Following is a news release issued by Gov. Rick Snyder earlier today.
March 27,
2018
Contacts:
Governor's Office: Jordan Kennedy
517-335-6397
DNR: Ed Golder
517-284-5815
Gov. Rick Snyder awards $500,000 to Carp Tank innovation challenge winners
Edem Tsikata of Boston, Massachusetts accepts
the grand prize at the Carp Tank from Gov. Rick Snyder, David Lodge, Jeff
DeBoer and Dr. Denice Shaw.
DETROIT, Mich. – Governor
Rick Snyder today announced the grand prize winner of the Great Lakes Invasive
Carp Challenge. The solution proposed by Edem Tsikata, a software consultant at
Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, received the top award at the
Carp Tank competition held earlier today at the Port Authority in Detroit.
Tsikata’s “Cavitation Barrier
to Deter Asian Carp” would utilize a row of specially designed propellers to
generate a wall of cavitation bubbles that implode and emit high-speed jets of
water. The painful sensation of the bubbles along with the noise of the
propellers would repel fish and prevent their passage beyond the bubble
barrier.
“I applaud the innovative
solutions these finalists presented today, and congratulate Edem Tsikata for
winning the challenge,” Snyder said. “Blocking Asian carp from entering the
Great Lakes is critical, and Michigan can’t afford to wait any longer. I’m
confident that the solutions presented today will help take us one step closer
to ensuring our waters remain free of this dangerous and harmful invasive
species.”
Tsikata was selected from four finalists who presented
their ideas to a panel of judges and a live audience of invasive carp
researchers, fisheries managers and venture capitalists. Tsikata plans to use his $200,000 award to invest in
other projects and future challenges.
“It was thrilling to be
associated with a project benefitting Michigan and the Great Lakes,” Tsikata
said. “It’s gratifying to be able to contribute ideas that benefit the economy
and ecology of this region even though I live in Boston.”
The Carp Tank competition is
the culmination of the Great Lakes Invasive Carp Challenge, which invited
innovators from around the world to develop methods to prevent invasive carp
from entering the Great Lakes. Gov. Snyder announced the challenge in February
2017 and solutions were accepted through crowdsourcing leader InnoCentive’s Challenge Center from August through
October 2017.
Gov. Snyder was joined at the
judge’s table by Dr. Denice Shaw, Senior Innovation Advisor for the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development; Jeff
DeBoer, Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Sundberg-Ferar, Inc. and
chairman of the Michigan Design Council; and Dr. David Lodge, an international
expert on invasive species and Director of Cornell University’s Atkinson Center
for a Sustainable Future.
Judges assessed each proposal
based on its potential effectiveness, feasibility, environmental and human
impacts, and level of innovation.
A second-place award of
$125,000 was given to David Hamilton, Senior Policy Director for The Nature
Conservancy in Lansing, Michigan
Hamilton’s “AIS Lock
Treatment System” is designed to function in a lock system. After vessels are
moored in a gated chamber, a carefully measured amount of chlorine – which is
lethal to a wide range of aquatic organisms, including invasive carp – would be
injected and mixed into the chamber’s waters. Following treatment, sodium
bisulfate would be used to detoxify the water before it is released into the
river.
Michael Scurlock, a hydraulic
engineer with RiverRestoration in Carbondale, Colorado, garnered third place
and $100,000 for adjustable physical velocity barriers designed to concentrate
water flow in a lock system after vessels are moored, creating a current that
fish cannot swim against and essentially flushing the system before the lock
gates are closed.
Dr. D.J. Lee of Smart Vision
Works International in Orem, Utah, also a professor and director of the
Robotics Vision Laboratory at Brigham Young University, took fourth place with
his Recognition and Removal of Invasive Fish. Lee received the
fourth-place award of $75,000. His solution is designed to prevent invasive
carp from moving past the installation point by directing all fish through an
automated imaging and sorting system that uses unique recognition software to
divert invasive carp to a holding area for harvest.
To learn more about
Michigan’s efforts to Block Asian carp, visit www.BlockAsianCarp.org.
Editor’s Note: Photos
below are available for download.
Fourth
place – Fourth place winner, Dr. D.J. Lee receives his Carp Tank award
from judges David Lodge, Jeff DeBoer, Dr. Denice Shaw and Governor Rick Snyder.
Third
place – Michael Scurlock (left) and collaborator Jason Carey (far
right) receive the third place award from Governor Rick Snyder, David Lodge,
Jeff DeBoer and Dr. Denice Shaw.
Second
place – Second place was awarded to David Hamilton (right) by Governor
Rick Snyder, David Lodge, Jeff DeBoer and Dr. Denice Shaw.
First
place – Edem Tsikata of Boston, Massachusetts accepts the grand prize
at the Carp Tank from Governor Rick Snyder, David Lodge, Jeff DeBoer and Dr.
Denice Shaw.
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