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NSF Intelligent Water Systems Workshop

NSF Mid-scale Research Infrastructure
Workshop for Intelligent Water Systems

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August 25 & 26, 2020
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. EDT

We are supported by NSF to organize a virtual workshop on building a National Research Infrastructure for Intelligent Water Systems, which will be held on August 25-26 via Zoom. The goal of the workshop is to engage stakeholders and lay out a pathway to build the nation’s first cyber infrastructure for water, which is designed to include an online repository platform for data storage, data standardization, data sharing, data analytics, as well as tools and workforce development for all stakeholders across the water utilization cycle (drinking water & water reuse, stormwater, wastewater, end-users, and public health). The workshop is funded by the NSF Mid-scale Research Infrastructure program.

MsRI-EC- Develop a Research Infrastructure for Intelligent Water Systems

The nation’s water and wastewater utilities collect and store massive amounts of data to ensure reliable and efficient services. Yet, only about 10% of this information is used due to a lack of data sharing as well as limited staff resources and skills. This makes it impossible to apply Big Data tools that have revolutionized other sectors such as energy and transportation. This gap in the national infrastructure provides an opportunity to harness data science  to provide real-time prediction, data-driven decision making, and system level optimization. As the nation’s water infrastructure is fragmented amongst many water utilities, there is a need for federal support to jump start the Big Data revolution for water. This workshop will engage stakeholders and lay out a pathway to build a national research cyber infrastructure for intelligent water systems. This will include an online repository platform for storing, sharing, and analyzing data, as well as workforce development for all stakeholders across the water utilization cycle. The workshop will gather a broad range of stakeholders to ensure the cyber infrastructure, once implemented, will be valuable for an array of public and private institutions, and will impact national economic competitiveness and health.

This Mid-scale Research Infrastructure Engineering Conference is a first step towards building the nation’s first interoperable cyber infrastructure for intelligent water systems. Workshop participants will identify the needs of the nation’s digital water infrastructure, lay out a pathway to design and implement the infrastructure, organize a highly qualified team to develop a project proposal, and identify best practices for management of Mid-scale infrastructure. The conference will gather a broad range of stakeholders and ensure that the proposed cyber infrastructure provides value to private and public institutions. The proposed platform will be developed for sharing data, analytics tools, and workforce development for all stakeholders across the water utilization cycle. With proper design and implementation, the vast empirical data currently being collected by utilities can be converted into tools incorporating machine learning and artificial intelligence to allow a new generation of water professionals to harness data for not only daily operations but continued technology innovation, optimization, and cost reduction. The conference will result in a report with recommendations specific to the nation’s first interoperable cyber infrastructure for intelligent water systems that address critical execution issues around cyber security, data access, data management, and intellectual property.

Organizing Committee

Z. Jason Ren, Professor & Acting Director, Princeton University
Barry Liner, Chief Technical Officer, The Water Environment Federation
Christobel Ferguson, Chief Innovation Officer, Water Research Foundation
Aaron Fisher, Technology and Innovation Manager, Water Research Foundation
Mengdi Wang, Associate Professor, Princeton University
Kathryn Newhart, Engineer Associate, Metro Wastewater Reclamation District Denver