The Efficient Vineyard project is an ongoing national effort to advance the use of precision viticulture in wine, juice, and table grape production. One of the most important tools that has emerged from that project is the My Efficient Vineyard mapping platform (MyEV), which lets growers easily and quickly apply any kind of spatial data to a map using a simple interface. This afternoon’s session will provide growers with an introduction to the MyEV system and help them get started with this powerful yet easy-to-use tool. The workshop will be appropriate for growers who are new to MyEV as well as those who have had some experience using the system already. This will be a hands-on workshop, so growers should bring their own laptops or tablets to work on.


 Hans Walter-Peterson, Senior Extension Associate, FLGP

Hans Walter-Peterson is the Senior Viticulture Extension Specialist for Cornell University in the Finger Lakes region of New York. He conducts applied research and advises the region’s grape growers on a wide range of topics such as pest management, vine health and productivity, digital viticulture, soil health, grower and winery relations, and much more. Prior to joining the Finger Lakes Grape Program in 2007, he was the viticulture extension specialist for the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program in Fredonia NY for six years. In recognition of his research and extension work on behalf of the industry, he was awarded the ‘Research Award’ by the New York Wine & Grape Foundation in 2020.

Hans received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN in 1990, and his Master’s degree in Viticulture from the University of California – Davis in 2001. He is currently working on his Ph.D. in viticulture at Cornell University.


Terry Bates, Senior Research Associate, Cornell Lake Erie Research and Extension Laboratory

Terry Bates is a senior research associate with Cornell University’s School of Integrative Plant Sciences and the Director of the Cornell Lake Erie Research and Extension Laboratory in Portland, NY. Terry’s research program focuses on production viticulture for the juice and wine grape industries of western New York. He currently heads the “EfficientVineyard” research theme in precision viticulture https://www.efficientvineyard.com/.


Nick Gunner, Owner, Orbitist

From 2007-2011 Nick received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Communications and Earth Science at the State University of New York at Fredonia. During that time, he started building online content management systems and digital mapping platforms. He continued developing these skills as a web developer, videographer, and social media director at the State University of New York at Fredonia where he spent 2012-2016 as their New Media Manager. Throughout that time, Nick pursued freelance work as a public radio producer, freelance documentary filmmaker, and web developer. In the Summer of 2015, Nick founded Orbitist LLC, to create cloud-based mapping software. Orbitist has since partnered with Cornell University on the development of myEV (my.efficientvineyard.com), a suite of easy-to-use viticulture mapping tools. Moving forward, Nick aims to make digital mapping technology as accessible to vineyards as possible.