THE INNOVATORS
The High-Tech Way to Fight E. Coli
Ecoli-Sense’s handheld E. Coli monitor.
E
coli-Sense is a startup company that has invented a nanomaterials-based device for instantaneously checking water supplies for E. coli contamination. Working either on the basis of a hand-held testing device or buoys that stay in a water body continuously, Ecoli-Sense’s system is both high tech and more affordable than traditional methods. In this interview, Ecoli-Sense’s chief executive officer Nisha Sarveswaran and Chief Technical Officer Jamal Zeinalov talk to Irrigation Leader writer Parker Kenyon about their company’s origins, its product, and its potential benifits for irrigation districts and water users. Parker Kenyon: Please tell us about your backgrounds. Nisha Sarveswaran: My background is in aerospace engineering. I also have experience in another startup that does real-time air-quality monitoring. I was exposed to a lot of E. coli–related market analysis when I was doing business development for the other startup. When I realized the scale of the problem, and what a large project it would be to fight it, I started talking with Jamal about it and we came up with this solution.
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Parker Kenyon: How did your company get started? Nisha Sarveswaran: I Nisha Sarveswaran, chief was looking at ways in executive officer of Ecoli-Sense. which pathogen detection could be changed from culture-based analysis to more instantaneous monitoring, and Jamal has a PhD in nanomaterials. Together, we talked to a team at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, that is especially focused on the development of nanosensors that are able to detect pathogens instantaneously. We started working with them through funding from the Canadian government, focusing on E. coli and particular strains of it. The initial output was good, so we pursued the technology further. To build the business aspect of it, the Business, Research, and Entrepreneurship in Water (BREW) accelerator program at The Water Council in Milwaukee helped guide us in market development and in understanding customer expectations and showed us how we could implement or technology in other people’s systems. We then went to the Southern Ontario Water Consortium, which helped fund further research. We are ready to launch our product; we are very excited to bring it to the market. IRRIGATION LEADER
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ECOLI-SENSE.
Jamal Zeinalov: My background is also in aerospace engineering, but I am more on the materials side; that is the area in which I did my doctorate. I have always had an interest in this problem, and when we started to talk about it, we had the idea of looking into the research and development in the field of nanomaterials as a way of
possibly addressing the problem. That is how I got involved in the business. Now I am heading up the technical side of things.
