Our visit to vendors at Xingguo Market revealed a critical insight: “unpackaged ingredients are difficult to manage,” which is a major cause of household food waste. This realization led us to integrate AI-based photo recognition and LINE expiration reminders into our system, enabling even barcode-free ingredients to be easily recorded. This interview experience pushed us beyond the screen, allowing us to apply our programming skills to solve real-life problems.

At the NTUT Project Competition, our “Food Guardian” system received high recognition from the judges. In particular, the addition of the “recipe recommendation” feature stood out, as it proactively suggests cooking ideas for ingredients nearing expiration. This thoughtful design effectively addresses the common problem of food being wasted due to uncertainty about how to cook it. Participating in this competition significantly enhanced our technical capabilities and further strengthened our commitment to using technology to reduce food waste.

We transformed our creative idea of solving “leftover food in the refrigerator” into a real-world solution, showcasing AI recognition, LINE-based expiration alerts, and recipe recommendation features to the judges. Seeing our concept—integrating technology into everyday life—recognized and appreciated made all the late nights of coding truly worthwhile. This competition not only significantly improved our technical and presentation skills, but also proved that high school students can use creativity and technology to make a meaningful impact on environmental sustainability.