New Blog Features

Over the past few days you may have noticed some serious changes and upgrades to our blog. Along with new videos being posted we have also now paid tribute to our sponsors and added a new poll feature.

Yeah, I know the poll is kind of lame. Just give it a whirl. It will be cool to see what the results will be.

Otherwise, enjoy checking out the cool new stuff we have added and stay tuned for more to come.

- Elliott

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Happy Birthday Mr. Gallagher!!!

Today in class, with help from Mr. Gallaghers wonderful fiancée Miss Holmes, we threw Mr. Gallagher the greatest birthday party ever. The room was decorated with balloon, streamers, and blown up pictures of Mr. Gallagher in middle school all over the room. It could not have been any more gaudy and obnoxious if we tried.

Happy Birthday Mr. Gallagher! Thank you so much for being the dedicated and enthusiastic teacher you are. Not only would our InvenTeam not be what it is today with out you but I know many students in this class as well as myself credit you for helping make us the people we are today. Thank you so much for everything you do for us. Happy birthday and many more!

Oh, and FYI, Juliana and I are coming back next year and doing the same thing!

Happy Birthday -

Elliott and The Team

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Automating the Garden Consultant Video

VIDEO NOT AVAILABLE

FOR INFORMATION SEND E-MAIL TO:

michaelpgallagher@gmail.com

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When we released our Information/Overview Video we also sent an e-mail to various members of the Cornell Horticulture Department. Up until very recently we had not told them that their packet, "Site Assessment for Gardeners", was the basis for our entire project.

Within twenty-four hours we began receiving enthusiastic responses from various gardening experts. We received numerous questions as to what our plan was and in response we made this video to explain our basic plan to modify and automate the Cornell packet.

We could not be any more excited to have the leading Horticulture experts from Cornell on board and can not wait for their responses to the solutions and adaptations we have posed.

Without the help from people, organizations, and companies we would not be where we are today. Within the next few weeks we will have a basic working model of the Garden Consultant on-line and accessible for you all to test out. I could not be any more excited, I hope you all are too.

- Elliott

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Informational/Overview Video

VIDEO NOT AVAILABLE
FOR INFORMATION SEND E-MAIL TO:
michaelpgallagher@gmail.com

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Above is the Saratoga Springs HS InvenTeams Informational/Overview Video. This video was made to explain our goals to the many people and organizations that are helping us as well as those whose help we would like to enlist.

A major part of this video is an explanation of the cornerstone of our project the Cornell "Site Assessment for Gardening" Workbook. As you read in Juliana's previous post we have sent out this video to horticulture experts at Cornell and we have begun recieving feedback from them. We are in the process now of creating a powerpoint presentation that will dive deeper into expalining our plans for automating the Cornell Workbook.

This is a very exciting time as we are getting closer and closer to a working prototype. As of now we have sucesffuly built a basic working model which runs on user inputed data and we could not be more excited. Obviouly great things are going on and more great things are to come. I hope you enjoy the video and we can not wait to show you an on-line working prototype in the near future.

Thanks -

Elliott

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Happy Birthday LEGO!

I think it is safe to say that at one point in every engineers life he or she plays with Legos. Legos are arguably the greatest toy ever invented and today marks the 50th Anniversary of the Lego brick. In celebration Google got a little creative with their logo, Gizmodo made a really sweet timetable, and even Lego is celebrating with a commemorative Town Plan set based on one of their first sets.

Legos were a major part of my childhood as well as almost everyone elses childhood I can think of. Happy Birthday Lego, and many more!

- Elliott

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Cornell University Professor Nina Bassuk Becomes Involved

Earlier this week I contacted some of the contributors to the Site Assessment for Gardeners Workbook. This is one of the many valuable resources offered by Cornell University that has been very useful to our project. It outlines exactly what a gardener would need to discern about their gardening site in order to properly assess which plants to grow there. In our case, it has shown us exactly what variables our device will need to measure. As we are working on automating modifications to the manual site tests described in the Site Assessment for Gardeners Workbook, we thought it would be a good idea to make sure our modifications were accurate replications of the original tests, and who better to ask than the authors themselves. Cornell University Professor Nina Bassuk has generously offered to evaluate our modifications and provide suggestions on how to make them more accurate or appropriate to our project. We greatly appreciate Professor Bassuk's support, and cannot wait to work with her!

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