UC Berkeley Team Builds 'Smart' Grocery Cart With Recycled Smartphones
A team of students from the University of California
Berkeley
created TouchCart, a "smart" grocery cart using recycled smart phones
and, in the process,
won the inaugural Smartphone
Encore Challenge.
The challenge, conducted by Sprint, Brightstar
and Hobi
International, was intended to find ways to address the growing issue of
electronic scrap by asking college students to come up with innovative
solutions to the problem. The 25 teams involved — all members of Net
Impact, a
nonprofit organization that encourages students to use their business
skills in
support of social and environmental causes — were challenged to develop
a
product concept and business pitch, using refurbished smartphones and
accessories.
The six-member UC Berkeley team, led by economics and
computer
science major Ken Chew, used recycled phones to build
a device that could
provide grocery customers with shopping lists, a store catalogue and
item
finder, a customer service phone line and scanning capabilities that
would
allow them to bypass check-out lines.
The winning team will receive $5,000 and strategic
guidance
from executives at Sprint, Brightstar and HOBI International about how
to take
their "smart" grocery cart to market as a new product.
Two runner-up teams were also selected.
A team from Ohio State University was recognized for
converting old smartphones into onboard monitoring devices for vehicles
that
can be used to calculate automobile insurance premiums based on
individual
driving behaviors.
The second runner-up team, from the University of
Illinois
Urbana-Champaign, turned old smartphones into affordable computers that could be
used by
school-age children who might not otherwise be able to afford them.
The winner and runners-up were judged by a panel that
included
executives from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, General Electric, Sprint
and
the Electronics TakeBack Coalition.
"We envisioned the contest as a way to address the
growing
environmental issue of electronic waste," said Sprint Senior Vice
President for
Corporate Relations Doug Michelman. "So, we were impressed with the
caliber of
entries and the innovative solutions these students put forth."
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.