Spyglass digital technology demonstration day

The JCU eResearch centre has been working with CSIRO and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Forestry on a research project to bring high tech internet based sensors and monitoring to the cattle industry – putting cows on the net! We think this will transform the beef industry. You can see a short video on our project on The Digital Homestead website.

As a feature part of the Digital Homestead Open Day to be held this year at the Spyglass beef research station (west of Townsville), the JCU eResearch team will be conducting a ‘Sprint Day’ where we will be working to roll out high tech monitoring equipment over the station. We will be working in teams to build up and roll out internet devices across the property: video cameras, weather stations, remote water hole and pump monitors and even cattle scales. By the end of the day data, video, images will be streamed across the Internet to a custom designed web site. The cattle station will be on the net!

What is a Sprint Day?

The idea of a sprint day is sometimes used in computer software development where several people get together to solve a hard problem in one day.

At eResearch we have run many Sprint Days where 8 or 10 people get together – usually involving building a device that can sense or control something and all the required software to visualize the data. You don’t need technical skills – you just need to want to help!  Many hands make light work and everyone has skills they don’t know they have until they try.  Sprint day is not just for Uni students and we always include school students.

Apart from being great fun there are many benefits for everyone participating in a Sprint. By gathering small groups with diverse talents and focusing intensely for a day your technical, creative and teamwork skills are challenged and developed in equal measure, all in a single day.

Enquiries

For more information and to register for catering please contact Rachel Hay, James Cook University on 0402 289 724 or email rachel.hay@jcu.edu.au.

Download the Spyglass Demonstration Day poster (PDF, 1MB).