Hi everyone! We’re really sorry about the inconvenience, but this blog for Future Tech Farm (formerly Urban Tech Farm) is under construction. If you want to follow our progress, check out our Facebook and Twitter! We’ll be getting the blog back up and running soon. Thanks!
-Austin
Filed under Uncategorized
After reflecting on my experiences at the Maker Faire, it seems like the biofilter experiment had generated the most questions. A lot of you liked it because it looked like a cost-effective project for science fairs or classrooms, and I’d have to agree. One of my biggest goals is to inspire younger generations to developing an appreciation for the sciences. Making a simple how-to seems like a good starting point :)
Aquaponics 101
For most of us, we probably haven’t put much thought towards what measures that vegetables had to go through to make its way to our dinner table. Advances in agricultural technology over the last 100 years have sustained the explosion of growth in human population. Agriculture has shifted towards a monoculture means of farming, where square miles of land are used to grow the exact same crop – much like a factory. In order to provide the required nutrition to the plants, the farm is blanketed with modified fertilizer. This concentrated man-made plant food is much easier for the crops to process. This is inorganic fertilizer, and it supports half of the human population. With so many people relying on this type of farming practice, very few are aware of the implications that follow.
Inorganic fertilizer is designed to increase a farm’s productivity, and nothing more. It skips the biological processes that occur naturally and provides the plants with usable nitrates, ammonia, and phosphorus that they can stuff their faces with – kind of like if McDonald’s ever delivered. Needless to say, they fatten up pretty quick. Inorganic fertilizers like this very easily dissolves in water as well. Whatever isn’t utilized by the plants could drain into groundwater supplies or runoff into bodies of water, and this is where the untold story begins.
According to the EPA, 52% of public wells and 57% of private wells contain nitrates. Drinking water contaminated with these compounds can have health implications, especially with infants and pregnant women. Excessive nitrate consumption can lead to cyanosis (chocolate brown blood and bluish skin) and hypoxia (low oxygen count). Imagine always trying to catch your breath, and that’s hypoxia. In nature, fertilizer runoff can lead to algae blooms, high levels of biotoxins, hypoxic water, and fish kills. Inorganic fertilizer may yield large amounts of crops, but at what cost?
Nature, in its pristine state, never needed inorganic fertilizers. There are no farmers around to spray plants with super concentrated plant food. Instead, these nutrients are broken down from other biological cycles, and everything reaches a point where it’s happily balanced. At the risk of sounding distasteful, you could say that it all starts with poop. Bacteria and microorganisms see this as a food source, and they leave behind their own sort of waste. Plants chow down on this stuff, animals move in and eat the plants, and the cycle continues. Everything is full circle like this. The water cycle is an example that many of us are familiar with, but there are many other cycles. In our particular case, we’re especially interested in water, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous cycles.
Using aquaponics, it is possible to regulate these cycles. Aquaponics is farming with the help of fish. The fish make their own waste, and our biological cycles begin.
The big huge enormous advantage to aquaponics is that you don’t need supplemental fertilizers like traditional farming does, and thus, don’t have to worry about the implications of traditional farming. Your water (that you recycle) is already nutritious to the plants. Aquaponics also means that you’re cultivating fish and algae, which are excellent sources of nutrition. The challenge in a system like this is regulating that delicate balance.
Modern swimming pools use plants and bacteria to clean the water. No chlorine necessary!
If we’re interested in using fish to grow our plants, we have to be confident that we’re getting the bacteria growth that we want. This is where the scientific method come in. The scientific method, when executed properly, is how researchers can make arguments about scientific discoveries. It gives you something to base an argument off of. For example, if I wanted to prove to you that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius, I’d throw some water on the stove, stick a thermometer in it, and hopefully I’m right. The test must be controlled, though. Maybe I’m on top of a mountain when I perform this experiment. Will my water boil at 100 degrees Celsius? Probably not.
The scientific method consists of 5 real steps towards approaching a conclusion. First, you identify your problem. I need to know at what temperature water boils. Second, you research as much as you can. If I keep on heating water up, it will eventually start to bubble. Third, you create a hypothesis. You take knowledge from prior knowledge and formulate an educated guess. I think water will boil at 100 degrees Celsius because that’s what I’ve observed in the past. Fourth, you test. At this point, you need to identify any factors that could change your experiment. Do you think salt could affect your boiling point? Is there a difference between using a gas or an electric stove? Test it and find out! The last step to the scientific method is making an analysis. How does the outcome compare to your hypothesis? It’s okay if it’s wrong! It could even lead to discoveries that you never thought of. Look at your data and try to pick out anything that seems strange to you. My water boiled at 95 degrees Celsius, but I’m conveniently on top of a mountain. Therefore, I think boiling point has something to do with elevation. Now you have a new hypothesis, and can test further into it. How does your boiling point differ from 500 meters above sea level to 1000 meters above sea level? Keep on asking questions, keep refining your tests.
So, here’s my own scientific method:
I wasn’t able to get the proof that I wanted for bacteria growth, but I was very surprised to see the algae differ so much. It’s led to some interesting thoughts and I’ll have to refine my tests further.
Without further adieu, here’s how you can make your own biofilter experiment:
The Biofilter Experiment
Materials:
Build Process:
A few tips:
As always, shoot us some questions if you have them. We love to hear the feedback :)
-Austin
As an entrepreneur, you may find yourself pitching to organizations with deeper pockets than your own. It can accelerate your project’s timeline and push it to levels that you never thought possible. It turns your ideas into a things of reality. These grants, investments, and general funds are what companies use to take their giant leaps forward. If we received that half million dollar fund from Start Garden… this world would be a changed place :)
You have to crawl before you can walk, though. We’ve put a lot of our time and resources into advancing our project as far as it is and using whatever means we have at our disposal. Still, we’re getting to that point where we can’t really hold back our bigger ideas for much longer. All we need is a seed, and we’ll provide the sunlight (and fish).
Today was the first part of my pitch to the Kettering University Entrepreneurial Society. It’s a club that my school sponsors, and one of the big appeals is that students have the opportunity to pitch an idea before an audience and receive a grant. It’s a place for a lot of energy, ideas, and feedback. Considering the fact that Kettering University is largely engineering, science, and business majors, it really becomes easy to understand that good ideas tend to propagate from here. It’s how I ran into Brian, and other members would have similar stories to say. A good experience.
The presentation went really well! We received some great advice about establishing credibility, developing a logo, and understanding the legal aspects more clearly. The feedback was huge, and it’s really going to set this project in an even better direction than before. In about a month we’ll be requesting funds from them to make some exciting developments, and then the real fun begins >:)
Back to development. I are engineer again :]
-Austin
Filed under Reflection, Starting from scratch, Weekly Updates, Why we're doing this
Well, this was an eventful weekend! I was given the opportunity to represent Kettering University at the Maker Faire in Dearborn, Michigan. There was so much cool stuff there! I’d encourage anyone to visit a Maker Faire if you have an appreciation for technology, creativity, and art.
It was exciting to see how much interest our project was generating. From 9AM to 5PM, groups filed through our exhibit nonstop, and I hardly had a moment to drink water or take a bite from my lunch. Great questions! I was really pleased (and surprised) to see that the kids even liked it! We were able to show our biofilter experiment, Brian’s growcube germination study, and our developing sensor module.
We have some big plans in our future. Stay tuned!
-Austin
Filed under Weekly Updates
Prototyping materials to my right, glass of wine to my left, and noise cancelling headphones to serenade me into blissful muse. I could get used to this :)
Up until now, I’ve been very quiet about my involvements in the Urban Tech Farm Project. Brian has done an excellent job in spreading our project idea to anyone who may be interested, and the blog has been a huge resource as a result. I think it’s about time that I update you all with my own shenanigans ;)
I’m interested in learning about the general growth of a plant. The more we learn, the higher quality food we’re able to create. Recently, I finished my first growth experiment using recycled water, which you can see in the gallery below. It works by spraying water onto peat pellets, where the plants are located. The water must have nutritional value, so Miracle Gro and a nutrient supplement were used. This isn’t where we want to go in the future by any means, but it has made for a great study tool.
In the beginning, I planted romaine lettuce, thyme, and parsley. Check out the time-lapse! Probably one of the coolest things for me to see is the explosion of growth that the lettuce experienced from day 31 to day 50.
I was only able to successfully grow lettuce plants this time around, but I would still consider the study a success. The goal of this run was not to develop restaurant-quality goods and have you drool all over yourself, but rather, to learn from mistakes and to develop foresight for the future. Over the course of 50 days, I had experienced:
So, on one side of the argument, one may ask, “How could we eliminate all of these bad things? Pests, molds, plant loss – all of these things are bad.” That would make pesticides a viable option, right? Ah… but the whole endangering human livelihood thing…
I’d like to propose a different perspective for the problem, then. We shouldn’t focus on how to eliminate all of these natural biological occurrences, but rather, focus on how we can we utilize them. I’ve come to learn that biology works through ideal conditions. If a smorgasbord of nutrients is present and underutilized, it won’t be for much longer. A fungal spore, a couple of bacteria, an insect – someone will find it. Have you ever noticed the birds in amusement parks? They’re basically fat babies with wings. Instead of putting all of our time and energy into preventing niche conditions, what if we could take advantage of them?
This learning experience has opened my eyes to some of the areas that needs to be addressed if we want to grow on a larger scale. If we’re able to control certain variables – such as pH or air quality, then we can expect more consistent results. Indoor horticulture is awesome for the simple fact that you don’t have to deal with Mother Nature’s frequent mood swings. No winters, no frosts, no droughts… nothing! Growing produce in a controlled environment is what’s going to allow us to grow at least 10 times more food per year per square foot than traditional farming; organically – without the use of pesticides, herbicides, and synthesized fertilizers.
Though we’ve learned much, there’s still more to discover. Pictures and observations are great, but empirical measurements and controlled experiments are even better. It’s about time that the Urban Tech Farm Project started to get technical.
Filed under Grow Logs, Research, Weekly Updates
Just over two months ago – I had an idea take root in my mind. It’s happened before, I’ve had plenty of ideas really grab ahold of the folds of my brain. But they withered and slowly decayed to dusty files. This idea, THIS one right now – is different. It’s like instead of the roots shriveling up and peeling back, this time, the roots are swelling – and burying themselves further.
Over the past two and a half months – I’ve acquired a talented and phenomenally gifted master of all things science, my co-founder, Austin; We’ve further developed the idea of what farming needs to become in order to sustain humanity in the future. We’ve had private meetings with venture capitalists; we’ve already had people send over resumes to be a part of our project; and we’ve grown. Incrediby Fast.
We’re just now gaining momentum and we need to continue growing. Our “fertile soil” is ready for a seed. Or two or three.
It’s time for another update.
Six days ago, in May, Austin and I met for the first time in down town Grand Rapids and decided we’re going to do this; start the urban tech farm project, and begin developing new technologies for growing food, we’re going to change the world.
And already, we have. The process has begun.
In order for us (as a world) to succeed in saving humanity, we’ve realized there’s going to have to be a fundamental re-association of what farming SHOULD be – Not what it is; because what it is – is not working. Even in my little bubble of a world around me, I’ve noticed change that we’ve instigated because of this project. People from all the different compartmentalized chunks of my life are asking questions; they’re thinking about how farming can be better, and what we (as a society) can do together to make it better, for everyone.
The last update I posted covered the start of the compost research project. Since that time, we’ve been chuggin’ along, behind the scenes, making daily progress.
Lately, one of the most pressing issues is naming our company. We started thinking about this topic from the very beginning and still to no avail. Our approach for the initial launch of this project was to:
A) get a feel if the market’s there, and
B) determine if people want change in the farming system.
From all the feedback received so far, both those questions have been answered and we’ve hit a checkpoint to move forward. It’s time to incorporate. And for that – we need to come up with a company name.
Creating the legal documents of your company is not something you want to just jump into, I’ve found. It’s better to take your time, get connected with people you trust and take the time to understand what’s going on. I’ve had phone calls with lawyer friends (thanks Sean), researched online, talked with other startup founders and just did a lot of research, period. Make sure you don’t fall into any legal pitfalls early on. Understand the details; and most importantly – be patient. Some times you have to slow your roll. I think about it like this …The world shuffles at a pace such as maneuvering through a crowded bar on St. Patty’s day: everyone’s moving at roughly the same velocity; you can jump ahead of someone here and one there, but for the most part you have to slow down to ride the pulse of the rest of the world.. – and for those of us that tend to get ahead of ourselves; well, sometimes you just have to push a little harder in line to get that Guinness before the keg’s all tapped out. And that my friends, is life.
Filed under Weekly Updates, Why we're doing this
“The principal mark of genius is not perfection, but originality, the opening of new frontiers.” –Arthur Koestler
In the mere period of time that I have existed on this planet, things have been good. I accredit much of it to my mom and dad, who have taught me the value of a human life. I love them for their sacrifices and hope to make them proud.
My name is Austin Lawrence. I am a senior mechanical engineering student at Kettering University with an interest in pursuing biorobotics. I am an engineer, an entrepreneur, an inventor, a thinker, a learner, a hacker, and a dreamer. The sense of creating something new was thrilling to me, and something that I experimented with during my younger years. Being older now, I realized that this is my source of inspiration – the act of creating. It’s what I do, and I like to think that I do it well.
My time in college has been very enlightening. Not only for the courses that I’ve taken, but the life lessons that weren’t necessarily planned. Graduation day fast approaches; I’ve begun to truly realize what people mean when they express that life is too short. We’re given one chance to live on this planet. Based on my observations thus far, life hits you hard – and then you die. We all expire, and most of us leave behind a mark on this planet. Some of these are good, others – bad. Your outcome is entirely based off of your own volitions as one human of seven billion. As I take my first few polished steps into the mean professional world, I’ve realized that I should start thinking about my outcome. A few boxes to check off of the bucket list, if you will. I want to drive inspiration. I want to create ideas. And most importantly, I want to change lives.
Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principals which direct them. – Napoleon Bonaparte
Sometimes I think I’m slightly crazy for the way I think. Some ideas feel radical and require a lot of change. You’re no longer in that safe “warm fuzzy” zone of elementary teachers, nurtured children, and precautionary hockey equipment during recess. This is the world of feedback, and all its taste- and distasteful varieties. Regardless of the name that’s behind the idea, nobody is safe from the fury. As an example, the iPad was an over-glorified iTouch with no perceived chance for success. Five years later, it is responsible for an $80 billion tablet industry, and everyone needs one of these things. The trick is to make them look like the crazy ones.
A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy? – Albert Einstein
Formally, I’m an engineering student of a well-accredited private university with a graduation date fast approaching. Informally, I am still and forever will be: a student. Learning should not be restricted to the classroom. Learning is constant discovery. Sometimes you plan for it, other times the idea strikes you the moment you breach the surface, like finding an underground Antarctic lake. That sense of discovery is why we dream. It is why some go through such great lengths to prove the rest of the world wrong. Life is an adventure, so you might as well play its game. Take it step by step, and you might just be surprised with where you end up.
Roads? Where we’re going, we won’t need roads. – Doc
…Needless to say, I draw inspiration from quotes and tend to reflect on them. Especially when it comes from Doc.
I’ve paired up with Brian Falther because we share a similar vision. We both met as mechanically-minded entrepreneurs with the ability to coordinate and communicate. We’re pulling together quite a show for you to enjoy when all is said and done. I’m in this project to support Brian in the development of a sustainable solution to our agricultural demands and design its awesome solution. Some days I’m a biologist, other days I’m a chemist, and everythen else I’m an engineer. I can’t wait to make this idea happen. Potentially, it could be life altering. The feeling is daunting, but perhaps that’s a good thing.
Let’s get our farm on.
-Austin Lawrence
Filed under Introduction
