Simplifying Life for Coffee and Tea Lovers with Thermoelectric Technology

If you love coffee and tea, you surely know that each of these beverages must be prepared at a specific temperature. However, professionals in the beverage world understand that not every temperature is suitable for drinking tea or coffee, and it is better to enjoy your drink at a specific temperature. A special mug that allows you to control the temperature of its contents through your smartphone enables you to keep your cold or hot drink at your desired temperature for up to two hours. Interestingly, the inventor of this technology is Iranian. In this program from Dotcom, we delve deeper into this topic. Amir Faraji, the Iranian inventor and idea creator of Muggino, is a researcher at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. Mr. Faraji completed his undergraduate and master's degrees in electronics and industrial engineering at Amir Kabir University of Technology and obtained his PhD from RMIT University in Melbourne. Today's world is filled with technologies that can be programmed and controlled via the internet or smartphones. For example, Nest is a smart technology that allows you to control your home's temperature through your mobile phone, and it is smart enough to learn the patterns of temperature fluctuations in your home, intelligently lowering the temperature when you leave and raising it before you return. Other technologies have also been developed in this field, such as lamps that connect to your wireless network and smartphone, allowing you to turn them on and off even when you are not home. Some tools that bring us smart homes are designed based on thermoelectric technology; one of these household technologies is a smart mug that allows you to keep your drink, whether cold or hot, at your desired temperature. It can even adjust the temperature of your drink up or down to reach your desired level. This technology is called Muggino, and its inventor is an Iranian researcher: "I am Amir Faraji, a researcher at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. I completed my bachelor's and master's degrees in electronics and industrial engineering at Amir Kabir University of Technology, and my PhD at RMIT." But what is Muggino, and what makes it different from regular mugs and flasks? "When you want to enjoy a drink, whether hot or cold, it is great for it to be at the temperature you desire. On the other hand, when you pour a hot drink into your mug, it is natural that if the drink is hot, you cannot drink it at that very high temperature; you wait for about five minutes, and during this time, a lot of the energy you previously spent boiling the water is wasted through the walls of the cup. Muggino does two main things; you have probably heard of smart mugs that keep your hot drink at a good temperature. But [for] cold drinks, [this] technology is new for everyday applications. We used this technology to set the drink temperature, whether hot or cold, according to your preference through a mobile app. If you are sitting at a desk and using a MagiPad, which is a wireless charger, Muggino can keep your drink at different temperatures without time limits. If you are on the go, for example, outside or camping, and do not have a charger, Muggino can keep your drink at your desired temperature for about two hours. Another feature of Muggino is that it can utilize the energy wasted in regular mugs to charge its battery." Muggino, like many other new technologies that have not yet reached mass production, is not a product you can just pick up from the corner store, and if you are in Iran or elsewhere in the world, you might want to know how to get a Muggino. "The easiest way is to visit our website muggino.com. They can see what Muggino is, how long it holds a charge, and how much its battery is, and with one click, they can pre-order Muggino at a much cheaper price." The Muggino currently available for enthusiasts is actually the second generation of this product. This new mug has completely changed in shape, and other changes have been made based on feedback received from the first generation of Muggino: "The first version of Muggino could not be put in the dishwasher, but the new Muggino has this feature. The charging cable of Muggino was not good, which we also changed, and in fact, the previous Muggino was rough and uneven." Today's world is a world of smart home technologies, and younger people, who are more engaged with mobile phones and the internet than others, are more inclined to use such technologies. I asked Amir Faraji if he himself is a user of smart home technologies and why such technologies are recommended. "I personally, of course not as much as today's 18-19-year-olds who are all about technology, prefer to use technologies that save energy, meaning they have better efficiency with less energy. All the lights in our house automatically turn off or dim, and when in use, they become bright or turn on. Essentially, I advocate for minimizing energy use and using technology that helps me achieve this goal." But perhaps an interesting point for you, the listener of this program, is how to turn your ideas in this area into a product and whether you need to pursue your studies in a specific academic field. I asked Amir Faraji to share his experience in this regard with us. "Being a good idea creator, not just an idea generator; having an idea and trying to bring that idea closer to a product does not solely depend on your field and education. [Of course] in many cases, it helps you bring the idea closer to a product better and easier, or at a lower cost. [At the same time], I myself, although I have no background in software, tried to create a computer platform with a friend who had a software background, even though I have never studied computers. This work progressed a lot, and we are moving it forward. I want to say that you do not necessarily need to have specific knowledge in the field where you want to innovate and bring your ideas closer to a product. It really helped me in Muggino, but of course, many friends have studied the same field as I have and have the same work experience but could not bring their ideas closer to a product. The importance of perseverance is much greater than knowledge; resilience, patience, or endurance in the face of failure is something that an innovator must have to succeed, and the field they study will not necessarily lead them to success." And of course, another question I asked this Iranian inventor and researcher is what other innovations Muggino could pave the way for in the field of new technologies: "Muggino is a starting point for me, a very long road. I may have planned for myself for the coming years because this thermoelectric technology is a very advanced technology that is also used in spacecraft. I want to bring this technology into people's lives with the start of Muggino and be able to produce other products that make people's lives easier with this technology. As I speak to you, I have at least five or six ideas in my mind that if Muggino succeeds, we can pursue them and turn them into products to make people's lives as easy as possible."