Students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education successfully developed vending machines for phở, baked goods, and milk tea to fulfill business orders. This is part of the university's project-based learning model.
In 8/2016, a Hanoi business approached the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education about developing vending machines. A team of final-year mechanical engineering students boldly accepted the project. After more than half a year researching mechanisms, designing, fabricating machinery, and completing programming and controls, they produced 3 automatic vending machines for bánh mì, phở, and milk tea.
Three student-built vending machines
The bánh mì vending machine is 2,2 m tall and 1,58 m wide, and was built by 3 students: Nguyễn Minh Khoa, Nguyễn Anh Luật, and Võ Minh Trí. It consumes around 3 kwh of electricity. The automatic vending machine has 3 basic sections, including a refrigerated compartment that stores and preserves 120 loaves. This compartment has 4 levels fitted with sliding rails, allowing staff to pull them out and push them back in when loading ingredients.
A sliding mechanism in front of the 4 storage levels can move vertically and horizontally. When a customer selects a cake and pays, the slider moves to the correct position, retrieves the item and pushes it through a small opening outside the cabinet.
After leaving the refrigerated compartment, the bread is sent by a chute into a microwave oven to heat its center. The microwave turns the bread 2 times in 26 seconds. It is then toasted for another 20 seconds.
After the machine finishes preparing the food, a pusher moves it into packaging positioned below and returns it to the customer's tray. The entire process takes only about 2 minutes.
The machine also has an error notification component using a SIM module. When a problem occurs or the sandwiches run out, it automatically sends a text message to the center.
Like the bread vending machine, an automatic phở vending machine created by three students—Phạm Ngọc Diện, Vòng Lỷ Phu, and Nguyễn Hào Quang—was ‘unveiled’ after nearly half a year of experimentation and research.
The machine has a refrigerated compartment at 5°C holding up to 50 bowls of phở. When a customer presses a selection button and inserts money, the phở moves to the heated compartment. This contains two tanks at 70–90°C: one for broth and one for boiling water to rinse the noodles.
Here, the phở noodles are rinsed with water 2 times, after which the machine adds broth. Meanwhile, another unit supplies the user with a spoon, chopsticks, chili sauce, and lime.
To ensure food hygiene, all machine components are made of stainless steel; the broth container and pipes can be removed for easy cleaning.
Besides phở and bánh mì vending machines, Dr. Nguyễn Trường Thịnh, Head of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, also guided three students, Huỳnh Mạch Anh Ninh, Trần Duy Thành, and Lưu Đức Trọng Nhân, in building an automated milk tea vending machine.
Customers press buttons to choose milk tea and jelly, insert money and wait about 2 minutes to be served. The machine automatically takes a cup and adds ice, jelly and milk tea according to its programming. The order is packaged and delivered to the customer with a straw.
From Drawings to Reality: Many Difficulties
From Idea to Reality Is a Long Journey, with Difficulties and Setbacks That Sometimes Discourage Students.
Luật said the team faced many difficulties when they began bringing the bánh mì vending machine to life. They were under time pressure, having to research and build the machine, report progress to the business daily and keep up with their studies.
Technical problems during development also gave the young team headaches. From persistent errors in control programming to precisely calculating technical specifications for smooth operation, these issues took a great deal of time.
Meanwhile, the team inventing the phở vending machine is struggling to design a sufficiently cold refrigerated compartment to ensure food safety and hygiene.
Vòng Lỷ Phú said that because the team did not specialize in refrigeration, they had to visit many shops to understand the principles and how to create the refrigerated compartment they wanted.
Project-Based Teaching
These three vending machines are part of a group of automated sales equipment research projects commissioned by businesses from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education.
Dr. Nguyễn Trường Thịnh said this is a new direction for the faculty's teaching and learning model, as well as a new policy of the university: project-based teaching.
Each Student Group Will Be Assigned a Project Suited to Its Abilities, Based on Business Orders. These Will Also Serve as Their Graduation Projects.
“This approach is already common in several university departments. Students research and invent devices and solutions commissioned by organizations, benefiting both sides. Students gain practical experience, while businesses receive machinery that meets their production needs,” Dr. Thịnh explained.
He added that, during the past academic year, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering received more than 40 orders from various organizations.
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