Cold Chain Monitoring for Vaccine Transport
A tamper-evident temperature logger for medical shipments that records continuously through areas with no connectivity, and produces an integrity-protected record of every excursion. The record has to be trustworthy, which makes this as much a security project as an embedded one.
Advanced
Needs a team, real planning, and a supervisor who knows the area.1 semester, 2 to 3 students
5 to ship
3 optional extrasSuggested stack
What you should ship
- Logger recording temperature at a fixed interval with a real time clock and local storage for at least 7 days
- Excursion detection using cumulative time above and below threshold, not instantaneous readings alone
- Cryptographically signed log records so a reading cannot be altered after the fact
- Store and forward upload over an intermittent link with no gaps in the reconstructed record
- Verification tool that validates a shipment's full record and reports any break in the chain
If you have time left
- Physical tamper detection on the container
- Predicted remaining shelf life from accumulated thermal exposure
- Battery lifetime measured across a realistic multi-week deployment
The problem
Vaccines and many medicines are ruined by excursions outside a narrow temperature range, and the damage is invisible. Current practice often relies on a single indicator card, which shows that something happened but not when, for how long, or whether it mattered.
What you build
A continuous logger with local storage and a real time clock, excursion logic, signed records, store and forward upload, and a verification tool.
Why the integrity requirement changes the project
A temperature record only has value if it cannot be edited, and the person with the strongest incentive to edit it is whoever is responsible for the shipment. Signing each record on the device, chaining them so a deletion is detectable, and verifying the chain independently is what makes this more than a data logger.
The detail that requires domain reading
Excursion rules are cumulative, not instantaneous. A brief excursion may be acceptable while the same total exposure spread across a journey may not. Get the actual rules from World Health Organization guidance and cite them.
The hard constraint
Battery life. The device must log for a full journey without a charge, which drives every decision about sampling interval, radio use and sleep behaviour. Measure and report actual runtime rather than estimating it.
Scope warning
One container, one sensor. Multi-sensor mapping inside a container is a stretch goal.
Ideas and guidance, not finished projects
These are project ideas and scoping guidance, published free for students to use as a starting point. I do not build, write, or sell final-year projects, and I do not complete coursework for anyone. Take an idea, make it yours, and build it.
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