The local utility set a challenge for ‘GovHack’, a 46-hour open government data competition held at University of the Sunshine Coast at the weekend, for participants to use water quality data from the past decade to find ways AI could improve environmental governance.
Unitywater Acting Chief Financial Officer Katherine Gee, who oversees technology at Unitywater, said partnering with GovHack for the past five years had unlocked answers and inspiration to help solve real issues across Moreton Bay, Noosa and the Sunshine Coast.
“GovHack provides individuals, students and teams of all abilities across the region with a chance to hone their critical-thinking skills to solve a problem that impacts our community,” Ms Gee said.
“With the use of Artificial Intelligence growing within our industry, we have the opportunity to explore this technology and how it could help us enhance our current water testing processes.
“We’re keen to see the proposals from these data enthusiasts and how we might implement them in our operations.”
University of the Sunshine Coast Dean of Science, Technology and Engineering Professor Stuart Parsons said GovHack provided students with the opportunity to work closely with industry, including mentors, and harness their problem-solving skills in their relevant disciplines.
“We’re proud to support an event that benefits our students and others in our local community and provide the space for different skills to come together in a technical and creative capacity,” he said.
“Unitywater has been a long-standing and highly valued partner of the University and GovHack is an important part of this relationship. The focus of the project on water and its management is clearly a topic to which we need to pay close attention.”
The ten years’ worth of data was provided by Unitywater and Healthy Land and Water.
Ms Gee said Unitywater would judge the submissions and announce challenge winners next month.
