James Gatt

Student Developer, AOSP Engineer

James Gatt is a B. Sc. Computer Engineering student at the University of Malta. Being an AOSP enthusiast, James works as an AOSP and a device engineer, founder of PixelBuilds custom ROM distribution.

How My Android App Learned to Talk to Plants

Smart farming is no longer a futuristic idea, it’s happening now! With the rise of IoT technology, microcontrollers and embedded devices are transforming ambitious ideas into working projects. This talk presents an IoT-enabled greenhouse system that collects environmental sensor data and turns it into real-time insights, all visualised through an Android app. Maintaining optimal conditions for crop growth is no easy task, but by tracking key variables like soil moisture, pH, and CO₂, we lay the foundation for automation and precision farming. It’s a robust, remotely accessible system built with off-the-shelf components, a practical case study of modular Android dashboards for real-world environments. This session will cover: • How the system’s hardware and sensors are architected. • The network setup and API server, routed via Cloudflare Tunnel. • GitHub as a public data store for JSON snapshots. • The Android app architecture for live dashboards and graphs. • Key design decisions: caching, API fallback, and mobile UI. • How you can build a similar system at home. And voilà, no plant is left dehydrated!