Project

#	Title	Team Members	TA	Documents	Sponsor
4	Instant Nitro Cold Brew Machine Most Commercially Promising Project	Danis Heto Mihir Vardhan		design_document1.pdf final_paper1.pdf other1.zip photo1.png photo2.png presentation1.pdf proposal1.pdf video
	# Instant Nitro Cold Brew Machine Team Members: - Mihir Vardhan (mihirv2) - Danis Heto (dheto3) # Problem Cold brew is made by steeping coffee grounds in cold water for 12-18 hours. This low-temperature steeping extracts fewer bitter compounds than traditional hot brewing, leading to a more balanced and sweeter flavor. While cold brew can be prepared in big batches ahead of time and stored for consumption throughout the week, this would make it impossible for someone to choose the specific coffee beans they desire for that very morning. The proposed machine will be able to brew coffee in cold water in minutes by leveraging air pressure. The machine will also bring the fine-tuning and control of brewing parameters currently seen in hot brewing to cold brewing. # Solution The brew will take place in an airtight aluminum chamber with a removable lid. The user can drop a tea-bag like pouch of coffee grounds into the chamber along with cold water. By pulling a vacuum in this chamber, the boiling point of water will reach room temperature and allow the coffee extraction to happen at the same rate as hot brewing, but at room temperature. Next, instead of bringing the chamber pressure back to atmospheric with ambient air, nitrogen can be introduced from an attached tank, allowing the gas to dissolve in the coffee rapidly. The introduction of nitrogen will prevent the coffee from oxidizing, and allow it to remain fresh indefinitely. When the user is ready to dispense, the nitrogen pressure will be raised to 30 PSI and the instant nitro cold brew can now be poured from a spout at the bottom of the chamber. The coffee bag prevents the coffee grounds from making it into the drink and allows the user to remove and replace it with a bag full of different grounds for the next round of brewing, just like a Keurig for hot coffee. To keep this project feasible and achievable in one semester, the nitrogenation process is a reach goal that we will only implement if time allows. Since the vacuum and nitrogenation phases are independent, they can both take place through the same port in the brewing chamber. The only hardware change would be an extra solenoid control MOSFET on the PCB. We have spoken to Gregg in the machine shop and he believes this vacuum chamber design is feasible. # Solution Components ## Brewing Chamber A roughly 160mm tall and 170mm wide aluminum chamber with 7mm thick walls. This chamber will contain the brew water and coffee grounds and will reach the user-set vacuum level and nitrogenation pressure if time allows. There will be a manually operated ball valve spout at the bottom of this chamber to dispense the cold brew once it is ready. The fittings for the vacuum hose and pressure sensor will be attached to the screw top lid of this chamber, allowing the chamber to be removed to add the water and coffee grounds. This also allows the chamber to be cleaned thoroughly. ## Temperature and Pressure Sensors A pressure sensor will be threaded into the lid of the brewing chamber. Monitoring the readings from this pressure sensor will allow us to turn off the vacuum pump once the chamber reaches the user-set vacuum level. A temperature thermocouple will be attached to the side of the brewing chamber. The temperature measured will be displayed on the LCD display. This thermocouple will be attached using removable JST connectors so that the chamber can be removed entirely from the machine for cleaning. ## Vacuum Pump and Solenoid Valve An oilless vacuum pump will be used to pull the vacuum in the brewing chamber. A solenoid valve will close off the connection to this vacuum pump once the user-set vacuum pressure is reached and the pump is turned off. To stay within the $100 budget for this project, we have been given a 2-Stage 50L/m Oil Free Lab Vacuum Pump on loan for this semester. The pump will connect to the chamber through standard PTFE tubing and push-fit connectors If time allows and we are able to borrow a nitrogen tank, an additional solenoid and a PTFE Y-connector would allow the nitrogen tank to connect to the vacuum chamber through the same port as the vacuum pump. ## LCD Display and Rotary Encoder The LCD display allows the user to interact with the temperature and pressure components of the brewing chamber. This display will be controlled using a rotary encoder with a push button. The menu style interface will allow you to control the vacuum level and brew time in the chamber, along with the nitrogenation pressure if time allows. The display will also monitor the temperature of the chamber and display it along with the time remaining and the current vacuum level. # Criterion For Success - A successful cold brew machine would be able to make cold brew coffee at or below room temperature in ten minutes at most. - The machine must also allow the user to manually control the brew time and vacuum level as well as display the brew temperature. - The machine must detect and report faults. If it is unable to reach the desired vacuum pressure or is inexplicably losing pressure, the machine must enter a safe ‘stop state’ and display a human readable error code. - The reach goal for this project, not a criterion for success, would be the successful nitrogenation of the cold brew.

Digitizing the Restaurant with Network-Enabled Smart Tables

Andrew Chen, Eric Ong, Can Zhou

Featured Project

# Students

Andrew Chen - andrew6

Eric Ong - eong3

Can Zhou - czhou34

# Problem:

The restaurant industry relies on relatively archaic methods of management and customer service. Internal restaurant computer systems are limited and rely on staff members to monitor customer status. Restaurants lack contact-free transactions for clientele.

# Solution Overview:

Our solution to this problem is to develop a standalone LAN restaurant network system to manage customer status and occupancy for restaurants without the need for personnel to monitor it manually. Along with this, to accommodate for contact-free interactions, we propose a system for payment methods. To address customer preferences, we will provide height accommodation built into the table for different types of people.

# Solution Components:

[Self-adjusting Customer Height Accommodation] - The table will be held up with a linear actuator, thus allowing for the overall height to be adjustable. The table will adjust its height accordingly to the customers’ heights once they sit down. We plan to make the table adjust the table’s height by measuring the distance between the bottom of the table with the customer’s knees when they are sitting down using ultrasonic sensors.

[NFC Payment and Card Reader Payment] - The table will have NFC reader and magstripe reader for contactless delivery. The payment data will be sent to the centralized hub for processing and confirmation.

[Table Pressure Sensor] - The status of a table will be gauged based on the amount of weight on the physical table itself. An occupied (or even just an unoccupied and dirty table) will be marked as such since the weight of excess food, water, plates, and whatever else the customer may bring will be measured by this pressure sensor.

[Computer Mesh Network] - We plan to create a mesh network of raspberry pi’s to track the status of tables in a restaurant. This network will communicate via some form of wireless communication (Wi-FI, bluetooth, or Zigbee).

# Criterion for Success:

This project seeks to create a solution in which restaurants can minimize customer interaction with features that accommodate individual needs, such as the height of the table and payment methods. This project will be considered successful with a working prototype that includes features that may be included in an actual restaurant setting.

Project Videos

demo_video