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Fridge Firefly

CSEF · 2026 Electronics & Electromagnetics (Junior Division)

Isaac Romanoff

Overview

Household food waste creates a major economic and environmental burden, with typical U.S. families discarding 15–25% of purchased food (about $3,000 annually) and food waste contributing roughly 8–10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. To tackle this, I developed a battery-free visual reminder system through three design phases. First, I built a scaled-down model refrigerator with a primary induction coil beneath the shelf and I used off-the-shelf wireless LEDs to create a glowing “firefly” food tag. Second, I programmed an Arduino powered by an off-the-shelf secondary coil so a user could set days remaining and see the tag change from green to yellow to red over time. Third, I engineered my own firefly tag using a tuned inductor-capacitor circuit, rectifier, and smoothing capacitor to generate DC power from the primary field. The custom tag successfully powered an LED, but did not generate enough current to reliably power the Arduino.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2026 Electronics & Electromagnetics (Junior Division) · Entry J-10-15

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