Craig Lewis, Andrew Schad and CJ Valle, CWRU and Cleveland Institute of Art students and founders of Sprav Water, won the 2014 Ohio Clean Energy Challenge at Cleveland State last week for their wireless water meter. Sprav won $10,000 and will advance to the regional competition in Chicago in April, where they will compete for the $100,000 grand prize and a place in the Department of Energy’s National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition in Washington, D.C. this summer.

Although Lewis says the competition was “fairly stressful,” it was a good opportunity to showcase Sprav. “I think it means a lot because we’re entering a beta phase where we’re going to start testing it,” he says. “And the cash prize helps.”

The Sprav meter helps users conserve water in the shower by measuring water temperature and usage and relaying that data to a smartphone or tablet.

NorTech director of Cluster Acceleration Rick Earles served as Sprav’s mentor during the competition. “He was really helpful and added a lot of value,” says Lewis. “He gave us access to contacts at manufacturers in Northeast Ohio, which will be very valuable moving forward.”

In fact, Sprav is now a part of NorTech’s Speed to Market Accelerator. “It’s a lot of fun working with promising startups like Sprav Water,” Earles says. “These guys are so passionate about what they do. They have created a beautifully designed product and really understand what it takes to get it to market.”

Sprav just signed contracts with CWRU and Baldwin Wallace to test the meters in 60 of the universities’ showers. “We want to see how people’s behavior changes when they have real-time feedback with our device,” says Lewis.

Eight other teams from around the state competed in the Clean Energy Challenge, five from CWRU, and one each from University of Cincinnati, Wright State University and Ohio University.

Sources: Craig Lewis, Rick Earles
Writer: Karin Connelly