{"id":10990,"date":"2013-01-29T19:34:52","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T19:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baylorproud.wpengine.com\/?p=10990"},"modified":"2013-01-29T19:38:11","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T19:38:11","slug":"im-thirsty-alums-product-allows-plants-to-text-you-when-they-need-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2013\/01\/im-thirsty-alums-product-allows-plants-to-text-you-when-they-need-water\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I&#8217;m thirsty!&#8217;: Alums&#8217; product allows plants to text you when they need water"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/1387729422\/plant-link-listen-to-your-plants\/widget\/video.html\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>When Eduardo Torrealba, BS &#8217;11, and his wife, Lisa, BS &#8217;10, left Waco after graduation, they were given a small basil plant as a going-away present. Upon arrival at their new home in Illinois, where Eduardo was beginning grad school, they began to look for a product that would monitor the soil moisture level so they would know when the plant needed watering. One problem: They couldn&#8217;t find a good one out there. So, Eduardo decided to simply <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oso.tc\/blog\/2012\/10\/2\/its-really-happening\" target=\"_blank\">build his own<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Recognizing that others might desire such a product as well, Torrealba and four other\u00a0former and current University of Illinois graduate students &#8212; four of them Baylor graduates &#8212; have since formed a company, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oso.tc\" target=\"_blank\">Oso Technologies<\/a>, to turn that initial hacked-together version into something they could take to market.<\/p>\n<p>Now known as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/1387729422\/plant-link-listen-to-your-plants\" target=\"_blank\">Plant Link<\/a>, the system monitors soil moisture level for plants and sends an e-mail or text message when the plant needs water. Through use of a smart valve, it can even automatically water the plant when needed. (See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/1387729422\/plant-link-listen-to-your-plants\" target=\"_blank\">video<\/a> below.)<\/p>\n<p>Torrealba and his Oso Technologies team &#8212; including\u00a0Michael Clemenson, BS &#8217;10, Trevor Hutchins, BS &#8217;09, and Bradley Sanders, BS &#8217;10 &#8212; launched a 30-day fundraising campaign on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/1387729422\/plant-link-listen-to-your-plants\" target=\"_blank\">Kickstarter.com<\/a> last month that has reached its $75,000 goal with a week to spare. The funding will allow one of the team members to move from part-time to full-time and help move Plant Link into production.<\/p>\n<p>The four alums aren&#8217;t the company&#8217;s only links to Baylor. &#8220;Oso,&#8221; of course, is the Spanish word for &#8220;bear&#8221;, and a Baylor business professor, Dr. Greg Leman, has served the company in an advisory role. And before the Kickstarter effort, some of the project&#8217;s early support came from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baylor.edu\/business\/angelnetwork\/\" target=\"_blank\">Baylor Angel Network<\/a>, an investor group that provides early stage capital to entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n<p>Sic \u2019em, Plant Link and Oso Technologies!<\/p>\n<p><em>[We learned of this story from a Bear who shared his Baylor pride. Do you know of an inspiring story, news item, or just a fun link that makes you proud of Baylor and the Baylor family? Let us know! <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/submit\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to submit your point of pride!<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"plantlink-jan13\" src=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/plantlink-jan13.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" style=\"display:none\"  \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Eduardo Torrealba, BS &#8217;11, and his wife, Lisa, BS &#8217;10, left Waco after graduation, they were given a small basil plant as a going-away present. Upon arrival at their new home in Illinois, where Eduardo was beginning grad school, they began to look for a product that would monitor the soil moisture level so [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-research","category-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}