CAPSTONE DESIGN SHOWCASE 2022
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DAYS
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SECONDS
COMING SOON
Team members
Teo Sze Jia (EPD), Lim Shang Zhi Benjamin (ASD), Benjamin Lim En How (ASD), Anisha Singh Le Shuang (EPD), Pan Zishan (ISTD), Stephanie Seow Xi Hui (ISTD)
Instructors:
Norman Lee Tiong Seng, Teo Tee Hui, Michael Reeves
Writing Instructors:
Teaching Assistant:
Singapore disposes 167,000 tonnes of food loss annually. This results in waste that costs SGD 1 billion. Food loss is defined as any food that is lost in the supply chain between the producer and the market. Currently, 42% of food loss in Singapore’s supply chain comes from fruits and vegetables which is equivalent to an annual loss of 167 million kilograms. Hypha, aims to utilise mushroom farming as an alternative solution to recouping nutritional and economic value from food loss as opposed to waste-to-energy incineration, where it holds no value.
Hypha was created to transform food manufacturing by-products into mushrooms. We developed a highly sanitised facility to grow mushrooms from food manufacturing by-products instead of the conventional sawdust and straw normally used to grow mushrooms.
Our space-efficient, rotatable, and transportable T-rack contains trays of mushrooms. It optimises space as it is designed to be vertical in the facility, with a convenient loading and unloading system, and a hand-crank system that reduces electricity usage, thereby contributing to sustainability.
Assembly of the T-rack:
The fruiting tray is designed with a detachable lid that allows for multiple usages for the next batch of mushrooms that are being grown. It is designed with detachable and pluggable holes that are meant to allow the different phase change required in the different parts of the mushroom’s lifecycle, be it for an enclosed system during incubation, unplugged for growth or even unplugged for horizontal mushroom fruition.
Our web app is intuitive with a dashboard that monitors the farm in real time. The app automatically controls the environment for optimal mushroom growth with the use of IoT sensors and actuators. Hypha uses state-of-the-art machine learning models to spot contamination that includes task assignment features which increase labour and logistic efficiency.
Our system architecture:
T-racker Application Demo:
Hypha strives to create a circular economy, where all of our resources are fully utilised, even the spent mushroom substrate, which is what remains of the food loss after we harvest the mushrooms. We plan to feed the spent mushroom substrate to worms, which will eventually become animal feed for fish. Additionally, the spent substrate will also be used to make biodegradable products and can also be used as soil amendment which improves soil texture.
Thank you to our Capstone instructors:
Dr Norman Lee for your systematic and effective advice on the design process and for your project management guidance.
Dr Teo Tee Hui for your advice on industry practices and machine learning expertise
Mr Michael Alexander Reeves for your product design, branding insights and entrepreneurship guidance.
Dr Susan Wong from the Centre for Writing and Rhetoric for your dedication towards honing our communication skills and helping us put our best foot forward.
Thanks to the SUTD Entrepreneurship Centre for their support with special thanks to Jason Lee.
Thanks to Ms Christine Yogiaman for guidance in our mycelium research via the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme for two terms.
Last but not the least, we would like to thank Ms Christina Lee, founder & CEO of Global Green Connect and Global Green Economic Forum who was our mentor during the entrepreneurship course in Term 7, for sharing your deep passion for sustainability and business that helped us refine our idea and business model.
We will not be the Hypha today if not for your combined love and support!
Teo Sze Jia
Engineering Product Development
Lim Shang Zhi Benjamin
Architecture and Sustainable Design
Benjamin Lim En How
Architecture and Sustainable Design
Anisha Singh Le Shuang
Engineering Product Development
Pan Zishan
Information Systems Technology and Design
Stephanie Seow Xi Hui
Information Systems Technology and Design
Teo Sze Jia
Engineering Product Development
Lim Shang Zhi Benjamin
Architecture and Sustainable Design
Benjamin Lim En How
Architecture and Sustainable Design
Anisha Singh Le Shuang
Engineering Product Development
Pan Zishan
Information Systems Technology and Design
Stephanie Seow Xi Hui
Information Systems Technology and Design