Sara Lechlider, recipient of the 2017 one-year TLI Scholarship, is attending Purdue University, majoring in Agribusiness and minoring in Turfgrass Management. Last year, during her freshman year, Purdue University selected her as one of 30 students to serve as hosts and hostesses for their Rising Professionals program. She is the daughter of Doug and Robin Lechlider, Laytonsville Landscaping, Inc., in Laytonsville, MD.
Amy Wilber, recipient of the 2017 four-year TLI Scholarship, is attending Te Ohio State University, majoring in Sustainable Plant Systems with an emphasis on Turfgrass Science. Her summer of 2018 internship took her across the pond to the famed tennis courts of Wimbledon. Look for an article on her experience there in the November/December issue of Turf News.
Andrew Aposhian, the 2016 TLI Scholarship recipient, is the son of Steve and Wendy Aposhian, FireFly Automatix, North Salt Lake, Utah. In July, Andrew provided the following “Update on Education” to TPI Headquarters and the Scholarship Committee—via email of course.
He opened stating a copy of his transcript and fall class schedule were attached and continued with the following.
My major is still Computer Science with a double major in Mathematics. Here is a report summarizing how my education in Computer Science can be applied to the turf industry:
Tis last year was the busiest and most rigorous year of school I have ever had. From taking classes in Discrete Mathematics to Technical Game Development, I was able to substantially grow my knowledge of computer science and its applications. So much of what I have learned I am already applying to the turf industry as this summer I am working again as a software developer at FireFly Automatix. Software has numerous applications to the turf industry, among which are organizational tools for managing a turf farm as well as advanced analytics using big data and machine learning.
Management software is becoming indispensable to virtually every industry, including the turf industry. Software has the capability of facilitating better management of business, farming, transportation logistics, marketing, and customer management. Who will build all this software? Software developers! Much of my education last year was focused on making me a better software developer. In my Web Development class, I learned about how to make database- driven web applications. Te ubiquity of the cloud has made web applications one of the most popular ways to deploy software, making web development an important skill. Another example of how I gained software development skills last year was in my Software Engineering course. In Software Engineering, we learned best practices of how to develop software in collaborative teams and practiced what we learned by completing semester-long team projects. I also had a great
TPI Turf News September/October 2018
opportunity to practice software development in a team in my Technical Game Development class.
Another class that has proved especially useful to me was my Operating Systems class. A critical area of work that makes software usable is something called DevOps. DevOps encompasses the operations needed to develop and deploy applications. My Operating Systems class helped me understand concepts of systems and parallel programming which I use every day at work to provision servers and manage test environments for the software we develop. DevOps skills are important for facilitating rapid development and are necessary for the deployment of any kind of application.
General software development principles as well as mathematics lay a critical foundation for more advanced uses of software that can be applied to the turf industry. Big data processing and machine learning are both examples of more advanced fields of computer science that I think will prove extremely valuable. Machine learning can be used in many different ways on a turf farm including giving farmers insights about how to more efficiently water and protect their grass. Although last year I did not take any classes that directly taught about machine learning, I took several classes including Introduction to Probability Teory and Discrete Mathematics that helped prepare me to learn about machine learning and big data analytics.
Some may think of farming as a low-tech industry; however, this stereotype is rapidly becoming less and less accurate. Te turf industry needs algorithms, analytics, machine learning, automation and cloud-based tools to become more efficient and productive. Farmers want to grow their businesses and spend more time with their families; computer tools can help their farms accomplish these goals. Labor is an increasingly greater pressure point on the agricultural industry that is also driving technological innovations that make farming more efficient. Ultimately, computer science is something that all members of the turf industry should be familiar with and profit from.
I want to thank Te Lawn Institute again for their incredible generosity. Te scholarship you have given me has made a large impact on my life. I will continue to work hard to make the most out of my education opportunity.
He closed with: Sincerely, Andrew Aposhian. Oh My! What great opportunities lie ahead!
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