Introduction

*Value is based on opinions and the currency may vary.

A million dollar idea is a great idea. So let me share my “current” one.

I am now a barista, a beginner artist in latte art. As I was pouring, I realised my PhD in Soft Robotics and interests in thermodynamics has all led to this one purpose to realise this one idea. Drum roll.

Pause for dramatic effect.

“Moving Latte art”. Just imagine, it is raining outside. You are low on motivation. Then you make a cup of coffee latte, with a moving art. At first the art is a frown, a sad face, that you feel an immediate emotional connection. ‘Wow, this cup gets me’ and then the cup stretches the art into a happy smiley face, with a wink on the eye. You look at the smiley coffee, drink the smiley coffee and become happy and motivated. The day is just better than otherwise it would have been. That is priceless, which arguably could be worth more than a million dollars because I achieved what I wanted to do. The world will be a better place* with more smiles.

*Assumptions made here.

Literature review

The barista pours milk into a cup of coffee in a precise manner to create the art. There are already rigid robotics that pours in a predetermined way to replicate a human barista. Would you stand next to one? (No) and where is the fun in replication? (Nowhere, but tinkering with Robots is still be fun). At BEST, I want to explore creativity, and for the kids to create something new, something never seen before themselves. That is what this episode is about.

A port-Hamiltonian structure can describe total energy in a pour. The milk and coffee are finite, assuming no spillage and are mixed in a particular way to create different art forms and shapes. What is the Hamiltonian? It is the total energy of the system. and the “Port” just means the power transferred within the total energy of the system is zero as energy is conserved.

The barista makes the latte art through transferring the generalised kinetic and potential energy, when he or she tilts the jug of milk and rotates the cup the end result is the latte art. The boundary conditions of the coffee and geometry of the cup, and the initial conditions of each milk mixture combined with the Dirac structure of the port-Hamiltonian, which is essentially the 1st Law of Thermodynamics, defines the latte art. The overall energy interactions are similar between a skilled barista and me, but the results are very different. Therefore, the boundary conditions and the initial conditions are the skill differentiators.

The cup makes the latte shape so if the cup changes in geometry, then the boundary conditions will be different. and the latte shape will change. Soft robotics technologies can be applied here. Silicon are food safe elastic material. The latte art itself is stretchy so I think if the cup shape changes slowly then the mixing between the canvas and the milk will be minimised.

I am theoretically interested in the partial differential equation (PDE) of the latte art. Essentially, one would use a Finite Element Method (FEM) to resolve it, but except I am looking for the dynamic response of fluid dynamics. With my shape changing cup, I will have a physical way to derive the empirical model of the pour. Eventually work backwards like an inverse Hamiltonian to pour my frown and stretch it to a smile. Prof. Port-Hamiltonian (not his real name) focused on solving the Navier-Stokes equation, I want to make a cool cup of coffee.

Video completes the story.

Nothing is more convincing than a real video. There are hundreds if not thousands of videos on latte art on the Internet. I will make the only video with a moving latte art that would change from a frown 😦 to a smile :). The last moving picture invention was a big deal, (movies). So latte art can be elevated to another level.

Everything will make sense.

In the end, everything will make sense. At BEST, we encourage each child to be the BEST version of themselves, through curiosity and individuality. This is an example of me being curious in my PhD research and making a quest to achieve it to show my individuality. I hope to inspire others to find their million dollar idea and achieve them.

From learning dynamic simulation in Formula 1, to choosing a coffee machine made in Monaco, because they must make really good coffee to keep awake at the Monaco Grand Prix every year. I drank so much coffee while I lived and work in Italy, my PhD in Soft Robotics, and my aim to find the BEST in students and focusing on uniqueness and individuality. Please stay tuned.