DTE Energy's Hack Michigan challenge asked for a shift from reactive utility-pole maintenance to a predictive, risk-based approach, using public data only with no proprietary inputs. Today's fixed 8 to 12 year inspection cycle treats a calm suburban pole the same as one under heavy canopy in a flood-prone Detroit corridor, so warning signs get missed and limited crews waste truck-rolls on low-risk poles.

How PoleProof solves it

PoleProof turns public environmental data into ranked, crew-ready pole work packets, each shipped with a defensible receipt. Opening any pole on the statewide Michigan map (https://pole-proof.vercel.app) shows its risk score, the top drivers in plain language, the public source behind each driver, a receipt hash, the recommended crew action, and a validation plan naming exactly which DTE private data would confirm it.

Wayne County is a real public-data proof slice; the rest is labeled synthetic coverage. A native iOS companion lets residents file pole reports into the same triage queue as a corroboration overlay, never a training signal. The receipt, not the score, is the product a regulator and a crew can both trust.