A group of three students at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education has successfully created a vending machine that can dispense a bowl of cooked pho, bubble tea or ready-to-eat banh mi.

It took the team, consisting of Pham Ngoc Dien, Vong Ly Phu, and Nguyen Hao Quang, and their leader, Dr. Nguyen Truong Thinh, dean of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, nearly half a year to make the country’s first-ever pho vending machine.

The machine, standing 2.1 meters high, has a cooler section where the ingredients to make 50 bowls of pho, or Vietnamese rice noodle soup with beef, are stored at 5 degrees Celsius. Each bowl of pho requires 330g of noodle, beef and onion.

The boiler has two compartments, maintained at a temperature of 70 and 90 degrees Celsius, respectively, with one containing the broth and the other supplying hot water to boil the noodle.

After the customers select the kind of pho they want and make payment, the noodle will be taken from the cooler and boiled in the hot compartment.

The final bowl of pho will be provided on a tray with necessary eating utensil, herb, lemon, hoisin and hot sauce.

When the machine is about to run out of broth or bowl, it will automatically notify the operator via text messages. In case of technical problems, a fail-safe program will switch off the machine and notify the operator.

To ensure hygiene, all the machine compartments are made of stainless steel, with the broth tank and all the pipes easily removable for cleaning and maintenance.

Besides dispensing pho, the machine can also be used to make vermicelli, and other noodle soups.

The pho-, bubble tea-, and banh mi-dispensing machines are on display (from left to right).

Along with this project, Dr. Thinh also led two other student groups in creating vending machines that dispense banh mi, or Vietnamese breads, bubble tea, and che (sweet soup).

The banh mi-dispensing machine is made by Nguyen Minh Khoa, Nguyen Anh Luat, and Vo Minh Chi. It can hold 120 Vietnamese loaves of banh mi in a full load.

After customers choose the kind of meat fillings, the number of loaves, and make payment, the bread will be transferred from the cooler to the oven, where it is baked in one minute.

The ready-to-eat banh mi will be wrapped nicely in papers, served along with soy sauce and other necessary spices.

The bubble tea machine is created by the trio named Huynh Mach Anh Ninh, Tran Duy Thanh, and Luu Duc Trong Nhan.

It is able to make four different kinds of tea with two kinds of jelly, containing 120 glasses at full load.

The customers simply choose the milk tea, the quantity, make payment, and their order will be ready in one minute.

Research project sponsored by company

According to Dr. Thinh, the three projects are sponsored by a private company with a budget of VND200 million (US$8,800).

All the students participating in the three projects are seniors and the inventions will serve as their graduation theses.

Every year, the Department of Mechanical Engineering receives 30 to 40 orders from various companies asking to make machines with a wide range of functions such as peeling aloe vera skin, cutting fruits into cubes, cleaning banana leaves, among others.

After completing such projects, many graduates have been invited to work in the companies ordering the product while some go on to become entrepreneurs establishing their own companies and further developing their products.

The students work on their bubble tea-dispensing machine.

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