Each hour we are featuring a woman we admire who is currently doing amazing work right in the tech/maker/art/science space. Woman of the hour, Kate Hartman. Kate is featured in the video above showing how plants can be made to call you on the phone when they need to be watered.

Kate Hartman is a researcher, and inventor. She is interested in how people communicate and what makes them tick. Kate creates new tools for expression through innovative applications of technology. Her individual and collaborative projects span the fields of wearable computing, mobile telephony, video installation, and conceptual art. Whether it be houseplants that make phone calls or hats that amplify the voices in your head, her work explores the idea of enhancing relationships and illustrating the unseen. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is featured in the recently published book “Fashionable Technology”. She’s also a professor at OCAD and has taught classes and workshops at ITP/NYU, Parsons, the Banff Centre, and NYCResistor.

Kate is probably best know for her work and collaboration on Botanicalls Kits, Lilypad XBee and StitchLits LED Sewing Kits. You can check out her blog here. Kate worked on Botanicalls with Kati London & Rebecca Bray amongst others too

About today:

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging (videologging, podcasting, comic drawing etc.!) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science. Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognized. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines, whatever they do. It doesn’t matter how new or old your blog is, what gender you are, what language you blog in, or what you normally blog about – everyone is invited.

Who was Ada? Ada Lovelace Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) was one of the world’s first computer programmers, and one of the first people to see computers as more than just a machine for doing sums. She wrote programs for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a general-purpose computing machine, despite the fact that it was never built. She also wrote the very first description of a computer and of software.