WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A11
NEWS
This app is bananas, B.A.N.A.N.A.S
programming than most
API. We were coming up
with ideas to use it for, and
we kind of agreed on our
first idea.”
Theriault said the stu-
dents began programming in
the second week of school.
Though they borrowed code
from someone else, they had
to learn how it works and
figure out how to make it
work for their own app.
“The code they studied
showed how to compare
two specific faces,” he said.
“They had to rewrite it so it
would compare other faces,
not just those two.”
They connected the app
to a small sample of photos,
to test if it works.
To make the app fully
functional, Lemus and
Orozco still need to upload
the full database. There are
currently photos of four
missing people on the app
now.
“It’s still in beta testing,”
Theriault said. “They down-
loaded photos off of a web-
site for missing people in
Oregon.”
The two only had a
month to create the app,
between the beginning of the
school year and submitting
it to the Congressional App
competition.
Theriault said the stu-
dents are members of a
quickly growing computer
science program.
“There’s a lot of inter-
est, and it’s a growing pro-
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
When two Hermiston
High School juniors started
their Technology and Web
Development class at the
beginning of the school year,
they wanted to develop their
skills and make something
useful.
A few months later,
they’ve created an app that
got the attention of U.S.
Rep. Greg Walden, and may
be of help to a much wider
audience.
Rogelio Lemus and
Ethan Orozco created an
app that was selected as the
winner of the Congressional
App challenge. They created
the “B.A.N.A.N.A” (Basic
App to Notify Authorities
of Non-Authorized Abduc-
tions) app, which helps rec-
ognize photos uploaded to
the app, and tells the user
whether the photo matches
anything in a statewide data-
base for missing people.
Walden called the stu-
dents to congratulate them
on the app, and invited them
to a reception in Washing-
ton, D.C., which the stu-
dents hope to attend.
Orozco and Lemus said
they came up with the idea
for the app pretty quickly.
“It had been a while since
I coded, so the first week
was getting warmed up,”
Orozco said.
“I really wanted to use
API,” Lemus said. API, or
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
Hermiston High School juniors Rogelio Lemus, right, and
Ethan Orozco developed a computer app that won the 2018
Congressional App Challenge for District 2. The app uses
facial recognition to find missing people by uploading a
photo and comparing it with a national database.
application programming
interface, is a set of tools and
methods for building soft-
ware. The students used code
created by someone else —
a practice their teacher Rob-
ert Theriault said is com-
mon in programming — and
rewrote portions of it to meet
their specific needs.
“We were looking at a
Face API that uses Javas-
cript,” Lemus said. “That
was more on our level of
gram,” he said. “There’s an
AP (Advanced Placement)
class that feeds into this one,
which now has 20 students.”
Hermiston has several
computer science classes,
including intro to computer
science, AP computer sci-
ence principle, and Technol-
ogy and Web Development,
as well as an independent
study.
“When we got
to D.C. the first
year, we were one
of a few public
schools that
won.”
Robert Theriault,
Technology teacher
Theriault said though he’s
had a few students who have
entered the app challenge
before, he’s found that many
schools in eastern Oregon
don’t have a computer sci-
ence program.
“In all fairness, we’ve
only had one for two years,”
he said.
Two years ago, another
‘Cutting-edge’ bovine IFV treatments
BTW
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
In Umatilla County,
donations for the program
can be submitted through
the Echo or Stanfield
libraries or the program’s
website. Books are picked
by a selection commit-
tee. The books are chosen
for their value in meeting
needs of children as they
progress in age.
For more information,
contact the Echo (541-
376-8411) or Stanfield
(541-449-1254) libraries,
Erin McCusker of the
Umatilla County Special
Library District at 541-
276-6449 or director@
ucsld.org, or visit www.
imaginationlibrary.com.
For the Morrow County
program through the Ore-
gon Trail Library Dis-
trict, contact Friends of
the Irrigon Library at
541-481-3365.
• • •
‘Tis the season for
bazaar shopping. To get
you warmed up, check out
this Saturday’s Altrusa
Holiday Bazaar at the
An international com-
pany pioneering new tech-
niques of in-vitro fertil-
ization for cows has its
headquarters in Hermiston.
The company has been
operating in Hermiston
since 2015 but in August
re-branded from Cogent
IVF to Vytelle. The com-
pany provides services to
the region from its Herm-
iston headquarters but also
has sites in Idaho, Califor-
nia, Texas, Paraguay, Uru-
guay and South Africa.
Business
director
Luciano Bonilla said Vytelle
is unique in several ways,
including its “cutting-edge”
hormone-free
collection
process for unfertilized eggs.
The lack of stimulating hor-
mones is easier on the ani-
mals, allows for weekly col-
lection and requires no shot
schedule.
Farmers and dairies
using in-vitro fertilization
can benefit from multiple
calves born per year that are
the biological offspring off
their highest-producing milk
cows, or animals that are
superior in other ways.
“Naturally, one cow can
give one calf per year,”
Bonilla said. “If they use
this technique, they can get
hundreds.”
Farmers and dairies using
Vytelle’s services choose
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STAFF PHOTO BY JADE MCDOWELL
Aline, left, and Luciano Bonilla of Vytelle are pictured in the company’s lab. The screen above
them shows lab-grown cow embryos ready to implant.
their best cows for harvest of
unfertilized eggs, known as
oocytes, which can be done
by Vytelle technicians on the
farm or at a collection loca-
tion they have on GT Land
& Cattle property. The pro-
cess takes 10 to 15 minutes,
after which the oocytes are
taken to the Vytelle lab at
80383 N. Highway 395 and
combined with sperm from
a bull of the farmer’s choos-
ing, using human-grade IVF
equipment.
Vytelle technicians then
grow the embryos in special
incubators and a rotation of
serums over a seven-day
period before freezing the
embryos using a process
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partnerships the company
had in the Columbia Basin
area that made sense for
them to start what was then
Cogent IVF in Hermiston
instead of Wisconsin.
She said while most
bovine IVF companies use
a complicated pricing struc-
ture that charges at differ-
ent junctures, Vytelle’s pro-
duction rate is so high that
it only charges farms and
dairies for the number of
embryos it successfully
creates.
“They pay for what they
get,” she said.
For more information
about Vytelle, visit vytelle.
com or call 866-689-3477.
unique to the company, or
immediately impregnating
the desired number of cows.
Eight people total work
out of the Hermiston office.
Aline Bonilla, the research
and development laboratory
manager, said clients of the
Hermiston lab come from all
over Oregon, but they serve
an especially high number of
dairies from the Tillamook
area.
Aline and Luciano are
originally from Brazil and
came to the United States for
Ph.D. study and work. While
they previously worked in
Wisconsin for Vytelle’s par-
ent company WheatSheaf
Group, Aline said there were
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Pendleton Convention
Center. More than 90 ven-
dors from across the region
will be selling their wares
from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. In
addition, lunch is available
for purchase. Also, there
will be raffle drawings for
gift baskets and $2,000 in
holiday cash. Admission is
$2, which benefits projects
of Altrusa International
of Pendleton. See next
week’s Hermiston Herald
for other upcoming holi-
day bazaars.
• • •
Six Eastern Oregon res-
idents competed in a Port-
land-area taekwondo tour-
nament earlier this month.
Members of the East-
ern Oregon Family Tae-
kwondo dojo competed at
the Grandmaster’s Cup in
Gresham on Nov. 3. The
competitors were Aumari
Black, 5, Kionna Idris,
14, Brock Meinke, 7, Abel
Garcia, 10, Anita Meinke,
and Melissa Shilhanek .
———
You can submit items
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Way column by emailing
your tips to editor@herm-
istonherald.com.
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respected source of local news,
advertising and information for
our communities.
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Hermiston student won the
challenge, and traveled to
D.C. for a reception.
“When we got to D.C.
the first year, we were one
of a few public schools that
won,” Theriault said. “There
were a lot of tech schools
and private schools.”
Theriault said he’s tried to
find other opportunities for
his students to develop their
skills. They participate in a
programming challenge at
George Fox University. Still,
he said, because it’s in a big-
ger area, they’re often com-
peting against kids with a
lot more tech experience, or
parents who work at major
technology companies.
Though they were most
focused on the technical
aspects of the app, Lemus
and Orozco had some fun
with it, too.
“It was pretty fun com-
ing up with the name,” said
Lemus. “I wanted to come
up with an acronym.”
Though there was some
debate about the name — the
term “non-authorized abduc-
tions” made their teacher
question what an “autho-
rized abduction” would be
— but they knew the name
would help people recognize
the app.
“You’re not going to for-
get it,” Lemus said.
“I haven’t done anything
like this before,” Orozco
said. “It challenged my skills
and I was pretty happy with
the results.”
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