Project number
27072
Organization
Holto, LLC
Offering
ENGR498-F2026-S2027
Holto LLC seeks to develop a working prototype of an active thermoelectric heating-and-cooling garment for short-duration athletic recovery sessions. The company has an existing production-ready passive product that uses gel packs that must be frozen or microwaved before use. This project develops a powered successor that requires no pre-conditioning and delivers on-demand heating and cooling under user control.
The team will design, build, and validate a wearable garment with three to four independently controlled thermal zones targeting high heat-transfer areas of the body. Each zone uses a Peltier (thermoelectric) module capable of both heating and cooling, with closed-loop temperature control. The system is powered by a removable, commercially available USB-C Power Delivery battery pack carried in a garment pocket, and is controlled over Bluetooth Low Energy from a companion smartphone application.
The central engineering challenge is thermal management: identifying and validating a method of rejecting waste heat from the hot side of each thermoelectric module within the constraints of a wearable garment, with no external tether and minimal added bulk. The team will evaluate multiple heat-rejection approaches, select one based on measured performance, and characterize the resulting system.
Requested deliverables:
- A functional wearable prototype with three to four controllable thermal zones
- A thermal characterization report documenting achievable temperature differential, time to target temperature, sustainable session duration, and heat rejection performance for each approach evaluated
- Control electronics with per-zone temperature sensing and an independent hardware over-temperature and under-temperature safety cutoff
- A companion mobile application providing zone selection, target temperature setting, live temperature and battery display, and an emergency stop
- Design documentation sufficient for the sponsor to continue development, including schematics, firmware source, bill of materials, and test data
In scope: thermal design and validation, power electronics, embedded firmware, mobile application, safety systems, and integration into a wearable form factor.
Out of scope: custom lithium battery pack design, production tooling, textile manufacturing at scale, regulatory submissions, and any clinical or medical validation. All temperature control and application features are to be designed as general wellness functions and must not include diagnostic outputs, disease references, or clinical recommendations.
***FYI - this sponsor will not be present at open house, nor will they have remote interviews***
The team will design, build, and validate a wearable garment with three to four independently controlled thermal zones targeting high heat-transfer areas of the body. Each zone uses a Peltier (thermoelectric) module capable of both heating and cooling, with closed-loop temperature control. The system is powered by a removable, commercially available USB-C Power Delivery battery pack carried in a garment pocket, and is controlled over Bluetooth Low Energy from a companion smartphone application.
The central engineering challenge is thermal management: identifying and validating a method of rejecting waste heat from the hot side of each thermoelectric module within the constraints of a wearable garment, with no external tether and minimal added bulk. The team will evaluate multiple heat-rejection approaches, select one based on measured performance, and characterize the resulting system.
Requested deliverables:
- A functional wearable prototype with three to four controllable thermal zones
- A thermal characterization report documenting achievable temperature differential, time to target temperature, sustainable session duration, and heat rejection performance for each approach evaluated
- Control electronics with per-zone temperature sensing and an independent hardware over-temperature and under-temperature safety cutoff
- A companion mobile application providing zone selection, target temperature setting, live temperature and battery display, and an emergency stop
- Design documentation sufficient for the sponsor to continue development, including schematics, firmware source, bill of materials, and test data
In scope: thermal design and validation, power electronics, embedded firmware, mobile application, safety systems, and integration into a wearable form factor.
Out of scope: custom lithium battery pack design, production tooling, textile manufacturing at scale, regulatory submissions, and any clinical or medical validation. All temperature control and application features are to be designed as general wellness functions and must not include diagnostic outputs, disease references, or clinical recommendations.
***FYI - this sponsor will not be present at open house, nor will they have remote interviews***