Using AI and drones to win the war on food waste
A QE team’s hi-tech solution to the global problem of food waste won them second prize in an international competition.
Inspired by sixth-former Ishan Jakkulwar’s experiences of seeing illegal food waste-dumping in India, Team Flux tackled the challenge by developing an autonomous drone that uses machine-learning to detect emissions from supermarkets’ food waste.
The team won medals and a certificate after taking the runner-up spot in the British International Education Association STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) Youth Innovation Competition.
Congratulating the team, Head of Technology Bilaal Khan said: “Their success demonstrates how creativity, collaboration and STEM knowledge can be combined to develop innovative solutions to real-world challenges. “
Alongside team leader Ishan, Team Flux comprised his fellow Year 12 pupils, Vivaan Shah and Aditya Shah, together with Dhruva Bhardwaj, who left QE this summer after completing Year 11.
The four enthusiastically tackled the competition theme of How can we reduce waste in the food chain? by training their drone using machine-learning.
An Arkwright Engineering Scholar, Ishan had recognised that using autonomous technology could reduce the time, cost and manpower needed to identify and address food waste. The competition provided an opportunity to develop his interest in engineering and hardware, while securing the prize reinforced his ambition to become an engineer.
“Winning second prize was a nice surprise, especially, as it was the first time I have experimented with hardware,” he said. Ishan also believes that participating in the competition helped him secure work experience in robotics at UCL over the summer.
Aditya’s focus was on the design process, on selecting and sourcing materials for the hardware, and on conducting research around the process of patenting the product.
The team hope to develop their model into a working prototype, while also exploring its potential value as intellectual property.
“It felt like a big achievement that people realised that our project had a lot of potential and could be used to create positive change in the future,” Aditya said.
For his part, Vivaan took responsibility for project-management, keeping the team on track with timings and deadlines.
He also modelled aspects of the prototype using OnShape and Fusion 360, carrying out virtual stress and thermal testing, as well as contributing to the original design through detailed sketches and exploded diagrams.