We are winners of the Hesse and overall prizes of the Galileo Masters Awards.

We are the overall winner of the Galileo Masters Space Awards

Our floating platform for monitoring surface waters brought us the overall victory for Hesse.

Galileo Masters is a competition for innovations that use the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). On December 14th, 2021, we were selected as the overall winner of the Galileo Masters innovation competition. Our innovation is called WAMO: a floating measuring station for area-wide flood protection and for combating life-threatening blue-green algae. It is the first time that the overall victory has gone to a company from Hesse.

 

WAMO: Flood warnings and protection against blue-green algae

The energy transition, environmental pollution and climate change are known to be among the major challenges of our time. That is why we have made it our mission to secure the use of our planet’s existing resources with sustainable solutions.

„”We want to offer flood warnings and water management to communities all over the planet for less than the current costs”
– Sebastian Lemke (Founder and CEO)

 

We developed the floating measurement platform WAMO to achieve this goal. The name is short for “Water Monitoring”. The purpose of our now award-winning innovation is to systematically monitor of surface waters via satellite technology. In 2021 it has once again been shown that rivers and lakes are important components of the entire ecosystem. Accurate measurements help avert acute threats from unexpected floods and the spread of blue-green algae.

WAMO is a self-sufficient floating platform that requires low construction, operation and maintenance costs and is easy to implement in any surface water body. The sensors collect information on water level, precipitation, temperature and pH, as well as parameters such as chlorophyll and nitrates. The highly accurate measurements are transmitted via satellite communication in real time. This allows sudden disasters to be detected in time. In addition, a low-power ultrasound device is used to stop the development of blue-green algae without affecting aquatic life. In recent years, there have been increased warnings around the globe about toxic blue-green algae in swimming lakes.

A crucial advantage of WAMO compared to conventional measuring stations is that the measuring level is not limited. A concrete example could be the devastating flood in Germany mid-July 2021, which cost the lives of almost 200 people. The measuring stations on the Ahr had a level limited to 5 meters, but in the catastrophe the level was 8 meters. WAMO removes restrictions like this and can provide accurate measurement data even at unexpected water levels.

„No one should ever die again in Germany because of a flood.“
– Michael Bogosyan (CEO of Dextro Group Germany GmbH)

 

WAMO’s environmentally friendly and climate-efficient concept convinced the jury of the innovation competition.
Thus, we – the Darmstadt-based e.Ray Europa GmbH – were honored with a double win on December 14, 2021.