Marina Orth Students Win Second Place at CT + i Fair

A group of young girls from Marina Orth Foundation robotics clubs won a coveted second place award in the research project competition for their automated planter box at the CT+I –“Science Technology +Innovation” fair, hosted by Medellín’s free tech instruction center Parque Explora and the mayors of Antioquia. The prestigious fair hosts hundreds of students from mostly private schools around Colombia, where young engineers are invited to share research proposals and projects.

Marina Orth Foundation students contributed five projects to the fair, three from Santa Juana de Lestonacc School in Medellín and two from La Aurora School and Rivera School, both from El Carmen de Viboral. Two of these projects reached the finals among more than 200 initiatives from public and private schools in the area.

The girls’ winning project, dubbed Plant!, began two years ago as an investigation into automating irrigation. The prototype consisted of a seeded pot connected to an Arduino circuit with humidity and soil moisture sensors. The readings from these sensors activated water pumps to irrigate the soil. Further prototyping lead the girls to reduce the size of the box and incorporate sustainable energy, using solar panels to power the pumps and sensors. The girls also programmed an Android app to control irrigation levels, installed clocks to allow scheduling irrigation, and even added hydroponic lights to influence photosynthesis. This second place finish in the Technical Developments category was a well-deserved recognition for the Marina Orth Foundation girls who dedicated more than six hours a week to this extracurricular project.