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Team Status Report for 3/8/25

The most significant risk for our project right now is the user-flow for the NFC tags and the technical integration logistics. To allow NFC scanning in the app interface, we are allowing users to scan the NFC tags using the built-in scanner inside their phone. However, we need to be able to integrate this feature with our software backend. This integration will be different from the NFC scanner integration on the hardware pad. The challenge in this feature of our project is having two methods of NFC scanning and integrating both methods into the software.

No changes were made to the existing design of the system but we fully decided on bluetooth for the pairing between the device and physical pad. The implementation for this feature has been started.

No changes to the schedule have occurred.

Currently, we have the basic circuit prototype built with the pressure sensors and light detecting sensor working with the ESP32 microcontroller. In addition, we have XCode and the emulator working to test our software and have started on the React Native frontend. Firebase has been connected with React Native to start with interactions with the database. Finally, the integration has also been started, with bluetooth pairing between the device and physical pad implemented and tested.

Part A written by Sarah Yang

Our product meets global factors by addressing the universal challenge of food waste through a smart tracking system that transcends cultural barriers. This silicone pad provides a solution in varying regions, from wealthy urban center to more rural areas where food waste presents environmental concerns and economic loss.

GlowFresh offers a technology solution that can be adapted across price  points and in varying environments, from fridges to workshops and even labs. The pad also has minimal language dependency as the visual LED notification system overcomes any literacy and language barriers. This makes it accessible for users regardless of their educational background or native language.

Part B written by Jessica Chan

GlowFresh addresses the global issue of food waste by helping individuals and businesses track food freshness more effectively. Food is deeply tied to culture, tradition, and community, yet managing perishable goods efficiently remains a challenge. Our smart silicone mat, with pressure sensors and LED indicators, enables users to make informed consumption decisions.

Cultural factors shape our design, as food waste habits vary across communities. In regions where food scarcity is a concern, minimizing waste aligns with financial and ethical values. GlowFresh promotes sustainability while ensuring accessibility through an intuitive app. By merging technology with cultural values, our solution encourages responsible food consumption worldwide.

Part C written by Gina Seo

GlowFresh helps reduce food waste by offering an intuitive, color-coded visual map of food expiration in real time, minimizing spoilage and encouraging better food management. This automated tracking eliminates the need for manual logging or reliance on expiration dates, preventing edible food from being discarded and reducing landfill waste. The use of eco-friendly materials, like food-safe silicone mats, aligns with sustainable practices and further supports environmental responsibility. Silicone, known for its durability, reusability, and non-toxic properties, contributes to a longer lifespan for the product and reduces the environmental impact of frequent replacements.

In addition to these features, GlowFresh’s cloud-based syncing with the app allows for seamless inventory management and expiration notifications, helping users avoid over-purchasing. By reducing food waste, which is a significant source of methane emissions from landfills, GlowFresh supports more sustainable consumption patterns. The combination of durable materials and smart technology offers a comprehensive, eco-friendly solution to food management, ultimately contributing to both resource conservation and waste reduction.

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Jess’s Status Report for 2/22/25

This week, I focused on finalizing our design slides and worked with Sarah to review the hardware components for our presentation, ensuring that everything was clear and well-documented. After receiving feedback, I shifted my attention to researching how to pair our pad with our app, with Bluetooth emerging as the most viable option. Additionally, as a team, we decided to transition from force sensors to weight sensors for better accuracy and reliability. To support this change, I began researching weight sensors that would best fit our design requirements.

Overall, we are on track, but we want to accelerate our progress to stay ahead of upcoming deadlines. Right now, we are waiting for our LEDs to arrive—once they do, we can begin assembling version 0 of our system. This initial build will allow us to test the core functionality and ensure that all components integrate smoothly.

Looking ahead, I plan to start working on the design report since the deadline is quickly approaching. At the same time, I will begin building with Gina so we can have a functional prototype before spring break. Having a physical version of our system will give us a clearer understanding of any potential challenges and allow us to make necessary refinements early in the process.

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Gina’s Status Report for 2/22/25

This week, I focused on finalizing our design slides and collaborated with Jess and Sarah to thoroughly review our hardware components for the presentation. We ensured that all elements were clearly documented and that our explanations were concise and well-supported. Additionally, after internal discussions and consulting with a Master’s-level Mechanical Engineer experienced in working with pressure and weight sensors in various projects, we decided to transition from force-sensitive resistors (FSRs) to weight sensors for greater accuracy and reliability. To support this shift, I began exploring different weight sensor options that align with our design needs. However, we are concurrently testing pressure sensors to validate our decision, as we have acquired square and small circle pressure sensors from the Ideate lab for evaluation.

Our decision to move away from pressure sensors stems from their inherent limitations in detecting stacked items. Pressure sensors measure force per unit area, meaning that if the added item distributes its weight over a large surface, the overall pressure change might be too minimal to register accurately. This could lead to unreliable or inconsistent readings. In contrast, a load cell strain gauge directly measures total force applied, making it far more effective at detecting subtle weight changes due to stacking. By using a load cell, we can ensure a much more precise and responsive detection system, which is crucial for our application.

In addition to refining our sensor choices, I addressed concerns regarding the fabrication of our electronics with FDA-safe silicone. On Thursday, I met with Cody from Ideate to discuss the scope of our project, our progress so far, and the feasibility of using food-safe silicone for the final product. We received great news—facilities are available to help us create silicone molds using FDA-compliant materials, as the Creative Soft Robotics class is currently working on similar projects involving silicone mold printing. Cody demonstrated how straightforward the process would be, as long as we finalize the sensor layout.

The decision to use a weight sensor aligns well with this fabrication plan, as we can calibrate it precisely to account for any pressure applied by the silicone casing. Additionally, Cody helped us select free acrylic sheets that I can laser cut (since I already have clearance for laser cutting) to create plates for sandwiching the strain gauge weight sensor. This setup will provide a stable and effective means of integrating the sensor into our final design.

Looking ahead, I plan to begin drafting the design report since the deadline is quickly approaching. Simultaneously, I will start assembling the prototype with the team to ensure we have a functional version before spring break. Having a physical build will give us a much clearer understanding of any potential integration challenges, allowing us to refine our design early in the process. We’re making steady progress, but accelerating our pace now will help us stay ahead of upcoming deadlines.

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Team Status Report for 2/22/25

The most significant risks to our project currently is deciding how to connect and pair the physical pad to the user device. This risk is being managed as we have come up with a few methods, such as bluetooth and are researching how to implement it.

We made a few slight changes to our design, particularly in the hardware where we have decided to implement a booster. This is needed as the LED inputs only take 5V data signals but the ESP32 microcontroller outputs 3.3V. Thus, we are using the booster to step up the voltage to the appropriate level. Another change we’ve made is using weight sensors instead of pressure sensors. This way, when we have stacked items, the sensors will detect a change in weight whereas pressure sensors won’t. The operation of the sensors themselves are relatively similar so our design doesn’t have to change to adjust.

No changes to our schedule have been made yet as our team is still on track.

We worked a bit on rapid prototyping this week and are finishing it up. We have used a website online to mimic our basic circuit and ensure basic functionality is working :

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Sarah’s Status Report for 2/22/25

This week, I worked a lot on finishing up the design of our project and learning the details of the hardware, software, and integration between them. I gave the presentation for our design proposal so I needed to prepare heavily by practicing the presentation and learning the in’s and out’s of the project design in order to answer questions that people might have.

I also started setting up the frameworks and software needed for the backend and web app of our project. I set up the database tables and what information we need to store using Supa Base (open source version of Firebase) and researched different ways to integrate it into our frontend and to our ESP32 microcontroller.

Our progress is currently on schedule, we plan to finish up rapid prototyping by testing basic functionality using parts found around campus.

I also hope to finish up setup for all the software components and look to figure out the integration with the MCU. In addition, we have our project design proposal paper due so I hope to do a lot of work and research on that.

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Gina’s Status Report for 2/15/25

This week, I focused on refining our design and advancing our prototyping efforts. I worked on structuring and finalizing the implementation plan in our design slides and also conducted a final review of the components we need for our prototype with Jess, verifying specifications to ensure they align with our system requirements. I worked on detailed modifications on the testing, verification, and validation requirements by setting clear success criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of our hardware and software integration.

Using circuit components from the Physical Computing Lab in Ideate, I began assembling an initial hardware prototype, testing basic circuit configurations, and ensuring our force sensors, LEDs, and ESP32 communicate as expected. My hardware prototyping efforts will continue this weekend as I refine the first stage of our prototype, aiming to present a functional snippet during our design presentation.

Our progress remains on track with our project schedule. This weekend, I will help Sarah with practicing for our design presentation, ensuring we hit all the points. This coming week, we will expand our rapid prototyping efforts to include software-hardware communication by running ESP32-compatible software (Johnny-Five) alongside FastAPI to establish initial firmware interactions. I plan to finalize and test an early-stage hardware prototype with working LED indicators and force sensors early this week to begin integration testing to ensure firmware and hardware communication align with our expected use case. I will also continue refining our design presentation based on feedback after presenting.

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Jess’s Status Report for 2/15/25

This week, I contributed to our project by working on multiple aspects of both the design presentation and the technical development of our system. For the design presentation, I worked on structuring and refining our content to ensure it clearly communicates our project’s goals, technical approach, and design considerations. Additionally, I finalized the selection of our hardware components, carefully evaluating their specifications and ensuring they align with our system requirements. To better understand how these components will interact, I created a diagram mapping out their connections and interactions within our system, helping to visualize potential integration challenges early on.

Beyond the hardware selection, I also assisted Sarah in designing the frontend of our mobile app using Figma. I helped with the layout and user experience, ensuring that the design aligns with our intended user flow and functionality.

Our progress remains on track with our project schedule. This weekend, I plan to help Sarah plan and practice for our design presentation, ensuring we present our ideas clearly and effectively. Additionally, I will all begin rapid prototyping, working towards a preliminary version of our system to test key functionalities. I also plan to start outlining the software-hardware interaction, determining how data will flow between our components and the mobile application to ensure seamless integration.

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Team Status Report 2/15/25

The most significant risks for the project that we discovered during the design portion is how we are organizing and constructing the pressure sensors. Since the sensors are smaller, we want to ensure that an item placed on a portion of the pad is actually detected. In order to mitigate this, we plan to arrange the sensors in an array like formation to ensure equal distribution.

While thinking through our design, we also ran into the problem of the details on how our hardware will be able to interact with our software. We decided to specify our ESP32 to be a MCU with wifi capabilities so we can use that to communicate with the software backend.

No drastic updates have been made to the team schedule but our Gantt chart has added more detail and specifics on each person’s tasks. We also want to start testing MVP soon after Spring break.

For progress this week, we are finishing up the design and presentation of our product and trying to start rapid prototyping in order to get the basic functionalities of our product operating as well as finalizing the hardware components we choose to use.

Part A written by Sarah Yang

Our GlowFresh system contributes to public health, safety, and welfare by preventing spoilage and addressing waste. On the health perspective, our product ensures well-being by preventing people from eating expired or spoiled foods, particularly those with expiration dates that are hard to spot. Tracking the state of food in the fridge mitigates food born illnesses and ensures better nutrition management.

In regards to safety, the pad notifies users of expiration, which prevents health hazards. The use of silicon for our pad also reduces chances of external contamination.

Finally, in terms of welfare, our system aids in reducing food waste by raising awareness of expiration. On a large scale, it encourages sustainable food habits and reduces environmental impact caused by waste.

Part B written by Jessica Chan

GlowFresh addresses several social factors by tackling the widespread issue of food waste, which has significant economic and environmental consequences. Food waste is a major global problem, affecting households, restaurants, and food suppliers, with direct financial burdens and ethical concerns about resource distribution. By providing a system that enhances food management, GlowFresh encourages more responsible consumption habits and helps users reduce unnecessary waste and save money.

GlowFresh fosters shared responsibility in both household and communal settings. In multi-person households, such as families or shared apartments, GlowFresh can improve coordination by allowing members to track food items collaboratively, reducing redundant purchases and forgotten groceries. Similarly, in restaurants and community kitchens, GlowFresh supports better inventory management, which can contribute to cost savings and ensure food is used efficiently before it goes to waste. This is particularly relevant for food banks and donation centers, where maximizing food use is critical for addressing food insecurity.

The project also aligns with cultural and social movements that emphasize sustainability, mindful consumption, and technological solutions to everyday problems. By integrating mobile connectivity, GlowFresh supports modern, digitally connected lifestyles, making it easier for individuals and families to organize food storage collaboratively and reduce waste as a shared social responsibility.

Part C written by Gina Seo

GlowFresh is providing an economic recalibration of how households, businesses, and communities manage perishable goods. At its core, our solution addresses the financial losses associated with food waste, a multi-billion-dollar issue affecting individuals and industries alike. For the average household, where grocery expenses represent a significant portion of the budget, GlowFresh transforms passive consumption into active food management. By providing real-time visual and digital reminders of food freshness, it reduces the likelihood of impulse repurchases and unnecessary waste, stretching every dollar spent on perishable goods. This is particularly impactful in budget-conscious households, where maximizing food longevity can directly alleviate financial strain.

On a larger scale, GlowFresh has the potential to create economic ripples in the food industry, particularly in sectors where perishability dictates profitability. Restaurants, grocery stores, and communal kitchens operate on tight margins where spoilage directly cuts into profits. By integrating GlowFresh mats into storage systems, businesses can optimize inventory turnover, reduce shrinkage costs, and streamline purchasing decisions based on real-time food status rather than reactive estimations. But beyond individual businesses, GlowFresh aligns with the economic realities of large-scale food logistics where fresh produce, dairy, and meats move daily across borders in refrigerated trucks, through distribution centers, and into retail supply chains. In these systems, where timing is everything, even slight inefficiencies in expiration tracking can lead to tons of wasted food and lost revenue. By enabling smarter food monitoring at the consumer level, GlowFresh will help stabilize purchasing patterns and reducing strain on suppliers. In doing so, it indirectly supports a more efficient movement of fresh goods across supply chains, where every crate of produce and every gallon of milk reaches its intended destination before its value is lost.

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Sarah’s Status Report for 2/15/25

This week, I focused on narrowing down the design scope specifics, particularly on the software side. I decided the exact frameworks and applications we would use to design our frontend and app backend logic. I am also going to be presenting the design slides in the following week so I spent a lot of time creating the presentation and deciding what type of content I want displayed. I created a block diagram of our software frameworks, hashed out a detailed Gantt chart with due dates and assignees, and started creating design choices for the frontend in Figma.

Our progress is currently on schedule as we are finishing up the design portion and will start development soon.

I want to be able to finish the design slides and give a good presentation that accurately goes over the details of our product. I also want to get all the software downloaded and setup so that it is ready to integrate with the hardware. I also want to start on the design paper that must be turned in the following weeks.

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Gina’s Status Report for 2/8/25

This week, I focused on creating the Proposal Deck with my team. I refined the storytelling and flow of our presentation to ensure clarity and engagement, carefully structuring the slides to effectively communicate our project’s goals, requirements, and challenges. This meant delving deep into the root causes of the problem and identifying user pain points and drawing a direct connection to our proposed solution and the ways in which it can address them. Additionally, I practiced delivering the pitch to ensure a compelling and coherent narrative.

On the technical front, I conducted preliminary research to identify suitable hardware components, focusing on sensor accuracy, power efficiency, and feasibility within our design constraints. I am currently collecting components from the IDeATe Physical Computing Lab to build a mini MVP of our silicone pad. I plan to use an ESP32 microcontroller, a simple LED bulb, and pressure sensors to test the hardware and identify potential considerations before finalizing component selection.

Collaborating with team members, I dissected technical challenges, defined requirements, and strategized solutions. We addressed specific technical challenges and outlined requirements to ensure our solution is robust and effective. The positive feedback we received from peers and Professor Brumley well-reflected our efforts.

My progress is on track with the project schedule. Following the mini MVP testing, Jess and I will finalize a comprehensive list of components, ensuring each aligns with our system and performance goals. We will also incorporate feedback from Professor Brumley regarding our proposal presentation to refine our approach.

In the next week, I plan to finalize the list of components based on MVP testing outcomes, integrate Professor Brumley’s feedback into our project plan, and begin assembling the initial prototype with the selected components.