About this episode

The episode features an interview with Lisa Link Melville, who programmed an Atari 800 computer to forecast the weather and won several awards at a science fair.

Atari at the Science Fair: Lisa Link Melville, Weather Prediction The Herald Times newspaper, April 17 1984: "March 24 proved to be an exciting day for several area students participating in the South Central Indiana Regional Science Fair which was held in Bloomington. Lisa Link, an Edgewood High School junior, and Maxwell Brothers, a Bloomington North senior, took top honors in the advanced division. Programming an Atari 800 computer to forecast the weather was Link's project. The computer's entire 48K memory system was needed to develop the long and complicated program which predicts Bloomington's weather with an 88 percent rate of accuracy. Twelve variables are programmed into the computer which then forecasts the weather using such variables including temperature, cloud cover, rainfall, wind speed and barometric pressure. Link, though not presently enrolled in any science classes at Edgewood, went on to take not only top honors in the Regional Science Fair but also to win certificates of recognition from NASA and the Army as well as second place for best project by the Navy." An article a month later in The Newark Advocate said: "during a 17-day period in February and March…

People in this episode

Hosts: Randy Kindig, Kay Savetz, Brad Arnold

Guest: Lisa Link Melville

Topics covered

• Atari
• Science Fair
• Weather Prediction
• Programming
• Awards

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NASA, Army, Navy, National Oceanic Atmospheric Association, Air Force, American Meteorological Society

Places: Bloomington

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