We build tools that help cities operate critical infrastructure in a changing climate—starting with stormwater and sewer networks—so that flooding and service failures don’t fall hardest on the communities with the least voice.
We build tools that help cities operate critical infrastructure in a changing climate—starting with stormwater and sewer networks—so that flooding and service failures don’t fall hardest on the communities with the least voice.
CRIO Systems (Climate Resilient Infrastructure Operation Systems) builds tools to help Great Lakes and Midwestern cities operate critical infrastructure in a changing climate. Our first product, DrainWatch, focuses on stormwater and sewer networks, where flooding and service failures fall disproportionately on historically disinvested communities.
Today, most cities manage drainage with complaint-driven maintenance, occasional engineering studies, limited spot monitoring, and capital projects that often overbuild in some places and under-serve others. Aging sewers, heavier storms, and constrained budgets make it difficult for public works teams to see what is happening across whole basins, especially in mid-sized and under-resourced communities.
CRIO combines low-cost sensing, physics-guided machine learning, and operator-friendly software to give cities a live picture of what their networks are doing and where a dollar of maintenance or upgrades will make the most difference.
DrainWatch is a mesh of rugged sewer sensors and physics-guided ML models that gives cities real-time situational awareness of their drainage networks and early warning before basements back up.
Ultrasonic level sensors mounted beneath existing grates create a citywide mesh of depth readings every few minutes, with higher-frequency bursts during storms.
Graph-based models trained on synthetic SWMM networks and tuned to each city’s atlas infer conditions between sensors and flag anomalies with calibrated confidence.
Work orders and capital planning are ranked not only by hydraulic benefit but also by who is impacted, supporting fairer service across neighborhoods.
Build climate-resilient cities by turning critical infrastructure into something cities can actually see, steer, and improve—without leaving behind the communities that have historically been last in line for investment.
Design for heavier storms and more variability, not just yesterday’s averages.
Give operators live, basin-wide awareness and predictive tools they can trust.
Use data and models to surface and correct inequities in who gets protected.
CRIO Systems brings together civil engineering, aerospace, design, and nonprofit operations experience to build tools that cities can realistically deploy and maintain.
Co-Founder & CEO
Michael is completing a B.S. in Civil Engineering and M.Eng. in Urban Systems Engineering at Illinois Tech and will begin the Ph.D. program in 2026. A former hospitality general manager and Argonne National Laboratory researcher with a first-author transportation equity paper, he anchors CRIO’s relationships with cities and keeps the work tied to Chicago communities.
Co-Founder & CTO
Trevin is an aerospace engineering graduate student at Illinois Tech (B.S. Aerospace Engineering, minor in Astrophysics). He leads CRIO’s hardware architecture, sewer sensor design, SWMM+ML simulation tooling, and technical roadmap. After a decade in bartending, he pivoted through City Colleges with a Jack Kent Cooke scholarship and has built payloads with Adler Planetarium, the National Eclipse Ballooning Project, and research in Illinois Tech’s Space Weather Lab.
Co-Founder & Chief Design Officer
Beth is a dual Bachelor of Design student in Industrial Design and Graphic Design at UIC, graduating in 2026. A former fine-dining professional, she leads CRIO’s product and visual design—turning early sewer-sensor sketches into deployable prototypes and translating complex hydraulic and ML outputs into clear interfaces for field crews. She is a recipient of the Morningstar Design Scholarship.
Co-Founder & COO
Jaqi is Director of Food Rescue Initiatives at the Greater Chicago Food Depository and previously served as Director of Partner Projects. She brings 10+ years of nonprofit program leadership and 5+ years managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects. Her strengths in budget management, partner relationships, grant writing, and cross-functional coordination give CRIO the operational backbone needed to work effectively with public agencies and community organizations.
Interested in piloting DrainWatch or exploring how CRIO Systems can support your city’s infrastructure operations?
Chicago, IL