Displaying items by tag: Collin Bolles, Elyssa Stewart, Tom Denny, Julia Amodeo, Richard Newkirk, Nicholas Campbell, Lauren Claeys, Saratoga GO, Empire State College, NYSTEC
Saratoga GO! with Collin Bolles
[Photos by www.photoandgraphic.com.]
SARATOGA SPRINGS – Collin Bolles, a rising senior at Saratoga High School, was the first place winner of the Saratoga GO! competition. This was a Smart City technology competition that “challenged individuals, small businesses, and software companies to create community innovations that would improve the quality of life for residents, businesses and institutions, or visitors in any city.”
This competition was three months long and provided participants with several workshops to attend. These workshops provided them with helpful information and valuable resources to guide them in the development of their application. Winner Collin Bolles first got involved in April when his AP computer science teacher, Mr. Shanks, encouraged him to look into it.
“The competition was very interesting and a little stressful. Due to the nature of the competition, I did not know what or how many people I would be up against. I started the app in April almost immediately after hearing about it. However, I had to take a break from it, as I and five other members of the Bluestreaks Robotics 8828B team competed at the World Championship. I took time from May to June to get some work done at the app before finals.”
Bolles’ winning application is to assist visitors and residents in finding parking in Saratoga.
“The way the app works is parking lots appear as Google map icons. The purple icons mean that the lot is not being monitored, orange means it is being monitored. If you click on the icon, you can see the number of spots available.”
This is a web based application and will be free as to allow many people to utilize the data. The city will pay to use the application as it will help to drive people to different shops downtown and different restaurants, all due to parking availability. Before the app can become useful though, the city has to install the sensing units into the parking lots.
As a high school student with a job, Bolles stays busy, so public consumption of his app is not in the works just yet. Before public release, he would like to work on adding key features and perfecting the existing app before presenting it to the city. Next year he will be taking a course called Independent Study of Computer Science, this class will be the specific chunk of time he sets aside to work on his application. Once he feels it is perfected, he would like to present it to the city of Saratoga.
“As a high school student going into senior year with a job and looking at colleges, setting aside dedicated time to develop the app is difficult.”
Bolles was awarded $500, development boards, and a Google Home.
“The $500 will either go into my college fund or be used to buy additional sensors and hardware for my app. I may create a Google Home application to allow users to ask Google the best place to park in Saratoga. I certainly would like to continue developing apps and software throughout college and into my professional career.”
Bolles wishes to thank Mr. Shanks for providing the knowledge to him about this competition and a solid education. David Burton, a volunteer with his robotics team that gave him his first structured look in software development by teaching him professional software tools and practices. Paul Davis, his robotics mentor who provided an incredible platform for him to develop his engineering and problem solving skills.
“As well as my parents, of course, who have given me the independence and support to allow me to develop my software abilities.”
If you would like to check out Collin’s app, visit www.ParkingInSaratoga.com.
‘Smart City’ Competition Winners Named
[In gallery photos (left to right): Saratoga GO! contest winners Collin Bolles, Tom Denny, Julia Amodeo and Richard Newkirk; and Elyssa Stewart of NYSTEC. Photos by PhotoAndGraphic.com.]
SARATOGA SPRINGS — On June 21 at Empire State College, the winners of the Saratoga GO! competition were announced. The event followed a three-month period during which dozens of individuals networked and developed new technologies meant to improve the quality of life for city residents.
Elyssa Stewart, a new ventures consultant for the Albany firm NYSTEC, indicated that the competition was geared toward local professionals and high-school students.
A panel of six judges, including Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Finance Michele Madigan, selected the winners from those two groups.
First Place in the “Professional” group went to Tom Denny for his Saratoga Tree Triage. It is an app that consists of two integrated modules—one for tree data management and one for tree project management— and also makes possible educational and mapping spin-offs from the basic data of the city’s tree inventory.
The power of Saratoga Tree Triage, Stewart says, is its ability to map the location of every tree and to track all kinds of data about them, including identity, history, size and condition. It also tracks the work needed, assigned, or completed on every tree.
Stewart reported that Denny received $3,500 as a First Place prize, as well as Google Home, $400 of marketing services from Endorphin Advisors, a ThinkBoard, and an ST Nucleo Development Board Bundle.
The Second Place prize went to Richard Newkirk and Nicholas Campbell who devised Stonewall Defense. They proposed a solution to enable the real-time monitoring of snowplows and road conditions—so that not only citizens can find the best travel routes, but snow plow operators and city officials know which roads need to be cleared.
Newkirk and Campbell received $2,000 for the Second Place prize, along with a ThinkBoard and an ST Nucleo Development Board Bundle.
In the “High School” group, according to Stewart, First Place went to Collin Bolles of Saratoga Springs High School for his Saratoga Parking App. It is also a website allowing users real-time access to parking capacity of city parking lots. Each lot is monitored using a Raspberry Pi, providing data for a Google map with each lot denoted by a marker color-coded to represent relative capacity.
Bolles received $500 as a First Place prize, plus Google Home, a ThinkBoard and an ST Nucleo Development Board Bundle.
Second Place went to Julia Amodeo and Lauren Claeys of Early College High School in Malta for their Experience Interface.
Amodeo and Claeys proposed the use of smart-city kiosks around the City of Saratoga Springs, conveniently located for both residents and visitors. The kiosks would provide people with information such as maps of the city, schedules, parking, dining options, accommodations, places to shop, and upcoming events.
The students’ system would allow city officials to communicate directly with people in the city and replace the need for multiple apps. The kiosks would save people time and stress by provid- ing them with all the information they need to have an enjoyable Saratoga experience in easy-to-use anchor locations, says Stewart.
For their Second Place win, Amodeo and Claeys received a Bose Sound Link Speaker, a ThinkBoard and an ST Nucleo Development Board Bundle.
For more information, visit the website www.saratogago.com.
