Computational Gastronomy: Making Food Computable

Cooking is an art. Combining and processing raw ingredients to compose delicious dishes is a creative act. Besides being the basis of nutrition and health, culinary idiosyncrasies are at the core of our cultural identity. The increasing availability of data and the advent of computational methods for their scrutiny are dramatically changing the artistic outlook toward gastronomy. The application of data-driven strategies for investigating gastronomic questions has created an all-new paradigm for studying food and cooking (https://cosylab.iiitd.edu.in). Computational Gastronomy asks questions of culinary origin to seek answers via a structured compilation of data and their analysis. Making food computable will enable data-driven innovations and transform the global food landscape for better public health and nutrition toward a sustainable future.

About the Speaker: 
As a teenager, Ganesh Bagler aspired to be an astronomer. Trained in physics, computer science, and computational biology, he has had an adventurous journey from astronomy to gastronomy. Prof. Bagler is known for the pioneering research in ‘Computational Gastronomy.’ By building keystone data repositories, algorithms, and applications, he has established the foundations of this emerging data science that blends food with artificial intelligence. Trailblazing research from his lab has significantly contributed to this niche area that deals with food, flavors, nutrition, health, and sustainability. Prof. Bagler has an audacious dream of transforming the global food landscape by making food computable.