Mahesh Lunani, Founder and CEO of AQUASIGHT Profile

Mahesh Lunani
Founder and CEO of AQUASIGHT


Mahesh Lunani, Founder and CEO of AQUASIGHT Certificate

“Building A Triple Bottom Line Real-Time AI Infrastructure for Water Management”

The only constant is change. This applies to everything we do in our lives be it professional or personal. My professional experience started in mature industries such as Automotive, Industrial, Aerospace & Defense. Later, when I co-founded a corporate venture group to build next-gen digital businesses, I realized many of these so-called mature industries are ripe for disruption, small or large, driven by digital or business model innovation.

When I left the corporate world, I was looking for a white space that was ripe for innovation & disruption. Call it luck or diligence, I ran into water and wastewater infrastructure. Underpinning our communities, this infrastructure—that is decades and in some cases centuries old—is expected to work perfectly and quietly underground. It is a highly engineered technical infrastructure and requires all parts to work like a well-oiled machine, so we can drink high quality water that does not carry waterborne diseases. The water mains are operating so it does not disrupt service and water treatment protocols are in place so there is sufficient disinfectant capacity and optimal corrosion control chemistry. Finally, water is pumped and stored with enough pressure, so service is available to all corners of your community with minimal pressure drops.

Then, within the wastewater cycle, we expect that there is enough transport capacity to keep moving the wastewater away from homes, so there are no sewer backups and pumps are operating reliably under all storm conditions, so the streets are not flooded. We expect that the wastewater treatment is working well so it cleans the sewage, meets regulatory permits and is discharging clean effluent back into the watershed. More recently there is an affordability issue, a rising segment of the population that is below the poverty line, trying to make ends meet, that cannot afford water and wastewater services, living in homes that still have lead service lines and are at increased health risk levels.

“Aquasight mission was to build a parallel digital infrastructure that can be layered on top of the existing or new physical infrastructure. We invested and built industry first Real-Time AI infrastructure dedicated to water. It composes of four key components.”

So, when I started Aquasight the goal was: how do we create and use technology that can be layered on an old infrastructure so it can help us with O&M efficiency, create asset intelligence so we are forewarned which assets will fail and when they will fail. Understand and predict when and where water quality is going to be bad, or streets will flood. Capture knowledge so not just an experienced operator but also a novice can run a highly technical system efficiently and finally create the ability to prioritize investments requirements.

In the last five years, the Aquasight mission was to build a parallel digital infrastructure that can be layered on top of the existing or new physical infrastructure. We invested and built an industry first Real-Time AI infrastructure dedicated to water. It is composed of four key components. The first layer, a data ingestion that can consume data from many proprietary and third-party source systems. Second layer, a data management that partitions and stores this high volume and high velocity data so it can be staged for processing as well as retrieval. Third layer, an Aquasight AI processing engine that has leveraged deep water expertise. Fourth layer, front end apps that are used by various personnel in the utility workforce. There is a portfolio of six apps Aquasight has created to complete this infrastructure, ATLAS – Pump Health & Operations, AURA – Smart Water Distribution Network, ACE – Smart Sewer Intelligence, APOLLO – Efficient Wastewater Treatment, AMP – Asset Management & Capital Planning, CEWS – Infectious Disease Sewage Surveillance

As a result of these investments, we have the broadest solution portfolio and deepest knowledge when it comes to water and AI and over 100 sites are using our platform and are benefiting from it. We find great pleasure knowing that our solution provides social, environmental, and economic benefits to cities and ultimately the residents. Triple bottom line can be achieved by building innovative digital companies that has a long term vision and is focused on solving big problems that are important to our planet. IE


Company

AQUASIGHT

Management

Mahesh Lunani
Founder and CEO of AQUASIGHT

Description

The Internet of Things for the Life Cycle of Water. Real-time intelligence software for municipal water and wastewater. Helping utilities reclaim digital resources and build a digital legacy.


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