Dr. Paul Egan recently received a grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop technology that will not only create food with appealing shapes and high nutrition values, but also be personalized to individual pallets.

Dr. Paul Egan recently received a grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop technology that will not only create food with appealing shapes and high nutrition values, but also be personalized to individual pallets. Dr. Egan is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and leads the Medicine, Mechanics, and Manufacturing Design Lab. Facing challenges in the industry of foods having a poor taste due to additives necessary for the structure, Dr. Egan strives to create machine learning models that will assist in counterbalancing these problems. His research is focused on oleocolloid/hydro-olleocoloids (OC/HOCs) and how these can be improved to create foods high in nutritional value and with a consistency like peanut butter. Through machine learning, it will be possible to predict the outcome of food structures with the addition of new ingredients. Whey/soy proteins, canola/soy oils, rice bran wax, and water will all be tested for their different properties including their firmness and thermal properties, Dr. Egan's team also plans to measure how much individuals like the food, so that he may put together a system that will be used for creating optimized food for individual consumers. His research should provide both societal and economic growth as healthier and more appealing foods will be available, and as the automated food production industry will be further stimulated.