Fiber Optic Sensing Association Presents Hifi as Innovation Award Recipient

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

November 24, 2025

The Fiber Optic Sensing Association (FOSA), the premier trade association dedicated to fiber optic sensing, announced Hifi Engineering as the winner of its annual FOSA Innovation Award – for Hifi HDS™ for Integrity Monitoring of Utility Water Mains.

FOSA presented the award to Hifi Engineering in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the association’s annual member meeting on Nov. 17-19, 2025.

Hifi’s High-fidelity Distributed Sensing (HDS™) technology holds the potential to dramatically impact integrity monitoring of utility water mains by enabling real-time detection of wire breaks in pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP). In collaboration with the Great Lakes Water Authority and Wayne State University, Hifi conducted long-term in-situ and ex-situ testing to validate HDS’s ability to capture acoustic, strain, and frequency signatures of wire breaks, which are key indicators of structural risk.

“The Hifi HDS™ for Monitoring of Utility Water Mains project results confirm the substantial performance benefits of HDS over incumbent wire break detection systems, which suffer from low detection fidelity (resulting in missed or mischaracterized events) and slow response times (often associated with post-processing of poor-quality data to minimize false positives),” said Mike Hooper, director of business development for Hifi Engineering. “Machine learning algorithms trained on the gathered data enable accurate, real-time alerts, transforming asset management from reactive to proactive. This collaborative effort between industry, academia and technology providers addresses a critical infrastructure challenge, offering scalable, low-impact monitoring that enhances public safety and utility reliability.”

“FOSA members are true innovators,” said Nilson Gabela, FOSA Chair and Corning Sr. Global Manager, Market & Technology Development. “The FOSA Innovation Award recognizes the strides made by our members, demonstrating the power of fiber optic sensing technology. Congratulations to Hifi Engineering for its impressive work and innovation demonstrated with its integrity monitoring of utility water mains project.”

Steven Koles, FOSA Treasurer and President of Hifi, accepts the FOSA Innovation Award alongside Dr. David Chen, FOSA Vice Chair and CTO of Go!Foton.

About The Fiber Optic Sensing Association

FOSA is a non-profit organization created in Washington, D.C., in 2017 with the mission of educating industry, government and the public on the benefits of fiber optic sensing. Through webinars, videos, white papers, public presentations and public policy advocacy, the organization provides information on the use of fiber optic sensing to secure critical facilities, enhance public safety and protect the environment.

About Hifi

Hifi is a privately held Canadian company, with minority ownership from Enbridge, Cenovus and BDC, specializing in the development, supply and commercial operation of next generation fiber optic sensing technologies and machine learning software primarily used for preventative monitoring of pipelines and other critical assets. Hifi’s technology is deployed or currently under deployment across over three million meters of pipeline assets globally. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Hifi currently has a number of commercialized service offerings based on its high fidelity distributed sensing (HDS™) technology platform, over 100 patents issued or pending, and was named one of SDTC’s Sustainability Changemakers in addition to winning awards from the Fiber Optic Sensing Association for Innovation (for Deep Fake Verification) and Project of the Year (for the 1,200 km TransMountain Expansion pipeline project), and ranking one of the Fastest-Growing Company in North America on the 2023 Deloitte Technology Fast 500.