What it does
Due to inefficient and often dangerous decontamination techniques, nearly a billion people worldwide are unable to prepare food safely. The GoPan solves this problem by providing an accessible and safe way to decontaminate food and water through heating.
Your inspiration
In the summer of 2022 I took on a week-long biking trip across western France, covering hundreds of kilometers of farmland where I often felt as if I was in the middle of nowhere. After long hours of daily biking, I’d find myself hungry and began brainstorming ways to make cooking/decontaminating more effective and accessible in relatively isolated areas. I realized that this issue was a global one, impacting billions who suffer from a lack of access to electricity and therefore safe cooking methods. I challenged myself to develop a cooking pan that could be used anywhere, and so, the idea of the GoPan was born.
How it works
The device is comprised of three parts: an outer enclosure, an inner compartment, and a conductive in-between layer. Using a manual mechanism that is activated entirely by the user, the inner compartment (where the food is prepared) spins within the enclosure and against the conductive layer to produce large amounts of friction and therefore heat, without ever involving fire. The manual mechanism is similar to that of a rowing machine, in which a user pulls a rope to cause a cylindrical item in the machine to spin. The inner compartment of the current design has a five-inch diameter which can be adapted slightly but should always be minimal in size to maintain portability.
Design process
As an engineering student, I’ve always been intrigued by the ways in which manufacturing processes can inadvertently produce high levels of heat as a result of intense friction between tools and products. Inspiration for the GoPan mechanism struck when designing a cylindrical aluminum part on a lathe — a machine that applies tools to a part while spinning it — at my university’s engineering center. With the part completed, I decided to polish it by applying Scotch-Brite (a strong abrasive) to its surface as the lathe spun it. After merely 30 seconds of this process, I attempted to remove the part from the lathe and accidentally burnt my finger due to the high temperature that the part reached. With an exciting idea and some cooling ointment on my finger, I began experimenting with ways I could replicate this process for the GoPan, substituting the electricity-requiring lathe with a manual mechanism. I started with the shape of a pan, the most familiar cooking tool, and created designs using CAD software. I landed on a three-component design that utilizes a rotational mechanism to spin an inner compartment (where the food and water are prepared) against a conductive layer to produce large amounts of friction and therefore heat, all housed within a pan-shaped enclosure.
How it is different
One of the main goals of the GoPan is to reduce the need for over-the-fire cooking. With recent wildfires having enormous impacts in places such as California and Australia, it’s clearer now than ever that every scenario capable of leading to a wildfire must be limited and controlled to the greatest extent possible. Therefore, the GoPan replaces over-the-fire cooking by using friction to create heat (rather than fire). Additionally, the GoPan aims to target those who lack access to electricity, therefore replacing electric appliances used to create heat (such as the electric stove). A similar solution to the GoPan is solar grill cooking, a grill powered entirely by solar panels. However, this solution is stationary, expensive, and unreliable because it can only be operated during day time. The GoPan is intentionally a very portable and accessible device, capable of adjusting to the needs of many different groups of users.
Future plans
I plan on using some seed funding obtained through a university innovation program to create an initial working prototype of the device. Once the initial prototype is complete, the project will require additional financial support to improve the design and produce further prototypes, as well as grow the GoPan team to better the product’s design and maximize its efficiency.
Awards
Was accepted into the 2022-2023 Cohort of the Innovate@BU First-Year Innovation Fellowship, a selective program in which students receive mentorship and seed funding for entrepreneurial projects.
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