Normally when one hears the words “hack” or “hackathon” we rush to ensure that our computers are all set with the most up-to-date anti-virus and fear the worst in this day and age of cyber-crime.

This time, however, “hackathon” means good things as a hackathon is being organised to tackle the global challenge of water shortages resulting from water leakage. Experts from Microsoft are about to descend on the Northumbrian Water’s Innovation Festival from around the globe to take the lead in a hackathon to search for answers to the global problem of water leakage.

Expert data crunchers from across the UK will join the Microsoft team, comprising of experts from the United States, Hong Kong, and the UK in a three day hackathon to focus on tackling the subject of water leakage.

The hackathon will run at the same time at Northumbrian Water’s NWG Innovation Festival, as a special week-long “sprint”, during which another team of industry experts, members of the public, and academics will work together to develop ideas to reduce global water leakage. The festival takes place at Newcastle Racecourse from July 10 to 14.

The hackathon will see approximately 30 analysts working on data relating to soil types, pipe materials, water pressure, leaks, and many other elements that could impact upon the likelihood and location of leaks. The information to be used will be gathered from various places, including the Met Office, social demographic information sources, and Northumbrian Water’s own data.

The festival is supported by headline sponsors Reece Innovation, Ordnance Survey, Microsoft, CGI, IBM, and BT, who will be leading the search for answers in special focussed ‘sprints.’

One of the ‘sprints’ is titled ‘‘Keep It Flowing’: what do we know about leakage from water pipes and how can we fix it?’. Delegates will work through the week to develop ideas that will be scrutinised by members of the public, and present its findings to a gathering of industry experts and regulators at the end of the week.

Nigel Watson, group director of information services at Northumbrian Water, said: “Hackathons are a great way to place expert eyes on as much relevant data as possible, in order to gain a fresh insight into the subject of leakage. The more we understand on the subject, the stronger we make our chances of finding innovative ways to address leakage, reducing the amount of water that is lost from water pipes by companies across the world.”

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