The Smart Locker

For my tenth grade engineering class capstone project, my group made what we called “The Smart Locker '' it was a “locker” made out of wood which we packed to the brim with electronics. Combination locks on lockers can be tricky to use and if you mess up you need to start all over again. Consequently, we made it much easier to open by providing three easy ways to open it: a phone app connected to our Node MCU, a fingerprint sensor or an RFID reader for the school’s ID. These methods were all faster than using a combination lock. The next issue we set out to fix was not remembering all of the class materials that were needed for each class. We added a raspberry pi and a seven inch screen that told the student their schedule and what they needed for each class. This way one could open their locker quickly and have a screen to tell them everything they needed for any given class. Had it not been during the height of the pandemic, we would have retrofitted this to an actual locker. Instead, we made a mock locker out of wood and added all of our technology to that. This project went on to win second place out of over 50 schools in the category it was in. This was a big win and my group and I were very happy with the results.