Hi all! short intro from the Netherlands
My name is Anne Bruinsma, I am one of the founders of FarmHackNL.
We want to igniting data- and tech-driven open collaborations between tech entrepreneurs, farmers and domain experts. We wrangle data, build APIs and prototypes, host hackathons with one goal in mind: better tech for farmers. This means we have been all over the place, working with ag businesses, universities, and now even a huge European multi annual program. But we are happiest and at our best, when we are at the farm!
We have been a huge (but distant) fan of FarmHack.org for a long time. More closely we have been in contact with Purdue, the OATS center. An amazing team, with the likes of people as @dbuckmas and @aultac, who have given us a lot of support over the years. Whether it is guiding one of our teams in our very own Dutch ISOBlue adventure, or even coming over and joining one of our hackathons (although Aaron, I must say, also winning it was kinda overdoing it )
All things Open Source are (finally!!) gaining momentum here in the Netherlands. Very keen to connect to the overseas dynamics, perhaps even joining one of the upcoming events. I’ll be sure to follow & contribute to the discussions here in the forum.
Hi @AnneFarmHack, great to see more interest coming from the EU! In preparation for GOAT2020, we’ve been talking about how it would be nice to expand to eventually do GOAT events outside North America. I look forward to hearing more about what you’re working on on that side of the pond!
I am a student in my junior year at Purdue University in the department of Ag & Bio Engineering studying Agricultural Systems Management with a concentration in Data & Information systems. I am new to this field but am looking forward to learning a lot and contributing as much as I can!
Hi GOATech! So thrilled to have found this fantastic community. I’m Vince from Boulder, CO and I run an open ag company called Grownetics (https://grownetics.co) We’ve built an open source smart farm OS and have been using it to run large indoor and CEA farming operations for several years now.
I am a Junior at Purdue University dual majoring with Agricultural Systems Management and Agricultural Economics. Through ASM I am concentrating in Data & Information systems to broaden my opportunities. I am new to the Data Science area, with little experience in R and C#. I am looking to use this platform to keep up with the new and always changing technologies and will contribute as much as I can. Always looking for my next opportunity to be unique!
I am Amol Patil, Founder of Extend Future. I am passionate about building intelligent experiences and solve complex business problems with innovative solutions.
Excited to be part of this amazing community ! Looking forward to connect with you all.
Hi. My name is Miguel Novik, I was born in Chile but 5 years with my family we come to live in Israel.
I studied Economic and Business and for 20 years I worked in Big corporations and also in small companies.
I been working in concepts like ¨blind competition¨ and ways to ¨make visible the invisible hand of the market¨.
My intention here is to help developing a new kind of opencompany.network.
The main idea is that we have to make clear and transparent the added value that we generate, nobody should work for free, each contribution should be registered and we also make totally transparent the way that we get revenues and pay back the contributions.
My name is Will van Twuijver and I am a designer from the Netherlands with a background in collaborative design. For the past 3 years I have been working on small-scale ecological farms and currently I am enrolled in a two year part-time course in biodynamic farming.
I think GOAT and also farmhack are very interesting platforms to combine my interests in codesign and farming. In particular I would like to design farms tools that make participation in DIY activities more accessible by developing designs that:
enable small-scale production (e.g. hand tools/muscle powered)
can be build with relatively simple tools and skills
can be repaired and customized by the user
consider the environmental impact of the manufacturing process and use
I’m Laurie, the “project director” for the Open Food Network in the US (a job name given to me by our fiscal sponsor). I got excited about OFN when @KatJohnson was still working on it (see above), a few years ago. I was a farmer and community food instigator for 10 years or so after leaving Silicon Valley (a super-sweet few years at Apple and Cisco, but that was looong ago) and I got excited about the intersection of tech and farming that I saw in OFN and its potential to make a difference for people. For a long while, OFN was just kind of ticking over in the US on life support while the rest of the world was using it for food hubs, farmers markets, CSA’s, pantries and more. When COVID showed up last year a lot of people discovered OFN, and until now (this week, actually) it has been an after-hours mostly-solo volunteer project in the US supported a lot by an awesome global team.
After selling the farm last fall (and keeping a few acres for myself, just for sanity’s sake) and finishing up a grant-funded project supporting farmers in Central Oregon, I am looking forward to jumping in to this inspiring community with both feet! I know, it’s like 3 years late, but it turns out that people are still hungry, lonely, disconnected, broke, sad, mad, and confused. I hope I can help make a difference with your work and with the Open Food Network. As of today it’s mostly a solo effort, but I invite any and all from GOAT to learn more, connect, and join the US or international team. We need a lot of help in the US, and we are looking to team up and help out any way we can.
I feel like 2020 was a quiet year on this forum (understandably). I’m hoping we get to do some remote activities this year though. I’m excited to hear more about all your projects and interests!
I found this organization during a talk in which Ankita was a panelist (Women In Tech, 2021-03-12). I’m a hacker and gardener, looking at using LoRaWAN for agriculture IoT applications.
Welcome Jim and everyone else! We just had a fun game night last night with some GOATs and realized we really really really want to get everyone back together and meet all the new and amazing people showing up here again.
Can’t wait till we can have some kind of in-person event!!
“Timothy Schmidt has an extensive background in electronic systems diagnostics and repair. As an innovator in the Free, Libre, and Open Source Software, Open Hardware, and desktop fabrication movements for over twenty years, Timothy has contributed to several efforts noteworthy enough to merit preservation. Tim maintained the first version of the Mendel 3D printer in a Free Software CAD system, and founded the Michigan RepRap Users Group. Tim co-founded the Open Graphics Project, and participated in development of the first Open Hardware phones via OpenMoko. Tim has helped to 3D print human stem cells with lasers and consulted on the development of the 3D printer aboard the international space station. As partner in mUVe3D he helps produce the industry’s most open and flexible SLA liquid resin 3D printers. Tim has co-founded and aided in the development of several community and maker spaces. For the last six years Tim has served as the Information Technologist of the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action at Michigan State University.”
Hi there, I’m Kathryn Hurchla. Excited to find this group, while researching data sources for my graduate capstone project involving data visualization around adopting sustainable soil practices and climate change I’m working on. I’m also a friendly colleague and big fan of The Common Market (https://www.thecommonmarket.org/) a nonprofit regional food distributor started by friends (now in Mid-Atlantic, Georgia, and Texas) and I hope to work on more data projects with them in the future in this area. Just warms me to mix my passions and meet others working with open source/ag data.
I enjoy mountain biking, “forest bathing”, identifying plants, am country at heart. I’m from W. New York State where one my first jobs was on an organic farm, have been living in Philadelphia now going on nearly 20 years, and am fixing up a home on 10 acres mostly Spruce-Fir forest in the Northeast Kingdom area of Vermont–before I replaced the missing wall I planted garlic, just sayin’. Cheers!
In past years I wanted to set up and showcase a commercial aquaponic business but couldn’t figure out how to make it profitable on paper. Automation was needed to lower operating costs which I think is also true for organic field farming (eliminated back-breaking work). I’d like to help with that automation which I am currently exploring and your community looks intriguing.
I’m a retired electrical engineer, controls engineer, programmer, project manager and live near Chicago, IL, USA.
Hello Everyone, my name is Steven Doyle. I am a PhD student at Purdue University’s Agricultural and Biological Engineering department.
A Bit About Me
I am a 3rd year PhD student in @sudokita’s Agricultural Informatics lab. I have a master’s degree in soil science from Ohio State University but my primary work outside of school has been in smallholder agriculture in eastern Africa and Southeast Asia.
What I Do
My dissertation research is on decision support tools to help small and medium farmers grow annual horticultural crops, like tomatoes and melons. It involves a bit of design research, crop modeling, and coding. I am starting up the data collection phase this fall (2022) in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. After data collection is complete, I hope to make connections with partners elsewhere in the world to adapt the methodology of tool design to other contexts.
What I Can Offer GOAT
I have a strong background in the scientific aspects of crop production and plenty of professional and research experience working with smallholder farmers.
Why I Value Open Ag Tech
I value open-source agricultural technology because a policy of sharing technological breakthroughs yields faster innovation, which produces better tools for farmers.
Hi All, Who am I?
Greetings from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, by way of Washington, DC and Mobile, AL. I have been a scientific program director for the past six years and I see myself as a connector in this space. I am excited to co-host a session this year to hear more about potential research needs in OpenAg research and partnership.
What I can Offer GOAT
I have a strong background in soil science, and professional experience working with underserved communities. Also I have a high level view of other activities in the funding space.
Why I value Open Ag Tech
FFAR has, since its inception, seen the value of Open Ag Tech and have funded several projects that support the space and I hope to gain insight that might inform future funding directions.
Hey folks, happy to discover this incredible community following a fun conversation with @kylerlaird.
A Bit About Me
I’m Avi Brown, an American-Israeli robotics nerd and 4th year student of electrical & electronics engineering. You could say I found my calling when I joined an agricultural robotics startup about 1.5yr ago as a junior engineer.
What I Do
In addition to wrapping up my studies, “by day” I work as an electronics engineer at a small startup developing the prototype of a self-driving vineyard care robot (under the agROBOfood umbrella). We have fun…
What I Can Offer GOAT
Electronics (getting into designing my own PCBs), robotics (especially anything ROS related – count me in!), anything hands-on. I love to build tools that make development easier for other engineers. I love taking an idea off paper and into the real world.
Why I Value Open Ag Tech
The wild number of well-meaning ag startups that have opened and closed shop (many of which trying to solve another nuanced version the same problem) has led me to think that a closed, compartmentalized approach to agricultural innovation just ain’t the way. The problems are living and diverse, and should be addressed with the organic approach that open source allows. Though my current place of work does not follow an open philosophy, I would love to contribute to the GOAT community in my free time, and hopefully one day be able to invest my full focus into an open ag endeavor.
Please connect with me on LinkedIn – I’d love to meet folks and chat about anything!
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