News & Multimedia

DENVER — The Bureau of Reclamation announced the winners of the Counting Every Drop Challenge today. The three winning teams, PMASS, Rahavi Brothers, and PGRAWS, proposed, built, and demonstrated their ground-based precipitation measuring devices through virtual meetings. The devices were then submitted to Reclamation and the Natural Resources Conservation Service for laboratory and field testing.

The Challenge tasked competitors to develop ground-based precipitation measurement designs. Competitors had to meet specific requirements of reliability, accuracy, operation and maintenance, and ability to operate in remote locations under extreme environmental conditions. The ideal solution would not require fluids, like antifreeze, to measure solid precipitation such as snow and hail.

“The ability to accurately and reliably measure precipitation is critical to monitoring and understanding the hydrologic cycle,” said Reclamation Senior Advisor for Research and Development, Levi Brekke. "Precipitation measurements from remote areas such as mountain headwaters also inform critical water resources management decisions that directly impact human safety and environmental health, including water management for flood control, irrigation and municipal water supplies, and environmental benefits.” 

Over the course of two years, competitors designed and built prototype precipitation measurement devices incorporating technologies such as solid-state sensors, machine learning and novel adaptation of an existing designs. Launched in August 2022 and completed in August 2024, this challenge included two phases and 8 months of field testing. 

Final Challenge Awardees

PMASS: $73,000 award

Daniel and Karl Gebhardt developed the Precipitation Measurement with Advanced Solid-state Sensors (PMASS). The instrument combines three solid-state sensors: a downward-facing pulsed coherent radar, a camera-based sensor, and a temperature sensor. Instantaneous precipitation rate and accumulated precipitation depth are then estimated from features extracted from the sensor readings using a machine learning algorithm. The design is fluid-free, movement-free, and has minimal required maintenance. 

Rahavi Brothers: $63,000 award

Seyed Mohammadhadi Rahavi and Seyed Reza Rahavi developed the Intelligent Precipitation Measurement System (IPMS). This is an innovative twist on an established heating tipping bucket design. Instead of using an electric heating element to melt solid precipitation to measure its liquid water content, it uses a propane heating element. This allows it to successfully operate at remote sites where the electric power supply is not sufficient to power an electric heating element. The design includes an Artificial Intelligence powered control board that monitors and controls the heating process to minimize fuel consumption and increase accuracy and performance. 

PGRAWS: $48,000 award

Daniel and Karl Gebhardt also developed the Precipitation Gauge with Redundant Array of Weight Scales (PGRAWS). This is a novel design based on weight measurement of all forms of precipitation. Redundant collection buckets with independent mechanical operation contribute to an improved accuracy and reliability. An aerodynamic bucket profile also increases accuracy by lowering wind-induced undercatch compared to traditional collecting gauges. Other innovative elements include the use of an intelligent algorithm to dynamically correct for wind interference, fallen debris, roosting birds, or component failure and the use of vibration to periodically empty solid precipitation from the collection buckets. 

Reclamation partnered with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, NASA Tournament Lab, Geonor, Inc., and Freelancer for this prize competition. 

To learn more, please visit the Counting Every Drop website. 

Reclamation conducts prize competitions to spur innovation by engaging a non-traditional, problem-solver community. Please visit Reclamation's Prize Competition website to learn more.