think what they liked about us is that we had an interesting approach to be able to solve a whole bunch of problems,” said CEO Emily Hicks.

Hicks started FREDSense with a group of graduates and undergraduates at the University of Calgary. They originally formed the group to take part in an MIT challenge. Since then they have won a number of international awards.

Their sensor is currently tuned to detect heavy metals like copper, zinc and arsenic in the water. Currently, they are aiming to test its industrial applications through a pilot study. Hicks said the product was most likely selected for the program because it can be tuned to detect whatever compounds they want, such as looking for pesticides in drinking water. Hicks feels that FREDSense has the potential to affect a billion people worldwide, which is one of the criteria Singularity University was looking for.

“It feels pretty amazing (to be selected) actually,” she said. “I didn’t really realize how many companies actually applied to this and how big a deal it was until we were really down there. It’s a really exciting group to be in, because we’re the only Canadian company there.”

Source: MetroNews

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Taxonomy

• Innovation
• Sensor Systems
• Water Management