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<strong>&quot;My name is Martina Alvarez. I am 19 years old and about to start my second year of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Auckland.&quot;</strong> 
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&#160;<img src="user/image/medium/332/Martina Alvarez.jpg" border="0" alt="Martina Alvarez.jpg" title="Martina Alvarez.jpg" width="250" height="187" /> 
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Martina&#160;spent the summer with Dr Carolyn Hedley and Dr Pierre Roudier&#160;at Landcare Research looking at the effect of moisture on soil spectra and the use of the External Parameter Orthogonalisation (EPO) algorithm to predict carbon content of field moist soil using air dry soil spectra models. 
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Martina's work has given her the opportunity to learn new skills&#160;and expertise in this field of soil science. 
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&quot;I have learned about Visual-Near Infrared (VisNIR) spectroscopy and its benefits to soil science due to its quick soil carbon content predictions. I have also become aware of how samples are handled and scanned, the need for pre-processing of spectra and its application using the computer programming language R and how to accommodate the experiment to unexpected occurrences.&quot; 
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