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American Water Awarded Contract from Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation
[July 01, 2015]

American Water Awarded Contract from Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation


American Water (NYSE: AWK), the nation's largest publicly traded water and wastewater utility company, today announced it is a partner to an $800,000 award to partially fund a $2 million, 2-year project, along with IOSight, Ltd., from the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation. The award is for the research and development of decision support systems to improve the efficiency of treatment plant operations.

This research project will develop data analysis tools within a data management and reporting framework at water and wastewater treatment plants to identify operating efficiencies and potential cost savings. The proposed smart water management systems will develop and integrate comprehensive data management, data analysis and reporting systems covering the major processes performed in plants. This will allow plant operators to leverage the smart water management system reprts and analytics to create improved, streamlined and more efficient operations. While focusing on single locations for water and wastewater, the research results will be useful to the larger North American water utility sector. Areas of improved efficiency will include chemical addition, energy, and preventive maintenance.



"Increasing operational efficiency is a major priority at American Water and for many utilities around the world," said Dr. Mark LeChevallier, director of Innovation and Environmental Stewardship at American Water. "While across our industry treatment plants are equipped with a multitude of sensors and collect a lot of data, most utilities do not make efficient use of this. Thus, it can be said that we are data rich, but information poor. The innovation will allow us to better harness the data that we do collect and enable us to make actionable decisions to improve operations and save money, which ultimately benefits our customers."

This is the second BIRD Foundation award for American Water and the first for IOSight, Ltd.


About BIRD Foundation

The Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation works to encourage cooperation between Israeli and American companies in the various areas of technology, and provides free assistance in locating strategic partners from both countries for developing joint products.

The BIRD Foundation supports projects without receiving any rights in the participating companies or in the project itself. The financial assistance is repaid as royalties from sales. The Foundation provides support of up to 50 percent of a project's budget, beginning with R&D and ending with the initial stages of sales and marketing. The Foundation shares the risk and does not demand that the investment be repaid if the project fails to reach the sales stage.

About IOSight Ltd.

IOSight is an innovator and a market leader in the field of infrastructure facility management. IOSight provides cost effective BI/data management and reporting solutions for medium-to-large water and energy infrastructure facilities reducing costs, improving efficiency, increasing productivity, saving energy and delivering regulatory compliance.

Active in the water and energy sectors since end of 2007, IOSight has more than 60 successful installations in the world's largest desalination plants, water utilities, wastewater treatment plants and power production facilities.

About American Water

Founded in 1886, American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse publicly traded U.S. water and wastewater utility company. With headquarters in Voorhees, N.J., the company employs 6,400 dedicated professionals who provide regulated and market-based drinking water, wastewater and other related services to an estimated 15 million people in 47 states and Ontario, Canada. More information can be found at www.amwater.com.

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