Challenge #2:
Food Crunch🍊🍏🍊
UN Sustainable Development Goals
no.2 Zero Hunger!
Congratulations for completing Challenge #1
>>>>> So, let’s get to it… and crunch some numbers
As we have seen in the earlier challenge, tech designed to help humans can let us gain more time to do fun stuff, do the boring stuff for us and enhance our capabilities. We can use tech to help solve some of our most pressing problems and feeding the world is one of these.
Take the Quiz
So how can we help solve some of these big world problems?
>>>> Solution…tech can help us 💎
Welcome to Telstra’s innovative technology!
Let’s take a trip to Telstra’s digitised orchard packing facility! Watch Tamara Gunawan, an emerging technology specialist at Telstra, show us her ideas of how using technology combined with agriculture can solve a problem in the Telstra orchard:
What are the steps happening here that connected technology to the problem of picking ripe oranges?🍊
The technology in play:
🍊Telstra Dedicated Network
Telstra Dedicated Network (TDN) is an on-premises Mobile Network Platform that is flexible, resilient, secure and scalable. It empowers use cases that demand low latency, high resiliency/security and flexibility.
🍊Robotic Arm with 5G
The KUKA robotic arm has been connected over a 5G network, allowing low latency manual control and the ability to integrate machine-to-machine connectivity across multiple device ecosystems.
🍊Image Processing
Image processing involves manipulating or analysing digital images to extract information, enhance visual quality or recognize patterns and features. It encompasses a wide range of techniques such as filtering, segmentation and feature extraction, often used in fields like computer vision, medical imaging and satellite imagery analysis. Image processing enables tasks like object detection, image enhancement and even artistic transformations, serving various scientific, industrial and creative applications.
🍊Edge Computing
Edge computing refers to the practice of processing data closer to the source of its generation, typically at or near the "edge" of the network, rather than in a centralized data-processing warehouse. This approach minimizes latency by reducing the distance data must travel, enhances efficiency by offloading processing tasks from the cloud and improves reliability by enabling real-time decision-making in distributed systems. Edge computing is vital for applications requiring rapid response times, such as IoT devices, autonomous vehicles and augmented reality.
The idea behind this innovation is to enable farming to be sustainable and cost effective by increasing productivity, reducing labour costs and minimising risks related to food security safety and waste.
>>>> How did Tamara’s engineering ideas work💭
This is where Telstra’s 5G comes into play and how Tamara brought her engineering ideas into reality. These are her steps:
The camera feed of the harvested oranges is first streamed into the Edge software.
The Edge software evaluates the camera feed and then applies an algorithm so it understands the images and can then identify which oranges are ripe.
The 5G router receives the information from the Edge software and sends it to the Kuka robotic arm.
The Kuka robotic arm receives the information via the 5G network and then packs the ripe oranges.
>>>> Engineering Design Process 💭
The process that we just watched that demonstrated combining technology and agriculture is called an Engineering Design Process: Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create and Improve!
This is the basic process of what engineers think about and go through to solve problems for products, devices or even to develop services and to improve systems.
And that’s not all. In the real-world engineers also have to balance cost, time and quality.
This can be a difficult balancing act as quality might be costly, but you still need resources such as time and/or money to produce goods or service.
On the other hand, you might have the money for a quality good/service, but not enough time to meet the deadline required.
Your challenge #2
Now it’s your turn where you too can play a part in helping to solve this important world problem of food security…and be in the draw to WIN a Telstra Goodie Bag for this challenge#2!
Our challenge for you is to design your own urban orchard – something similar to the Telstra example. Your design must take into consideration how you can connect technology with agriculture in an urban environment. Can you design a system that will help you be an urban tech savvy farmer?
Step1 Ask: what is the problem? 🌱
● For example, the need to grow some food – you can pick your favourite fruit (such as strawberries) or veggie (such as carrots).
● For this task, imagine you are in an urban environment and choose the location of your “orchard/farm/veggie patch” such as a concrete veranda or a courtyard.
Step 2 Imagine: brainstorm ideas 🌈
What is your chosen fruit or veggie?
Where are you going to set it up: veranda, courtyard?
How are you going to make your orchard or veggie patch – hint: vertical or horizontal gardens, stacked or single layer?
How are you going to connect technology to look after it – hint: watering, fertilizing, keeping an eye on it!!
Step 3 Plan: draw a diagram 💻
Let’s see your design and explain how the technology is connected to it!
>>>>> Bonus points
Step 4 Create: If you could, would you create a prototype? Please share with us 💗
Step 5 Improve: What did you discover? Did it work or did you need to tweak it to make improvements? 🤔
And like all engineers in the real world, you have to balance your time, your resources and the quality!!!!
Time: Deadline to submit your design Sunday, March 10th 5pm AEST (Queensland time).
Resources: Tight budget [paper and pen]
Quality: All finished designs, go into the draw to WIN a Telstra Goodie Bag 🏆
Send your work to:
🍊hello@gdostem.com.au by March 10th at 5pm AEST (Qld time)
🍊Subject line: Challenge#2FoodCrunch
🍊Parent/guardian’s permission is needed
Prize draw for Challenge #2
🏆WIN a Telstra Goodie Bag🏆
AND…If you finish all of the challenges, you will be entered into the Grand Prize Draw for a choice between an iPad or an opportunity to be a STEM Cover Girl on the cover of Careers with STEM digital magazine. Remember all completed entries must be submitted by the closing of the event: March 10th at 5pm AEST (Queensland time)!
