Ecotech approach – Jake B

Title: Garden ME

Summary:

While the mall is a beautiful place, it lacks colors other than green and organized seating. Garden ME solves this problem and makes the management of it easier.

Background:

The green ash trees on the mall are beautiful. I’ve often sat below them to read a book or draw. But shortly after that, I would develop a cramp in my back due to a lack of comfortable seating. I also noticed that the only colors on the mall were green and brown. Garden ME is my way of solving this.

Explanation:

This is a project that provides benches and gardens for the mall as well as tools to make the management of these gardens easier. The gardens are composed of plants native to Maine. Each garden also has an accompanying soil sensor to help campus management maintain the gardens more efficiently. Each has an Arduino moisture sensor and indicator lights to show when the garden needs to be watered. The sensors will be calibrated to the moisture needs of each garden so that watering will be on a need by need basis.

This is based on my intent in that it’s focused on bringing native plants back into the mall. I also realized that the intent was not a very technological project. This project uses photoshop, 3D design, and Adruino coding and prototyping to bring it to fruition.

Credits:

This idea is entirely my own.

Budget:

• ~$5 per Arduino nano
• ~$8 per soil sensor
• ~$10 for LEDs and resistors
• ~$90 for a recycled plastic bench
• $15 per hour of labor
• $100 budget for flowers per garden

~$8,130 for materials plus $15/hr at 80 hours for the whole project from design to completion:

Total: $9,330