A Food Computer is a device designed to automate the growing process of agriculture. The device houses an internal environment in which it controls factors such as temperature, lighting, and water to match the conditions needed by the organism(s) it is growing. Growth systems such as these are a relatively new advancement, have a wide range of possibilities, and continue to be invested in by groups such as MIT’s Open Agriculture Initiative. Recent efforts have been made to design Personal Food Computers with reduced cost and complexity that can be used in an educational setting.

Our team’s work is focused on this educational setting of Food Computers. These units currently lack an intuitive way to access and control the growth system, which runs on a resource constrained device. Our team is designing and creating a web portal geared specifically for educators to access their Food Computer and integrate it into a classroom setting. The project serves as a tool to greatly reduce the technical knowledge needed to operate the food computer and provides a conducive scientific environment for educators to introduce students to the field of data analysis. The portal provides functionality to adjust the growth environment, visualize growth data, and collect observations from the students. In addition, the portal is designed with the school system in mind by allowing teachers to create student accounts, add them to classrooms, and assign observation to each student. Our project hopes to greatly improve the usability of Food Computers in academic settings.

The group would like to thank their faculty sponsor Michael Goldwasser for their support of this project.