Dietary Campus Culture Shift: A Proposal Submitted in Consideration for the University of

Idaho Sustainability Center (UISC)

By: Thierry Crocquet
Department of Engineering
University of Idaho
6/22/14

Goals and Description
The goal of this project is to aim to reduce campus waste by preventing it from happening to
begin with. The University of Idaho already has stable, efficient, and inclusive methods to
recycling and reusing waste. Waste containers at UI state that 30% of the waste thrown in
recycling receptacles ends up in a new product such as napkins, trays, and plates. This means
that 70% of what is thrown away goes into landfills which are costly, detrimental to soil health,
and can become homes to microorganisms which let of large amounts of methane and carbon
dioxide gases. The problem is that when most people think of these issues as realities, they look
at ways to eliminate them (burn it away, move it away, compress it down) but the best solution
is to prevent it from growing and aim at reducing waste input.
Background
For the remainder of the paper I will use Bobs Cafeteria on the UI campus as my main example,
however, the points made apply to all food service locations on campus.
Bobs Cafeteria is an all you can eat establishment with many different food options that is
popular among freshman attending UI. The main problem I see and have experienced firsthand
is that enormous amounts of food are left on plates and eventually thrown away and taken to
landfills.
Part of the problem is due to the transition from to home to campus that usually affects most
freshmen eating habits. At home, eating times usually divided into three traditional meals of
breakfast, lunch, and dinner which is cooked proportionately by parents and most likely reused
in the event of having leftover food. In this scenario, the non-parents do not have to factor in
cooking time, costs, grocery supplies, or rationing. Now that the freshmen are independent,
they must readapt their perceptions on what it takes to become full, how to space out meals,
and what to have for meals. All of these factors are not immediately solved and usually take
trial and error on the side of the students. This means taking multiple plates because it all
looks so good or just because they might think they can/need to eat a larger amount of food
that what is actually necessary. In addition, the mentality of not having to worry about cooking,
buying ingredients, cleaning, etc. still remain a part of the freshman mentality when using Bobs
which allows the freshmen to grab food without any immediate concern on their part; Bobs
will take care of it all for them.
Another issue is that Bobs does not allow for students to remove any food from the cafeteria.
This means that regardless of why it could not be entirely consumed (eyes overloading the
stomach, dislike of new foods, etc.), the remaining food must be sent to the kitchen for the
employees to discard.
One solution might be to simply convince Bobs to allow take-away boxes but this would
create more problems than it would solve. Students would then pay for one meal and take
enough food back to last them the entire day. Then accidental messes in the dorm rooms would
increase tremendously, profits for Bobs would decrease, and it would also promote unhealthy
eating habits for students using Bobs.
Instead, I would like to invest in a preventative approach that helps students figure out how to
construct healthy eating habits and in turn, reduce food waste and landfill input. I would aim to
assist the students in helping them develop their eating habits while also eliminating the trial
and error with respect to not knowing how much and of what to eat. I propose a software
system that students would use at each food station to learn more about how foods affect
them and what food combinations are healthy and which are unhealthy. Seeing as how colleges
are home to a large spectrum of diverse students, the system would cater to all different types
of students. For example, a student that tells the system they are a short, non-athlete might
recommend a meal of one a la carte entre and two sides under 400 calories, however a 300 lb
football player would be recommended to eat a high carb, high protein meal of 1000 calories
through three entres.

Objective
My objective is to build an interactive software system to be integrated at Bobs and other
cafeterias that influences students to create less potential food waste.
Significance
The software to be implemented has many potential points of significance beyond that main
issue of reducing landfill growth. For ease of conciseness and review, I will list the benefits to
implementing the software, nearly all of them long term:

Decreased food waste that cannot be recycled
Increased profitability for Bobs which leads to better food options
More informed decisions on what food choices to eat
Healthier eating habits through moderation
Potential lower meal costs since Bobs would not need as much money to produce an
overabundance of food
Promoting a shift in attitudes toward how to fix problems; upon seeing the success of
the software, students may reflect on other ways to prevent waste
Project Procedure
In order to achieve my goal, I will work in the electrical engineering laboratories located in the
Jansen Engineering and Gauss-Johnson Buildings at the bottom of the JEB Hill at the U of I
campus during the fall 2014 semester. To begin, I will detail the preliminary work for the
creating of the software to be used. This entails creating a finite state machine through state
diagrams, transition tables, Karnaugh maps, and formula implementation into a program such
as Xilinx. These formulas will dictate what dialogue options students can interact with. An
example of the would be to make state zero a welcome screen with several input options to
correspond to the several food stations at Bobs. When a student selects the food station they
are at, the program goes to state (1-7) and displays what is currently being served, its
nutritional value, student reviews, and suggestions for what and what not to eat with it. From
there a student can jump to different food stations and subsequently the different states of the
program will display different pages of information. The next step would be to recruit the help
of exercise scientists and food nutrition experts. Their input is what would make the program
credible and trustworthy of students. With them I would go to Bobs and discuss among
everyone what factors and statements would most likely influence what a student would grab
to eat. After assessing that, I would enter the information and statements into the program to
be later displayed upon user input. This would be the staple information that would not change
even as the menu updates. I would then purchase several sets of wires, processors, and touch
screen to begin the assembly of the units and soon after commence preliminary testing. The
goal would be to essentially break the machine and find its weak spots. In the hands of the
user, anything goes and nearly every option must be exhausted until it can be said for certain
that there are no errors between user input and data output.
The part that would be more about money is the installation at each food station in Bobs.
During this time the kitchen would have to close down to prevent health hazards such as dust
and debris flying into food. A few electricians would be able to install every system within a day
at which point the rest would be up to me to observe how they perform and more importantly
take note of the results. This would of course take time but my hypothesis is that given the
success of my machines, less food would be wasted.
Timeline
August
Draft finite state machine for user interactions
Recruit a panel of exercise scientists and food nutrition experts
September
Enter staple information into finite state machine
Purchase data transmission wires, processors, and touch screen displays
Preliminary testing for bugs and ease of use
Refining state transitions and information display
Ensure compatibility with Bobs electrical system
October
Purchase unit housing
Final unit assembly
Final testing
Installation in Bobs
Collect feedback
Routine maintenance
Qualifications
3 years laboratory experience
Education in electrical engineering
Education in programming languages
Head assistant chef at restaurant for 3 years
Desire to help both students and employees of food industry

Equipment Cost
Transmission Wires $2.25 x 8
8 Processors $81.84 x 8
8 Touch Screen Displays $195.00 x 8
8 Unit Housings $3.00 x 8

Supplies Cost
Engineering paper $7.99
Pencils $5.99
Ruler $1.95
Souder $26.96

Services Cost
Nutrition Advising $200.00
Electrician $450.00

Gift Cost Description
Compensation for Bobs
closure
$1000.00 To compensate Bobs for
having to close the kitchen
during unit installation

Total cost: $3949.61