A current DPhil student has invented a computer, using innovative Raspberry Pi technology, than manages orders, organises staff rotas and controls music selection.
This £35 machine is now taking control of the Wolfson College bar. Through using sensors linked together, the computer can manage stock levels based on current levels, organise staffing and vary music levels based on the crowd. It can also work out which user in college is down in the bar most often. The machine can pour the pints too, however British law requires a responsible person behind the bar and a computer would not technically count, despite meeting all other legal requirements.
The student responsible, Johan Paulsson, commented, “There are several parts of the system that works together and creates the entire system, but presumably you are talking about the stock/drinks part. The reason why this was created was because at one point we didn’t really know what was sold and what was popular in the bar. We could have constantly checked what was left in the bar but that would have been incredibly time consuming. Rather than doing that, we decided that splitting up each item in to an individual sale item would be favourable.
“This meant that we could then take the sale data from the till database and analyse this by itself to get things like: which is our most popular drink, what was sold on a specific day, how many pints is left in any keg (and therefore, does anyone need to go down and change it). If you add in what we have bought (through an automatized system of reading the delivery notes) then we also know how much stock we have in the bar and when we need to buy new items.”
He also described new additions to the scheme in a comment to Cherwell. He said, “There are a couple of things we have added which is outside the focus of the initial idea of stock control, for example there is a light sensor that checks if the bar has been opened and then updates the homepage so that people can check if they can get a drink at that moment. Being a student voluntary (i.e. non-paid) bar means that we rely on workers to donate their free time and a setup like that allows people to not waste the time to go look for a drink and then make alternative plans.”
In general, people seem to be very much in favour of the new system. Johan told Cherwell, “The largest part deals with stock control so the implication for other students is that we are fiscally responsible and can then funnel funds to more tangible things like an upgraded sound system and such. We have recently added a part to it which deals with the voluntary basis of the bar in the form of a signup system that reminds people about when they are working that has received incredibly good feedback.”
Tracy Fuzzard, common room secretary added, “Johan has single-handedly created an efficient and speedy service simplifying the bar procedures with Raspberry Pi. This benefits everyone and helps enormously in the day-to-day management of this student-run bar at Wolfson. Very well done.”
