Bringing a new water technology from concept to market requires a strategic combination of industry expertise, deep technical knowledge, the right network connections, and real-world trialing to reach successful commercialization.

At Cleveland Water Alliance (CWA), we serve as the vital link that brings these elements together for innovators.Technology advancement is an evolutionary process that often starts with a rough prototype and requires multiple iterations to arrive at a field-ready, commercially viable solution. Through our robust testbed infrastructure and business support services, we help innovators trial their technologies, gain direct feedback, and accelerate their path to market.

A prime example of this long-term collaborative evolution is our work with Clean Earth Rovers. We have deployed their technology for the fourth consecutive year into our testbed network, this year at partner host site the Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR). 

The Evolution of Their Technology

There are many complex steps involved in successfully bringing a new technology to market, and it is often a long and difficult process. Clean Earth Rovers' multi-year journey within our testbed network perfectly highlights this reality of product development.

"Cleveland Water Alliance was the first user of any DataPod that we made," notes Michael Ahrens, Founder and CEO of Clean Earth Rovers. "Our first year, we sent off a very rough prototype, and I don't know that it really even made it out to the field. But we had lots of really great learnings about just how robust this technology needs to be to survive this environment."

The First Iteration

Dorothy Baunach, CWA’s Entrepreneur in Residence who advises tech creators on their commercialization journey, has worked alongside the Clean Earth Rovers team since 2022 and remembers those early challenges well.

"Their first model was 3D-printed and sent off for initial evaluation," recalls Dorothy. "The material didn't adapt well to water, and the connections came loose during shipping. The whole thing just didn't work very well at first. But Michael was one of those entrepreneurs who was humble, determined, and always came back having made real progress. There are times when it’s easy to walk away from early-stage hardware, but I’ve learned you never close the door on someone who keeps putting in the work."

Over four years of collaborative trialing in the watershed, CWA provided critical business support services to help guide the company toward commercial readiness. By connecting Clean Earth Rovers with various end users across our network, we facilitated real-world testing that yielded the feedback necessary to optimize both their physical technology and their data software platform.

An Ohio Innovation

Clean Earth Rovers’ journey is deeply tied to the Ohio innovation ecosystem. Michael Ahrens co-founded the company while attending Xavier University, initially getting the venture off the ground through local pitch circuits.They then leveraged resources at the University of Cincinnati, gaining access to funding and mentorship opportunities. Through work with CWA and other vital organizations in Ohio, Clean Earth Rovers has been able to successfully evolve its technology in the region.

A Low-Cost Smart Buoy for Real-Time Water Monitoring

CWA has worked with Clean Earth Rovers to test and refine their smart buoy technology, the DataPod. The DataPod is a modular, solar-powered smart buoy built to automate water quality monitoring, risk assessments, and pollution insights. Historically, continuous remote monitoring tools have been expensive, often forcing utilities and researchers to rely on manual, hands-on sampling. The DataPod addresses this problem by offering a more accessible, affordable price point.

The device captures critical baseline environmental parameters, specifically tracking real-time fluctuations in key metrics such as pH, water temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and turbidity. The DataPod then transmits data directly to a digital platform. It then utilizes built-in artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze multi-parameter trends and form localized risk assessments, providing water managers with early-warning forecasts for emerging pollution threats and harmful algal blooms.

Trialing at Old Woman Creek

CWA has deployed the DataPod at our partner host site, the Old Woman Creek NERR, for the season.

That multi-year access to real-world testing has been the absolute key." notes Dorothy. “Each time Clean Earth Rovers  iterated on the technology, we were able to help and test to see if that iteration was better, if it worked, and we always provided feedback. The Old Woman Creek testbed site is just so perfect for something like this. And he'll have been able to iterate three times in the same place so that the conditions will be about the same, it'll be about the same time of year... there's great comparative data.”

Old Woman Creek will provide the real-world operational feedback necessary to further refine the technology. The primary goals for this season's deployment focus on two key advancements:

Physical Durability: Validating a brand-new generation of the buoy that transitioned into a more ruggedized, factory-produced model built to handle long-term exposure.

Predictive Analytics: Evaluating newly upgraded machine learning models designed to filter out data errors and forecast localized pollution threats.

"I’m so excited to get this next version of the buoy in the water because it really is different from what Cleveland Water Alliance would've seen in the past," says Michael. "I just think that this will be kind of the crescendo of the testbed deployments and the relationship that we have... and a good testament and benchmarker of how a continued relationship can get us from the starting line to something really promising."

Providing Commercialization Support for Emerging Water Technologies

Through several years of collaborative testing and development, CWA has helped Clean Earth Rovers turn their initial concept and prototype into a more durable, market-ready water infrastructure tool. 

"We've really valued the relationships that we've built with the members at Cleveland Water Alliance, and have felt like it really has been an ongoing support for our team," shares Michael. "As things go well and things go wrong, we have had Cleveland Water Alliance as a cheerleader at our back over the years. They haven't given up on us, and I think that they really believe in what we are building.”

By providing access to world-class testbed infrastructure and a robust partner network, Cleveland Water Alliance accelerates the commercialization of critical innovations that protect our freshwater resources.