That the Great Lakes don't need cheaper versions of existing instruments — they need an order of magnitude more sensors, which only happens if each one costs an order of magnitude less.
MLabs (Michigan Lake Analytics & Bio-Sensing) is a single-member Michigan LLC formed in March 2026. It designs open, low-cost environmental-IoT hardware for the Great Lakes basin, with a founder background in embedded systems and a deliberate plan to bring credentialed scientific collaborators alongside before making research claims.
The company is pre-revenue and at bench-prototype stage. It says so on every page, because a funder or partner who catches an overstatement stops reading — and accuracy is the only durable advantage a one-person shop has.
Hardware, firmware, QC, and data pipelines are built to be released and self-hosted by partners. No proprietary lock-in is part of the value proposition.
"Supplemental density," not "commercial parity." Surrogate-triggered sampling, not direct toxin measurement. The accurate claim is also the more fundable one.
Layered non-dilutive funding across agencies, rather than staking the company on one large award or outside investment.
The institutions below are outreach targets. Naming them here describes intent and fit, not any agreement or endorsement on their part.
| Organization | Role being explored | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Wayne State University IEHS | environmental-health co-investigator | Outreach |
| Heidelberg NCWQR | reference-station co-location | Outreach |
| GLOS | Seagull / ERDDAP data federation | Outreach |
| USACE | Nationwide Permit 5 pathway | Planned |
Partnership, co-investigator, and reference-station conversations are welcome. Email samkeller386@gmail.com or call (616) 292-8683.