Latest news with #Astorino
WIRED
28-04-2025
- General
- WIRED
Poop Drones Are Keeping Sewers Running So Humans Don't Have to
Poorly maintained sewers can have disastrous consequences, but regular inspections can be time-consuming, expensive, and dangerous. The solution: subterranean dung drones. On the morning of Christmas Eve 2016, residents of a house in Fraser, Michigan heard a curious pop, pop, popping sound coming from their walls. After initially dismissing it as melting snow falling from the roof, they soon realised the truth: the noise was the result of bricks being squeezed out of place as their home slowly crumpled into a sinkhole. The house and several nearby were evacuated as authorities assessed the situation and determined its cause: a collapsed sewer interceptor, threatening several homes and a long stretch of Fraser's busy 15 Mile Road. It was hardly the start to the festive season anyone would wish for. 'This was quite the impact to our system and community,' says Vince Astorino. As Operations Director at the Macomb County Public Works Office, he's responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the county's wastewater infrastructure, including some 68 miles of sewer lines. 'An 11-foot diameter sewer, approximately 70-feet deep, experienced a failure which drastically reduced wastewater flow. This section of pipe is near the main outlet of our system and approximately 800,000 residents rely on it to convey their wastewater downstream.' Prompt action from Astorino and his team got bypass systems in place in time to prevent sewage backing up into residents' homes, and in the end only one building—the house where the popping sound was heard—required demolition. But it was nine months until the offending stretch of pipe, roughly 4000 feet of it, would be fully replaced. The direct cost to taxpayers was around $75 million, not taking into account the added costs to residents and nearby businesses as a result of the disruption. The key to preventing disasters like this is regular inspection of sewer lines, hunting down any cracks and fissures that, if left unattended, can lead to soil ingress and eventual collapse of the pipe. But sewer pipes can be dark, cramped and filled with pockets of gas, making inspecting large networks using traditional methods (typically a tethered, remotely operated crawler fitted with a camera or even in-person) a slow, costly and often hazardous process. This is where drones come in. Designed and engineered to operate in confined spaces, a new generation of flying robots is being sent into sewers to perform inspections in a safer, more efficient way. The Elios 3 drone is a popular option for sewer inspections. Flyability One such drone is the Elios 3, designed and manufactured by Swiss company Flyability and used by major industry players like Veolia. Equipped as standard with a protective cage, impact-resistant exoskeleton, 16,000-lumen lighting rig, 4K camera and LiDAR, it can navigate through dark and dusty pipes while creating a live 3D model of the environment. The modular design means it can also be fitted with specialized payloads like explosive gas sensors or ultrasonic thickness gauges. Eloise McMinn Mitchell, Communication Manager at Flyability, says that the company is seeing huge sales growth as a result of the Elios 3's capabilities and efficiency versus in-person human inspections, particularly when it comes to sewers. 'To inspect a stretch of sewer underneath a road, you'll need teams of at least four people and have to divert traffic in multiple locations. With the drone, you just need two people, and nobody has to climb into the sewer, eliminating confined space risks and exposure to hazardous environments.' As a result, the safety rules surrounding drones are much less rigid than when humans are involved, which McMinn Mitchell says greatly eases the cost of inspections. 'There's an average 40 percent cost reduction compared to traditional methods, and you can inspect 900 meters in a day with the drone compared to 400 meters.' In May 2024, in a drive to streamline their inspection process, Macomb County adopted a technology-led approach combining a remotely piloted Asio X drone, built by Flyability rival Flybotix, with a software program called SewerAI. The total cost of both was around $100,000. Previously, the county had been spending $1 million on inspections every three years, manually inspecting footage for defects, many of which could be missed due to the poor image quality. Around 16 inches across and equipped with powerful 40,000-lumen lights, a 4K camera and a cage for protection against collisions, the Asio X can capture crystal clear video of the sewer system while navigating all but the narrowest of pipes. Astorino describes it as a 'night and day difference' to the old method. Footage from the Asio X of the Macomb County sewers Macomb County Unlike some of the latest consumer drones, which fly almost autonomously, the Asio X requires mostly manual control, and in some very unforgiving locations too, as Astorino points out: 'It's dark, air flow can quickly change within a confined space, and managing a flight path above flowing water in a restricted pipe is challenging.' As a result, he leaves flight to the experts: 'Our main operator, Captain Zach, is able to fly through some very tricky environments.' That being said, the inspection process itself is straightforward. 'An antenna is lowered into the manhole to provide signal strength from the drone controller to the drone,' Astorino tells WIRED. 'The operator will fly the drone from one manhole to the next, recording video through that flight path.' With around 20 minutes of battery life, the Asio X can document around 1,000 feet of pipe in a single flight, capturing not only video but LiDAR and infrared scans, and gas readings as it passes through a section of sewer. Under the old system, video data would be analyzed in the field, with the camera operator logging defects as they navigated through the pipes. Now, the drone-captured data is sent off to contractors at SewerAI, who run it through their AI-assisted algorithms to identify defects automatically. Astorino tells me it's been a game-changer, saving his team huge amounts of time and money. SewerAI can detect problems that need addressing from drone footage. Macomb County 'We performed months of testing against coded video in the field from various contractors against what SewerAI was able to do with the same footage, and every single time SewerAI excelled in what it was able to find and code correctly.' Previously, inspecting a section of sewer pipe might take months, but SewerAI has an agreement to send data analysis back to the county within 10 days; Astorino says it usually does so within 24 hours. The team have been so impressed with the software package that even in areas where the drone cannot go and more traditional methods of inspection are required—small diameter pipes, for instance—the resulting data is now sent off for analysis rather than being coded in the field. Old data can be quickly reviewed and re-analyzed too, picking up defects the original contractors may have missed at the time. This means repair work can be done where it's most needed, preventing the sort of worsening conditions that can lead to disastrous and costly incidents like the 2016 sinkhole. Macomb County has been a pioneer in this field. It's the first county in Michigan to utilize this combination of drones and AI software for underground infrastructure inspection and has won two in-state awards as a result of its forward thinking. But Vince Astorino tells me he and his team are always on the lookout for new ways to modernize operations. 'It's hard to count out great leaps forward in technology around this space, especially with the great AI race taking place all around us. We're keeping our options open.'
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ashtabula schools bring in insurance adjustor, construction manager for Lakeside
ASHTABULA — The Ashtabula Area City School Board approved an agreement between the district and Alex N. Sill Company at a Wednesday meeting. The firm will provide public adjustor services for the district's insurance claim surrounding reconstructing Lakeside High School. The district is bringing in Greenspace Construction Services, LLC as a construction manager for the high school. Treasurer Mark Astorino said the district is looking to meet with the insurance company soon for possible updates on the building's future. 'We were looking to meet with the insurance company to get an answer May 7 or 8, and I think now it's been moved to May 11,' he said. The high school's roof collapsed during the Thanksgiving weekend snowstorm. Astorino talked about how the Ohio House's proposed budget could affect the district, saying the district would be provided with an additional $50,000 in year one and $25,000 in year two. 'When you read the articles that say no school was cut, that's true, but if you think a $75,000 increase on a $40 million budget is anything to write home about, that's not really all that good,' he said. The district received an additional $1 million from the state over the duration of the last state budget, he said. Astorino had a hard time learning about aspects of the house budget's effect on school districts. 'There was a cap on administrative costs, where your total district administrative costs wouldn't be worth more than 15% of your total expenses, but nobody knew what that meant,' he said. Astorino is waiting to see what the Ohio Senate's proposed budget will be, he said. 'I don't think it's getting much better, to be honest with you,' he said. 'I think it might even get worse.' The district is sending a 1.25-mill renewal levy to fund textbooks, educational technology and instructional equipment to the Ashtabula County Auditor, in preparation for it being placed on the ballot. The board ratified an agreement with Saint John School to allow them to play varsity and junior varsity football at high school's stadium, Astorino said. The board approved a replacement of the district's telephone system. Astorino said the district's telephones have reached their end of life. Astorino said there will be payments for the upgrade over the next three to four years. 'For teachers, you really need a hard phone in class,' he said. The new phones will be moved into the high school, when it is ready. The board heard a presentation from Camille Licate, founder of Kids for Positive Change, an organization that gets students into environmental activities like gardening and recycling. Licate said she recently worked with sixth graders to raise $600 for World Central Kitchen and make Valentine's cards for victims of the January fires in Los Angeles.
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
AACS provides update on Lakeside High School
SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP — The Ashtabula Area City Schools leadership team is presently evaluating information regarding the structural integrity of Lakeside High School after the Dec. 1 collapse of a portion the roof, according to a press release from AACS Superintendent Lisa Newsome and AACS Chief Financial Officer/Director of Operations Mark Astorino. 'On Friday, district leadership and the Board of Education received several reports from professional firms engaged by the district to assess the structural integrity and viability of repairing the two-story front academic wing of the high school,' the press release states. The roof collapse occurred after five feet of snow blanketed the area and caused a portion of the roof to collapse on Thanksgiving weekend. After the roof collapse, the district reviewed the inside of the school, and eventually the remaining roof was removed and put back together as evidence, school officials said at the time. The reports provided Friday detailed the damage done to door frames, lockers, concrete block outside walls and inside demising walls and plumbing. The release indicates the firms recommendation to the district's insurance carrier, Liberty Mutual, is to proceed with complete demolition and rebuilding of the front, two-story academic wing. Newsome and Astorino have been working with these firms to obtain these recommendations. 'The amount of water is very concerning and the damage it has done to the first story of the building and the mold will become an issue,' Newsome said. She said her concern has been for the students and staff from the beginning of the disaster. 'We want to make sure the decisions the decisions that are being made are decided for the health and safety of our students and staff,' Newsome said. The school board and leadership will continue to evaluate the next steps. Newsome said the recommendation is not yet the final plan. 'That is only the recommendation, that is not the plan because we still have to go through our insurance company,' she said. 'The recommendations are coming from our structural engineer and our people. It's just a recommendation, it is not the plan.' 'We want the students back in the high school, but we will do our due diligence with our experts to do what is best. Working to repair the back part of the building first, to be able to utilize that part sooner is at the forefront and we will work toward that goal during this unimaginable process,' Newsome said in the press release. Astorino said in the release the potential for mold development is a major issue. 'We are really concerned with the amount of water infiltration and potential for subsequent mold development,' he said. 'We are not open to bringing any students or staff back into a building that could present future environmental and hygiene issues. 'The recommendations are very clear, make sense and we are eager to get the rebuilding process underway as soon as possible.' Astorino said the school district hired Sill Public Adjusters to represent them with respect to this large claim. The company will be working with Liberty Mutual on moving forward with the work, Astorino said. He hopes the district will be able to have a tentative timeline for reconstruction in the next few weeks. The status of the back roof over the E/F classroom wing is also being evaluated by engineers. 'Although no sections of that roof area collapsed, there have been concerning, structural observations that need to be addressed,' Astorino said in the release.
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ashtabula schools getting reimbursed for snowstorm
ASHTABULA — Ashtabula Area City School District Treasurer Mark Astorino said at a Wednesday meeting the district will be reimbursed around $258,000 for expenses from the Thanksgiving weekend snowstorm. The state asked the district to pick its costliest days for reimbursement, he said. Astorino said the district's reimbursement is around 75% for the week of the snowstorm, not for the whole winter. 'Our total snow removal cost, with all the roof snow removal, the parking lots, all the heavy equipment to move snow, the extra salt and all the maintenance over time was in the mid-$400,000 range,' he said. Astorino is looking into how the reimbursement will affect the district, he said. 'We're working on an updated forecast, so we know where we'll finish the year at,' he said. Astorino's forecast will also analyze how potential state cuts to public education could affect the district, he said. Also at the meeting, the board approved an expenditure reduction plan. Superintendent Lisa Newsome said she and district administrators were looking at changes to enrollment, possible state-wide public education cuts and where the district could cut. 'Right now, it's at $2.1 million,' she said. Newsome said she does not want to be in the 'caution area' next year before the state finishes its budget. 'That's all I can cut right now,' she said. 'I'm not going to cut anymore until we get that budget.' Board President Scott Yopp said people have been shielded from how cuts could affect them. 'We are now to the point where you're going to see it impact things,' he said. The board approved bringing in Auburn Environmental to do an environmental study of Lakeside High School and GPRS to study the building's envelope. The high school's roof collapsed during the Thanksgiving weekend snowstorm. Board member and legislative liaison Laura Jones said she and Newsome went to Columbus Tuesday to testify to the Ohio State Senate in favor of House Bill 43. The bill was reported by senate committee and is going to the senate floor. Sponsored by Ohio State Representatives Sarah Fowler Arthur and David Thomas, HB 43 would provide flexibility for graduation requirements, and waive not more than 24 of the required minimum number of hours a school building must be open with students in attendance. Lakeside High School Principal Doug Wetherholt said at a board work session his students have been resilient. 'Our goal is to bring down discipline by about 15% from last year to this year,' he said. 'We've done a pretty good job. If you look at our suspensions, we went from 277 to 211.' Cell phone use in school is common, Wetherholt said. 'We tripled the amount of discipline we're doing with cell phones, just to try to get them off of that,' he said. Wetherholt said there have been more in-school suspensions that out-of-school suspensions. 'The major infractions have come down and we're addressing minor infractions,' he said. 'That's really where you want to live ... because kids are meant to make mistakes. They're going to make mistakes, and they just need to learn consequences.' The high school's staff have been resilient, too, Wetherholt said. The board voted to give district teachers a 2% raise over the next two years. Newsome said the teachers deserve the raise, because they put in extra work after the high school roof collapse. 'I wish I could give them more,' she said. 'With everything going on, they are working beyond their eight hours and beyond their 185 days.' Astorino's office received an award from the Ohio State Auditor's Office, he said. 'They were just starting that audit when the roof issue happened,' he said.
New York Times
07-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Michael Astorino's ‘entrepreneurial and creative spirit' paying off at Wesleyan University
Michael Astorino recently walked into his favorite campus smoothie shop with two things in mind: an order and an offer. He cued up his laptop and gave the owner a pitch deck presentation, which was meant to benefit his Wesleyan University basketball teammates while also helping drum up business for the store. Advertisement The deal: If she gave players 50 percent off their smoothies for a limited time, he would create a mini-campaign for her — complete with digital content promoted on social media — in conjunction with Wesleyan hosting games on the first weekend of the Division III men's basketball NCAA Tournament. An arrangement was agreed upon. Wesleyan (26-1) begins NCAA Tournament play Friday night at home against Delaware Valley (15-12). The winner advances to a second-round game on Saturday night. If you should be in Middletown, Conn., from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, you can stop by The Fresh Monkee, order from the signature player smoothie menu and receive 25 percent off — all because Astorino saw a name, image and likeness opportunity. Wesleyan is having a historic season, earning the No. 1 overall NCAA Tournament seed while setting the single-season program record for wins. The Cardinals will attempt to make it out of the first weekend and reach the Sweet 16 for the first time. Yet one of their most intriguing stories comes from someone who likely won't play. Astorino, a 6-foot-5, 195-pound junior from Upper Dublin, Pa., has appeared in five games all season for 11 minutes. He doesn't have a large personal brand. As of mid-week, his Instagram account had 2,289 followers, and his X account had 148 followers. Still, he has managed to carve out a niche in the NIL space, unlike many college athletes at lower levels, through an insatiable curiosity and work ethic. Astorino, who has partnered with more than 15 brands, co-founded an NIL agency. He earned a part-time job as head of partnerships for a vegan protein company that stemmed from an NIL deal. He is even co-facilitating a 'Wesleyan Shark Tank' course that teaches students how to pitch businesses to potential investors. 'He has an entrepreneurial and creative spirit that is in the top 1 percent of guys that I've coached,' Wesleyan basketball coach Joe Reilly said. 'He's in good company. I think the difference with him is that he's taken a non-traditional path, and there's no blueprint for it. He's creating it himself. That within itself is the most impressive part.' Most people likely think of NIL opportunities as they relate to Division I players or the best players on major sports programs at lower levels. Astorino is proof that ambition and hustle off the court are just as important, if not more, because there are few collectives or agents for Division III players. Advertisement Astorino said he was inspired, in part, by Jack Betts, who played football in the same conference at Amherst College and graduated in 2023. Betts said he earned around $9,500 combined in free product and total compensation. But he amassed more than 35 NIL-related deals, earned the moniker 'The King of D3 NIL' and used that experience to found The Make Your Own Legacy Academy, a first-of-its-kind NIL education solution created to help underserved small-market athletes. When Astorino was a freshman, he reached out to Betts seeking advice. 'I told him, if you want to find success in this realm, you've really got to go out there and get it,' Betts said. 'It's going to be difficult. There's going to be a lot of no's coming your way. But it doesn't matter how many no's you get. It's not the end of the world. It just matters about that one brand that says yes. It just matters about that one contact that's like, 'Yeah, absolutely. I'd love to sit down and chat.'' Astorino attempted to connect with brands through email, Instagram direct messages or LinkedIn searches looking for a marketing representative at companies. He sought out brands he used in his daily life. He estimated that he sent 20 to 30 messages per day. His unique pitch to them was that he would not only represent a brand as a college athlete but that he would create engaging videos in exchange for free products. 'It was a lot of trial and error,' Astorino said. 'I probably was just pumping out emails for the first couple months to see what hit.' He said the first company to say yes was Air Relax, which sent him about $800 worth of product in compression boots for athlete recovery. He subsequently partnered with the cold-pressed juice brand Suja Organic, along with House Pickleball, Clean Energy and Spacemilk, a vegan protein brand whose founder was so impressed with Astorino that he hired him part-time to oversee social media strategy, influencer marketing and brand collaborations. Advertisement Astorino's ambition wasn't so much about money as it was to network and learn about the opportunities NIL can present. He estimates he has made roughly $1,000 with the rest coming in free product. His experiences in two years have allowed him to participate in NIL from three perspectives: athlete, agent and brand representative. Astorino thinks about ways to push something forward. He went to his local grocery store and convinced the owners to sell Spacemilk. When he was initially told the store didn't have room on the shelves, he spent $75 to create a pop-up display with a big cardboard cutout that he set up at the end of a shelf. 'I've hired really expensive people, and you've got to hold their hand the whole way,' Spacemilk founder Walter Ross said. 'And I wouldn't hear from Michael for a week, and I'd check back in, and he's crushed a mountain of deliverables and really pushed the ball down the field. And I'm like, 'Dude, what? This is like some founder-level commitment that you're just chasing after this and going for it.'' Astorino's foray into co-founding an NIL agency was the result of another cold outreach. His friend's cousin is Nick O'Shea, a former kicker at Morgan State. O'Shea was thinking of starting Xtra Point Solutions when Astorino messaged him in February 2023 asking if he could be represented in exchange for designing graphics for the website and Instagram account. O'Shea wasn't looking for a Division III athlete at the time, but he quickly realized Astorino had a legitimate interest in helping the business succeed. 'At first, I just wanted to help him feel included,' O'Shea said. 'But then he started providing more value than I was providing in a lot of ways. It turned into me begging him to get on the calls with me. 'He does everything. Seriously, any meeting I go into, Michael's there with me, whether it's with the founder of another company, whether it's with an athlete that we're trying to recruit, whether it's an athlete coming to us. Every single conversation. Even to the point where when we write for grants, we do it together. I tell everybody Michael came on as my digital wizard and turned into a wizard in every other aspect, too.' O'Shea said neither of them has brought in much money because the initial attempt was to find free product for athletes so the two could establish their names. They have helped find deals for more than 80 athletes. Advertisement The two partnered to earn a $25,000 grant from the United Way Foundation to conduct the Payton Harvey Cheer Camp in Detroit. Harvey is a former cheerleader at Michigan. Astorino set up registration platforms for the event through the agency's website and managed T-shirt orders. O'Shea, a Michigan native, has used relationships from his home state as the backbone for athlete partnerships. But Astorino has been integral in helping to secure athletes, including USC women's basketball player and former McDonald's All-American Aaliyah Gayles. Astorino attended IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., for three years of high school, captained and played on the 'Varsity Blue' team below the national squad and had the trust of some of his friends to help start their NIL journeys. 'The best part about NIL for us was it's so new that nobody could tell us that they were an expert and had so many years in the business because no one did,' Astorino said. Wesleyan is a small liberal arts school that is among the most academically minded Division III programs in the country. U.S. News & World Report ranked Wesleyan in the top 15 for best national liberal arts colleges. Astorino is majoring in psychology because he said the school doesn't have a business major. Both his parents were psychologists, and his older sister, Eden, will start graduate school in September in a doctoral psychology program. His dad, David, said the family has encouraged Michael's creativity. 'The only rules we have are you have to be a good person, and you have to find something that gives you energy and try to be the best you can at it,' David said. 'Our kids are starting at a very good place in society and life. So in some cases, we just want to raise the bar higher for them.' Astorino said his classes this semester are on Mondays and Wednesdays, which gives him time to balance everything else: workouts in the afternoon, practices in the evening, homework and his business endeavors. He is typically up by 8 a.m. and asleep by midnight. What takes up most of his time these days is the class he co-teaches as part of a for-credit student forum. His co-instructor, Ben Carbeau, is a senior and Wesleyan football player who already co-owns his own hard tea company. The idea, Astorino said, is to prepare students to understand financial literacy, legal structure and public speaking. A recent class brought a Wesleyan alum and Harvard law graduate in to discuss how to become incorporated as a business and what constitutes intellectual property. The final project will consist of students pitching their businesses to Wesleyan alumni in a Shark Tank-style event on campus. Advertisement Astorino isn't sure what he wants his future to look like. He has an opportunity to be a production assistant for two weeks this summer in Los Angeles on the actual television show 'Shark Tank' because of a relationship he struck up with the show's director, Ken Fuchs, a 1983 Wesleyan graduate. Astorino has a standing offer for a full-time job at Spacemilk upon graduation. There is also the NIL agency. All Astorino knows is that he loves marketing and entrepreneurship. And, for now, he's going to squeeze everything he can out of the Wesleyan experience, on and off the court. 'I love having packed days when my Google calendar is booked end to end,' Astorino said. 'I find it's fun for me. It doesn't feel like work. And some days it gets super busy and overwhelming. But I love it. If there's any time to do that, it's now in college when you're young and have the energy.'
