2. Prototype party August 6th 4pm-8pm 3. Invitation to field test at East Bay Vivarium 4. Gardenmesh meetings every Tuesday 8p _____________________Hello everyone, First off, I'd like to thank all of you for your continued efforts on this project. We have some exciting developments I'm excited to update you on: With major help from Adam, I've put together a crack at the 1-minute submission for the National Geographic 'Chasing Genius' grant (www.natgeochasinggenius.com [1]) due July 30th. I've chosen to submit under the 'Feeding 9 Billion' focus. WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1fJuy09hh37SlkyakdlVVgxdjQ

[2] We only have a few more days to make edits before I have to submit so I am interested in hearing any suggestions you have! Not looking for perfection, just want to get the point across. Next, if you'd like to participate in BUILDING PROTOTYPES, we will be hosting a prototype building party AUGUST 6TH 4-8PM at the sudoroom hack space at the Omni Commons (4799 Shattuck Ave, Oakland, CA 94609). No need to be an expert, we are all learning together here. Thank you Grant for taking on the lions share of the soldering and coding for this project, we couldn't do it without you! If you are interested in getting more technical information on the project, please visit our GITHUB WIKI (https://github.com/sudomesh/gardenmesh/wiki [3]) - thank you Grant, Jorrit, and Scott! More good news: Sean Parnell from East Bay Vivarium has graciously offered to let us test our first round of prototypes in their Wi-Fi connected store. We will be able to test the units without solar panels or batteries, or much housing so that we can hammer out the software side of things and make upgrades for the exterior units that we will be testing at Annie's Annuals in the fall (thank you Cassandra!). Lastly, if you are interested in getting more involved in the project, we have gardenmesh meetings every Tuesday evening at 8pm at the Omni Commons (4799 Shattuck Ave, Oakland, CA 94609). Thank you! -Mario Gabiati GardenMesh Project Coordinator