November 3 EEC290 Lecture 6

Food systems are amazingly complex. Complex chemistry, biology, physics, consumer preferences, supply chains and more make the food industry a model for so called ‘big data’ that, to date, has been so ‘big’ that making sense of the complexity has been all but impenetrable. Recent advances in computational and data sciences has opened up possibilities for understanding aspects of the food system in ways that were previously unimaginable. It is now possible to consider building better food operations that take advantage of new capabilities enabled by advances in computational and data sciences, and to build food systems that address societal grand challenges such as global health and climate change. In this context, systems engineering will play an increasingly important role in realizing the potential for creation of a new food industry.