ECE.08R – The Flex Box Abstract
Team Members Heading link
- Daniel An
- Cassandra Hines
- Angel Huicochea
- Brenden Mccarron
- Giovanni Yacoub
Project Description Heading link
The number of people needing to return to the office continues to increase as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to decrease. This surge in people returning to work has led to a spike in the number of people commuting to work. With the increase in commuters and change in working conditions in industries, working days are longer and the access to cooking appliances is limited. This makes it harder for people to bring their own lunches and forces people to buy food. While there are many different options for insulating lunch boxes, these do not effectively keep food either hot or cold. We need a lunch box that is actively heated and cooled and has a simple and easy-to-use interface, while maintaining internal temperatures, that preserves the portability of a lunch box. Our system uses an electric heating and cooling system to keep food at the user’s desired temperature. We used buttons for the user to control whether the system is on or off, and choose which mode, either heating or refrigerating, it is in when it is on. We will display the temperature as well as a green LED light for the user to know what the current temperature is and if the system is ready to use or not. The system will be able to operate in the active mode for approximately 3-4 hours, and will be solar powered with a wall plug in option so that the device will be able to charge whether or not an outlet is readily available.