User:Intelligence23/VODA.ai

VODA Inc. is an American artificial intelligence company that offers a software as a service to utilities. It was founded in 2017 by George Demosthenous and Jim Fitchett and it is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

The company helps utilities create project plans for mains and service lines with an artificial intelligence engine that ranks each pipe by Business Risk Exposure within 12 months and up to 20 years. The company’s tools include - LoF, CoF, BRE, RUL, Insights, Lead Finder, and Planner for Condition Assessment, Monitoring, Replacements, and Rehabilitation projects. The tools are used by utility engineers and managers to help them allocate capital and lower non-revenue water.

In 2022 at the AWWA ACE22, VODA.ai announced Lead Finder, its new product, that can predict with high success rates where lead pipes are located, so they can be replaced immediately to prevent potential poisoning and other problems. This product helps businesses comply with the EPA regulation and submit their lead inventory by October 2024.

History

The co-founders met at Harvard University, while George Demosthenous was working on his master’s degree and took an Innovation and Entrepreneurship course from Jim Fitchett. During a talk there was a realization that a solution was needed for many problems utilities faced. Problems like water loss, high costs and bad press from pipe failure, among many. The poor health of water pipes affected the lives of millions of people, and a solution was needed.

Then, the idea was born for predicting water failures. In 2017, they founded VODA.ai in Boston, MA to help water professionals make data-based decisions about managing their infrastructure. Using machine learning with a variety of data elements, they could find patterns that led to previous failures. Applying these patterns, they rank every segment by probability of failure.

Awards

VODA.ai was selected as Best Smart Water Solution at the 2022 Smart Water Summit. In 2021, the company had won the Vendor to Watch Award at SWS21. The vendor’s solution aims to help water and wastewater utilities prioritize maintenance and capital improvement projects in transmission, distribution, service, and collection systems.

Partnerships

In 2020, VODA.ai partnered with Mueller Water Products to provide machine learning software to power PipeRankTM virtual condition assessment technology delivered by Echologics.

In 2021, VODA.ai partnered with Ferguson to support decision-making through artificial intelligence.

Later in 2021, VODA.ai partnered RedZone Robotics to offer machine learning software to power IntegrityPRO,  a predictive analytics solution to aid system owners and operators in their wastewater infrastructure management processes. [6]