Computer scientist selected for prestigious innovators festival

Essex computer scientist Somdip Dey has been selected to showcase his machine learning expertise at this week’s prestigious MIT Innovators Under 35 Europe Festival.

The festival – being help from May 18-21 in Donegal, Ireland – is one of the world’s most distinguished events honouring young technology pioneers who are striving to solve society’s most pressing challenges by thinking differently about the future and reimagining technology.

Somdip, from our School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, has been chosen to take part due to his work developing the Nosh app, an artificial intelligence-based food management application, aiming to reduce household food waste.

The Nosh app was initially created by Somdip in response to the COVID-19 pandemic which changed people’s food shopping habits – from stockpiling groceries in the early weeks of the crisis to shopping less often, at different times and in different ways.

Although developed during the first lockdown, the app remains a useful tool for households wanting to keep a better track of what they have in their fridge and cupboards and to help reduce the estimated 1.3 billion tons of food wasted globally every year.

Somdip’s research is focused on implementing artificial intelligence (AI), block chain, cloud and edge computing in mobile platforms for performance, efficiency and reliability, which he is continuing to develop to enhance the app's user interface and features to improve the user experience.

“I am humbled by this opportunity to showcase my work at the Innovators Under 35 Europe Festival,” said Somdip. “But I am also pleased that my research into using the latest technology to reduce food waste is being acknowledged.

“With Nosh Technologies, I will continue to develop programs, software and intellectual properties to fight food waste and build a more sustainable planet for our future generation."

Currently, Nosh has helped more than 17,4000 users across Android and iOS to save more than 276,000 food products and reduce carbon emissions by more than 140 tons.