On April 11, 2013, the China Finals of ImageCup 2013 (2013 Microsoft Innovation Cup Software Design Competition) kicked off in Beijing Zhongguancun Houde Innovation Valley. In the previous qualifiers, two teams of contestants from the Software Engineering College of Chongqing University emerged among thousands of teams across the country and successfully entered the finals of the China Division. It is reported that in this final, a total of 18 teams were carefully selected by colleges and universities across the country, and the software engineering college of Chongqing University was promoted to two groups of players.

Combine team from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, they won the top six in the Microsoft Innovation Cup finals. Their project concept is very large, but it is very simple. Team leader Zhang Zheng conveyed the core concept of their project with humor:

"If this product is popularized, we don't need to look at the process of water meters, and 'checking the water meter' is no longer a very hot network word."

Their work is: smart water meters.

"To put it plainly, it is to remove the current meter and replace it with us."

The water meters that are put into use now basically require manual meter reading. It takes about 30 days to complete the meter reading task in a residential area. Gao Min from the Institute of Automation told me that sometimes manually copied data is outdated, which not only wastes manpower, but also cannot accurately detect the overall water consumption, and it is impossible to know where there is a leak.

The "Smart Water Meter" system regards every household water meter as a node of a large network. Each building and a residential area is also a node, which transmits data layers to the server through the network. The use of data processing techniques accurately records the amount of water used by different users at different time periods, eliminating the need for manual meter reading. All "Smart Water Meters" are aggregated into a large network that can intuitively reflect the detailed water usage within a certain range.

At present, the "smart water meter" is still in the experimental stage.

Fan Yifei from the Software Academy introduced to me that this project was inspired by one of his own teachers. "He used to do this one. At that time, we were helping the seniors to do an information management website. Then we thought that this idea was very valuable and we went on."

Combine currently has more than 20 members, and Zhang Zheng is also involved.

"We have not described this degree of waste well. We did not dare to imagine this before."

It is reasonable to say that such a real project should not be difficult to promote, but Zhang Zheng gave a different view.

“Our things are more water-efficient, and how easy it is to use, these are not found in advertisements and can only be seen by carefully digging through the data. Wasted water, water companies look for property to collect money, and they follow the general To count; the property to find the residents to collect money, they count according to the sub-table, the middle of the difference, who will bear?

How serious is the current water meter leak? Professor Zhang Zheng gave me a survey data: Assuming that 100 million tons of water will be produced each year, only 80 million tons will be sold to users, 20 million tons will be lost in the middle, and there will be more than two million losses at the average price. This loss can only be borne by the water company.

According to the team, if the "smart water meter" is installed in a large area, it will be very quick, but it is difficult to persuade people to purchase. However, it is understood that the team has installed 28 test tables in Shenzhen, and the trial status is very gratifying.

In fact, after all, the water meter is an infrastructure, not a good one. It needs to be recognized by the government and residents, and it must also stand the test of the market.

"To a certain extent, we also belong to the concept of smart home."

The topic turned to the future direction of the team. Deming Yongming, majoring in Internet of Things, said that they will try to use this system for water pressure and water quality testing.

The current status of the "water pressure" problem is: water pressure is low for user complaints, water pressure is high, power dissipation is fast, and leakage is increased. According to the survey, on the Wuhan side, an increase of 10 meters of water head (one atmosphere pressure) will increase the leakage of 2%. From the point of view of the water company, they are more willing to give enough water pressure under pressure and the corresponding waste is even greater. Chen Yuzhen of the computer science major told me another data: the leak rate of some old communities. It has reached 60%.

In addition to regulating the water pressure, this system can also add functions such as controlling residual chlorine, testing water quality, and so on. The team has also developed an app that can remotely control the amount of water and water pressure in the home, but it is still being tested. According to the team, in principle, the addition of these features is not complicated.

It is understood that many technology giants have begun to implement the concept of intelligent regulation of household water and electricity. In the face of pressure from large companies, how should a student team respond?

“What they are doing is a water management system. What we do is a leak-proof system. Compared to big companies, we focus on one point. Our goal is very clear, we can see the results directly, and there is nothing too complicated. Something we do well and we do not have enough time for a lifetime, so we can do as good as we can."

This is Zhang Zheng's answer. For such a team, with such a sentence, it is enough.

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