[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.
