Tasting stiffness? Discovering constitutive models for food

Prof Ellen Kuhl

Standford University

Abstract: By 2050, feeding a global population of nearly 10 billion people will demand transformative changes to ensure equitable access to nutritious, sustainable food for all. Our current food system is unable to adequately meet this demand; it is inefficient, unsustainable, and heavily reliant on resource-intensive animal agriculture. Traditional attempts to transform the global food system are too slow to drive innovation at scale. Artificial intelligence has the potential to enhance the speed, efficiency, and precision in food innovation by discovering new ingredient combinations, optimizing texture and rheology, and generating entirely novel sustainable foods. Here we explore the role of AI in reshaping the future of food by critically examining its strengths, limitations, and future potential. We review the state of the art in food development, discuss the types of data needed to define a new food product, and highlight current challenges where AI can have a significant impact. Our study suggests that we are at the beginning of an AI-powered revolution in food science. By leveraging AI to democratize food innovation, we can accelerate the transition to resilient global food systems that meet the urgent challenges of human and planetary health.

Bio: Ellen is the Catherine Holman Johnson Director of Stanford Bio-X and the Walter B. Reinhold Professor in the School of Engineering. Her area of expertise is automated model discovery, the AI powered design of models to simulate and predict the behavior of soft matter systems. Ellen has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and edited two books; she is an active reviewer for more than 30 journals at the interface of engineering and medicine and an editorial board member of seven international journals in her field. Ellen is a founding member of the Living Heart Project, a translational research initiative to revolutionize cardiovascular science through realistic simulation with 400 participants from research, industry, and medicine from 24 countries. Ellen is the current Chair of the US National Committee on Biomechanics and a Member-Elect of the World Council of Biomechanics. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and of the American Institute for Mechanical and Biological Engineering. She received the National Science Foundation Career Award in 2010, the Humboldt Research Award in 2016, the ASME Ted Belytschko Applied Mechanics Award in 2021, and the ERC Advanced Grant in 2024. Ellen is a three-time All American triathlete, a multiple Berlin, Boston, Chicago, and New York marathon runner, and a three-time Kona Ironman World Championship finisher.