NCSA, CAII get personal with your health

The Center for Artificial Intelligence Innovation (CAII) at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, in collaboration with the Personalized Nutrition Initiative at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is developing a mobile application that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze an individual’s nutritional intake and organizes it into a holistic perspective for better health outcomes.

Director of CAII Vlad Kindratenko is leading the effort to provide the Personalized Nutrition Initiative with a usable approach to collecting and analyzing data about individuals’ nutritional intake. The goal is to create an app through which a user can take a picture of the food they are consuming while one AI model extracts nutritional facts about the food and another provides personalized dietetic advice.

We are developing a mobile app that will be open-sourced at the end of the project, allowing other researchers to study various topics, such as students’ eating habits and whether their nutritional needs are being met. This project is made possible by seed grant funding from the Personalized Nutrition Initiative and, more importantly, through the collaboration with Professor Sharon Donovan and her dietetics students, which grounds our application development effort in science and best practices.

Vlad Kindratenko, Director of CAII

“This project exemplifies the necessity of interdisciplinary collaboration in advancing nutrition and health research. My interactions with Dr. Kindratenko have provided valuable insights into technological approaches and application development methodologies. Our weekly meetings facilitated robust discussions on optimal integration of evidence-based nutritional guidelines, enabling us to design an application that promotes personal health while offering feasible dietary modifications that users can readily implement,” said Donovan, a professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN), the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) and director of the Personalized Nutrition Initiative at Illinois. “The interface between nutritional science and computational technologies creates a synergistic approach that enhances both the scientific validity and user engagement of the final product. We are fortunate to have assembled a team of innovative graduate and undergraduate researchers who bring diverse expertise to this multifaceted initiative.”

Eight Illinois students from the departments of Bioengineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, the School of Information Sciences (iSchool) and FSHN are assisting CAII in the project.

“My work focuses on designing the app’s core architecture, including food recognition and meal tracking features,” said Zihan Li, an iSchool graduate student. “By prioritizing a scalable, research-oriented design, we’re building a platform that supports in-depth exploration of personalized nutrition and lays the groundwork for future scientific innovation.”

“I’m so excited for this app to launch as I think it can positively impact everyone’s day-to-day lives,” said Torrie Blasko, an undergraduate student in FSHN. “Having reliable nutrition information so accessible can help those receive information quickly without dealing with the conflicting results from the internet. People can receive answers catered to their personalized nutrition, which can be hard to scavenge for. My role on the team has been on the nutritional side of the app and I think this project could make huge strides regarding the nutrition field as it can fix those quick struggles people have and ensure people are receiving reliable information.”

“Much of what I’m focusing on for the mobile app is the backend, everything from processing food data, prompting our large language models with pertinent data and injecting academic papers, and keeping our databases secure,” said Kai Karadi, an undergraduate student in ECE. “What really excites me about this opportunity is that it’s such a tangible way that all the AI innovations can improve the lives of everyday people. When things are moving so rapidly, it’s easy to lose sight of what is hype and what is real and this showed me that AI has real potential when used properly.”

ABOUT CAII

The Center for Artificial Intelligence at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign operates as a central nexus that spearheads AI research and application in academia and industry. The center empowers and supports advancements in AI by leveraging NCSA’s cutting-edge technology and expertise and facilitating collaboration across multiple disciplines, including agriculture, astrophysics, automotive, big data, and infrastructure. Furthering NCSA’s commitment to accelerating AI, the CAII is dedicated to building foundations that will pave the way for the next generation of innovators.