American East Farm Hackathon

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Friday, April 19, a University of Maine graduate student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono. The student reports that they are at a local hospital with minor injuries.

Emergency services, including the Orono Fire Department, University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, University of Maine Police Department, Orono Police Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

The university vehicle involved in the incident was a Chevrolet Express van. It was being operated by a university employee.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 and the Dean of Students Office can be reached at 207-581-1406.

The scene has been cleared and Long Road is now accessible. An investigation is being conducted by the University of Maine Police Department with assistance from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lt. Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

March 4, 2020 News

Still Water Co-director Joline Blais was part of the team that helped organize the 2019 America East Hackathon, which focused on developing inexpensive apps and systems to sustain local farmers. Working with an MTI cluster grant project, and Sustainable Year Round Agriculture’s Education coordinator, Bill Giordano, Blais helped to link New Media students with greenhouse farmers testing out sensor arrays in local farms. Their efforts launched MAgApp (Maine Agriculture App) and inspired the CITL co-sponsored IoT, Agriculture and Sensor Showcase Nov. 2rd, 2018.

Subsequently, Giordano & Blais worked with staff from the University of Maine’s Center for Teaching and Learning, the Electrical and Computer Engineering department, and other units across campus to produce the AE Hackathon event, which was attended by student hackers from 37 colleges and 4 countries.

Small farmers have weathered an increasing variety of economic and ecological threats, from big agriculture to climate change. This conference assembled teams of student designers, foresters, horticulturists, engineers, coders, artists, business entrepreneurs, and more to prototype inexpensive and easily accessible tools to gather data on growing local crops.

Some of the participants worked for 24-hours straight on their projects, learning what independent growers need directly from farmers and horticulture experts, and then pooling their knowledge to brainstorm and build prototypes over the weekend from Saturday, March 2 to Sunday, March 3, 2019.

While they were at it, teams competed for prizes, tried out new technologies such as VR gear from BAE Systems, and met fellow hackers from around the world.