Today a bunch of us from the 09-10 invent team met with members of the 08-09 team and discussed future plans. We went over what we need to accomplish, and the time constraints we have to do so. We began to narrow down proposal ideas, along with brainstorming ideas on how to raise money for our upcoming year in EDD. We talked to members of the 08-09 team and received information on how we can become successful and what we can do over the summer to help us have a successful and benificial year.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
As we're working, the final presentation is coming together nicely. The presentation is based on the Engineering Process, so we have a few short videos based on different steps in that process. Here is the first one, "Define the Problem".
Thanks to Mr. Anthony Aquino, professional photographer, who helped us in preparing the final presentation. Mr. Aquino has done some excellent work, and you can check out his website at http://www.anthonyaquinophotography.com/
More to come soon!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The last few weeks have been really busy, but we’re on the verge of releasing The Garden Consultant Online. We are working on cleaning up the code, and at the same time debugging and adding new content. The newer code is also allowing us to add new content much faster than previously.
The site has gone through a lot of aesthetic changes in the past few days as well, and is looking very nice. The home page now has more content, including a live feed from this year's blog and an affiliates section. The new results page has a lot of cool functionality. For example, the user can now choose which variables to include in a search. We also have been using a Perl program to add plant pictures to our database, and that is coming along very nicely. Here is a screen shot from the results page:
We still have more changes to make, but there has been a lot of progress. We also plan on adding a map application to the site, which will be able to use a Google Map interface to show the nearest location of gardening stores. There will be a separate post on that later, as well as posts examining other parts of the site in detail.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Some of you may remember me from last school year but for those of you newer to following the Saratoga InvenTeam blog let me introduce myself. Last year 17 fellow students, Mr. Gallagher, and I applied for and were fortunate to receive a Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam Grant from the Lemelson-MIT Program. All of us having been seniors, we ended our year with a passing of the torch to this years current InvenTeam as we prepared to head of to college in the coming Fall. Now as many of our Freshman years come to a close, some fellow graduates and I can't resist the urge to come back and see how the current InvenTeam as doing and offer a helping hand.
It is without a doubt apparent that this years class is doing phenomenal work with the new implementation of zone selection, heightened search features, and much much more. Even looking at the work of new high school Freshman in our schools Project Lead the Way program is is obvious that with every passing year the work gets better and better as each graduating class raises and raises the bar. So far I have had the privilege of hanging out with the InvenTeam after school on two occasions so far and it is great to see such a motivated group of dedicated individuals working together. Everyone I have met is headed off to great schools next fall and their university's are privileged to have them.
In addition, is is awesome to catch up with our old InvenTeam friends from last year and hear what each other is doing. It is without a doubt that our InvenTeam experience has had a profound impact in shaping our futures and what we will do in life. Steve Rancour who was responsible for most of the web design on the Garden Consultant last year changed his major soon after settling in to RPI to follow what has become his passion which thanks to his InvenTeam experience is now designing websites! Juliana Wakeman refined her future plans when she decided that rather than being an engineer she wanted to follow in her favorite teachers footsteps and become a Project Lead the Way teacher through her schools program at WPI (For those of you at MIT reading this, keep an eye out for a grant application coming your way from her soon!). As for myself, I have been lucky enough to be working this summer for the Lemelson-MIT Program. After the work I helped facilitate as Project Manager for our InvenTeam last year I have been asked to help create social networking and collaboration mediums for next years grant recipients and this years Excite Award Winners. All of us had a fantastic time with the InvenTeam program and it is obvious that InvenTeams was a life changing experience for many of us.
As more and more of us alumni get back from school ,the after school crowd seems to be getting bigger and bigger in Mr. Gallaghers room. The work this years team is doing is amazing and light-years beyond my fellow teammates and my work from last year. Even the work the freshman classes at SSHS are doing is astounding. As my sister Olivia moves from the Middle School to the High School next fall and begins her four years in the Project Lead the Way program, I find it hard to even imagine the amazing work that her InvenTeam will be doing her Senior year as each passing year heightens and heightens future expectations.
Everyone at the Lemelson-MIT Foundation, Project Lead the Way, Saratoga Springs High School, and everyone's favorite teacher and above all mentor, Mr. Gallagher,
Thank you so much for the opportunies you allowed us and most importantly, for giving my classmates and I the perfect environment to grow and learn in. We could not have done it without you and the best part is, there is way more to come! We can not thank you enough.
All the best,
Elliott Poppel
Project Manager of the Saratoga Springs InvenTeam 2007-2008
- - -
P.S. - For any fellow alumni reading this, be sure to stop in after school Monday when I am planning to be in class or Thursday swing by with Steve and Jeff. See you soon!
In addition, is is awesome to catch up with our old InvenTeam friends from last year and hear what each other is doing. It is without a doubt that our InvenTeam experience has had a profound impact in shaping our futures and what we will do in life. Steve Rancour who was responsible for most of the web design on the Garden Consultant last year changed his major soon after settling in to RPI to follow what has become his passion which thanks to his InvenTeam experience is now designing websites! Juliana Wakeman refined her future plans when she decided that rather than being an engineer she wanted to follow in her favorite teachers footsteps and become a Project Lead the Way teacher through her schools program at WPI (For those of you at MIT reading this, keep an eye out for a grant application coming your way from her soon!). As for myself, I have been lucky enough to be working this summer for the Lemelson-MIT Program. After the work I helped facilitate as Project Manager for our InvenTeam last year I have been asked to help create social networking and collaboration mediums for next years grant recipients and this years Excite Award Winners. All of us had a fantastic time with the InvenTeam program and it is obvious that InvenTeams was a life changing experience for many of us.
As more and more of us alumni get back from school ,the after school crowd seems to be getting bigger and bigger in Mr. Gallaghers room. The work this years team is doing is amazing and light-years beyond my fellow teammates and my work from last year. Even the work the freshman classes at SSHS are doing is astounding. As my sister Olivia moves from the Middle School to the High School next fall and begins her four years in the Project Lead the Way program, I find it hard to even imagine the amazing work that her InvenTeam will be doing her Senior year as each passing year heightens and heightens future expectations.
Everyone at the Lemelson-MIT Foundation, Project Lead the Way, Saratoga Springs High School, and everyone's favorite teacher and above all mentor, Mr. Gallagher,
Thank you so much for the opportunies you allowed us and most importantly, for giving my classmates and I the perfect environment to grow and learn in. We could not have done it without you and the best part is, there is way more to come! We can not thank you enough.
All the best,
Elliott Poppel
Project Manager of the Saratoga Springs InvenTeam 2007-2008
- - -
P.S. - For any fellow alumni reading this, be sure to stop in after school Monday when I am planning to be in class or Thursday swing by with Steve and Jeff. See you soon!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Hello once again, the inventeam has been busy the last few weeks and this is certainly the case with Dennis Florence the inventeam’s LabVIEW programmer. In last couple of weeks Dennis has been working with the Fishertech interface and using LabVIEW programming to control the various functions of the interface. Such as motors, switches, light sensors, proximity sensors, etc. Dennis has created a LabVIEW check interface program similar to the RoboPro check interface that runs the Fishertech interface. By doing this Dennis has taken a critical step towards the implementation of the Garden Consultant.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
A lot has been accomplished in the last month. Progress worthy of note:
A new plant matching algorithm- a program that takes the data users input from a certain zone (area to be analyzed by the garden consultant according to the user’s needs) and matches it with the plant database we have accumulated over the past two years to see if any plants in the database would grow in the zone the user has created with the conditions stated. This multiple zone functionality will make it easier for users to see what can grow in their gardens at home.
Transition to the new URL has continued, it is more stable and user friendly than it was before. Tutorials will be up on the website and available to visitors and users of the website for help with the garden consultant and everything to do with it.
Matt Choiniere
A new plant matching algorithm- a program that takes the data users input from a certain zone (area to be analyzed by the garden consultant according to the user’s needs) and matches it with the plant database we have accumulated over the past two years to see if any plants in the database would grow in the zone the user has created with the conditions stated. This multiple zone functionality will make it easier for users to see what can grow in their gardens at home.
Transition to the new URL has continued, it is more stable and user friendly than it was before. Tutorials will be up on the website and available to visitors and users of the website for help with the garden consultant and everything to do with it.
Matt Choiniere
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