New Data Interface

Our school just had a 15 minute lockdown drill, so now that that's over we can get back to work.

Yet more updates on the GC front.

Apart from our new website interface, we're also working on some exciting new data handling technology. Our data interpretation language, LabView, will be able to update without any human interaction. With this we hope to make the GC wireless. This will provide for greater ease of use and more accurate data gathering.

The HTML Team is still working hard on getting the website fully functional, and that should be done within a few weeks.

That's all for now!
~

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First update of 2008

This year's Invent Team is, as many of you may know, continuing the Garden Consultant from last year. We've already started on many of our goals for this year.

What are these goals, you ask? Well, for starters we plan to streamline the website, making it easier to use and providing more functionality to it. The updated control panel is on the site, and will be functional shortly. We'll be adding Google Maps to the site for gardening store locations, and hopefully weather updates as well. Speaking of weather updates, we plan to have a weather advisory system in place as well, so that registered users will receive an E-Mail alert for frosts, droughts, high winds and other weather conditions in their area that may harm a garden. Google Reader will also be used to provide a visually appealing link to this blog. It is not yet on the site, but we have it working.

On the programing side of things, we have implemented object oriented Perl to allow for greater ease in creating uniform web pages. We will also be using Javascript to increase functionality and appearances of the site. For example, Java will detect what time of year it is, and change the background accordingly. It will also detect a users browser to warn about possible errors arising from using outdated versions of Internet Explorer.

There are many other things that are planned for this year but we have not yet started on. All in all, we hope to make the site easier to use and less cluttered. That's all for now!


P.S.-Posts will also start being every other day from now on to keep everyone updated.

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Mentor recognized for providing technology to soldiers

Today we have some fabulous news to share! Bruce Hodge has been our InvenTeam's mentor for the last two years, and his assistance has been crucial in our project. In addition, he is also President of Tech Valley Technologies, a Ballston Spa based company that produces realistic targets for the millitary. Capital News 9, a local news station recently posted a news article about the work that Tech Valley Technologies has done and what it means for the soldiiers in foreign countries.

Check it out: http://capitalnews9.com/content/top_stories/126127/local-company-improving-equipment-for-soldiers/Default.aspx

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Saratoga InvenTeam is Back!!

It's been a while since the last post due to summer vacation. But never fear, the Saratoga InvenTeam is back for another year! And with a whole new team of students. At the end of last June, Saratoga said goodbye to its graduating seniors and welcomed in a new group of students willing to continue the work of their predecessors. This year, the team is planning to improve upon last year's progress with the database, devices, software, and web site. The team will also be applying for the grant for a second year.

Two weeks ago, we sent in our proposal for the Lemelson-MIT grant, so we should be hearing back shortly. We'll keep you updated. We recently finished working on a video presentation to send in to the grant board. The video recaps what the team did last year and explains our hopes for this year. We posted the video below. Enjoy!

Thanks-

Megan Watkins & Devan Tracy

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