Inspiration
Wholesome food that could have helped feed families in need is sent to landfills or just being thrown away. The significance of such wastage is often measured in monetary values while the nutritional value lost is not always documented. The best approach to reducing food loss and waste is not to create it in the first place and Team Sustainable Legionnaire plans to implement an idea that would lead to a considerable reduction in food wastage on the Texas A&M campus.
What it does
This plan can be first implemented at the Dorms on the campus. The introductory phase would consist of one table at each dorm where students can keep the food items that they no longer intend to consume. The current categories of food that can be placed on the table include packaged food and fruits. Packaged food indicates canned food items with intact seals. We have built a deep learning model to detect the freshness of the fruits placed on the table (this model can later be extended to other food varieties). To monitor and control the entire process our team has built a user-friendly mobile application (prototype) that requires the user to upload the image of the item which he/she intends to place on the table. This image will capture the freshness, expiration and other useful details about the food item and will also inform the user if the item is approved to be placed on the table. The mobile application will inform all the other users about the availability of a certain item and its location.
How we built it
We started with doing thorough research over the internet and going through 12th can website about what they do and got ourself thinking into their perspective, we then brainstormed ideas. We used Proto.io to built our mockup for the aggie Foodland app and Python, Excel to built a deep learning model that can help differentiate fresh and rotten food items.
Challenges we ran into
Our team is of diverse backgrounds, so although it was interesting to think about this problem from a diverse perspective. Our first challenge was to integrate these ideas and build a complete product. Also, since we were not familiar with the technicalities for a few things, we had to spend more time explaining and using real-life examples so that every one of us could be on the same page.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud that we could think of ideas, building a strategy that will eliminate food wastage, digitalize our strategy, built a prototype for it and then implement next-generation technology to enhance the product to the next level. All of this within 24 hours. Can it get any better?
What we learned
We learned that having a team full of experts in one background is far less fun than working with people having diverse backgrounds. Each of us learned something new and interesting each other, we discussed what each field lack that can be worked upon someone in the other field. Having a collaborative and innovative workforce is the best thing we got out of this process.
What's next for Aggie Food Land: The Gold Star Campus Initiative
We would like to go beyond dorms and expand it to big events happening on campus and off-campus housing. We can expand our map to include maps where people can find what products are available for pickup. We could also set up a vending machine where people can store their items which require refrigeration. Also, we can expand our deep learning algorithm to include more than just fruits and have other food as well.
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