Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
G022 MCCARTY HALL
GAINESVILLE,FL 32611
Performing Department
Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Non Technical Summary
The long-term goal of this effort is to enhance the social convergence of nanotechnology for improving food manufacturing using a diverse collection of targeted research, teaching and extension/outreach activities. The goal of this application is to host the first annual Symposium on Convergence of Nanotechnology in Food Manufacturing (CoNFoMa), focusing on cutting edge research. The long-term plans of CoNFoMa includes teaching and extension/outreach activities via creation of digital media, incorporating formal and informal education activities, and merging efforts with the newly-founded Society of Food Engineering through CoFE 2020. CoNFoMA 2018 will serve as a platform for shared innovation and idea exchange by hosting events related to food manufacturing and nanotechnology. The events include technical sessions, roundtable discussions, and student activities at the Conference of Food Engineering (CoFE). Our team has a strong background in food science, food engineering, and nanotechnology and we plan to use the momentum from this initial effort to establish innovative communication, extension, and outreach activities that can merge with the 2020 CoFE.Program agendaA one-day research vision conference will be held on the topic of convergence of nanotechnology for food manufacturing. Following this conference, CoNFoMA will merge with the CoFE 2018 annual conference. After the events, co-chairs McLamore and Gomes will lead attendees of CoNFoMa 2018 to draft proceedings and also a white paper for submission to a peer reviewed scientific journal (Journal of Food Engineering). In addition, CoFE student leaders will also create a wiki page on "Nanotechnology in Food Manufacturing" to maintain long term momentum and build the community. As a part of international engagement, we will host international speakers from Canada to strengthen research on convergence in the Americas and initiate new partnerships for future CoFE conferences.
Animal Health Component
40%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
40%
Developmental
30%
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal of this effort is to enhance the convergence of nanotechnology for improving food manufacturing using a diverse collection of targeted research, teaching and extension/outreach activities.The goal of this application is to host the first annual Symposium on Convergence of Nanotechnology in Food Manufacturing (CoNFoMa), focusing on cutting edge research and establishing a vision for food manufacturing. The long-term plans of CoNFoMa includes teaching and extension/outreach activities via creation of digital media, incorporating formal and informal education activities, and merging efforts with the newly-founded Society of Food Engineering through CoFE 2020. CoNFoMA 2018 will serve as a platform for shared innovation and idea exchange by hosting events related to food manufacturing and nanotechnology. The events include technical sessions, roundtable discussions, and student activities at the Conference of Food Engineering (CoFE). Our team has a strong background in food science, food engineering, and nanotechnology and we plan to use the momentum from this initial effort to establish innovative communication, extension, and outreach activities that can merge with the 2020 CoFE.The specific objectives are:Create a platform for information exchange between leaders in nanotechnology and food engineering for establishing a future vision of food manufacturing. We have organized a unique one-day research vision conference that involves nationally renown speakers and open discussion amongst attendees to be held on September 8, 2018 in collaboration with the 2018 Conference of Food Engineering (CoFE 2018), see attached letter of support . We have a full day agenda that is lined with speakers from food engineering and/or nanotechnology research areas in the following thematic areas: packaging science/engineering, nutrition/functional foods, sensors and robotics, thermal and non-thermal processing, and big data/machine learning and automation. The culmination of this will be presentations by national leaders in the area of autonomous, self-replicating manufacturing systems to promote discussion of the future of food manufacturing.Panel discussion and proceedings. On the first morning of CoFE 2018 (Sept. 9), we plan to host a group event for organizing activities related to publication of proceedings as an output from the research vision conference of Sep 8. Attendees will create small groups and draft concepts for volunteering conference papers to be submitted to CoNFoMa/CoFE. The concepts will be organized into cohesive topical areas based on the topics listed in objective 1. The target journal for the proceedings will be Journal of Food Engineering.Technical sessions co-hosted by CoFE 2018. Together with CoFE, we have co-organized three technical sessions on sensors and automation, packaging, and encapsulation/functional foods. We have confirmation from at least 12 speakers that represent government-academia-industry related to these topics. These technical presentations will provide a platform for student-faculty-industry interactions, and open exchange of ideas.Planning session for extending CoNFoMa 2020 to include extension/outreach activities. To prepare for expanding future CoNFoMa and CoFE events, we will formulate specific action items for expanding the planned activities in 2020 to include extension/outreach. This work will specifically focus on engaging the public in knowledge sharing through digital media that tells the story of food and agriculture in a way that is environmentally sensitive, energy conscious, culturally relevant, and engaging.To engage students in life-long learning related to convergence of knowledge and nanotechnology for society. We will organize a series of student events at CoNFoMa/CoFE, including a student led roundtable with leaders from government, academia, tours of local food production facilities, and traditional technical sessions with poster/presentation opportunities. We will also involve students in drafting a white paper to submit for peer review based on the knowledge gained from CoNFoMa 2018.Develop scholarly products summarizing CoNFoMa. We will work with experts in industryand academiato compile information from the meeting, and a written summary will be submitted for peer review. We will also submit at least one summary to a trade journal in the area of food engineering.
Project Methods
ApproachJustification for the meetingConferences on food value chains have been supported by USDA (Diamond et al, 2014) and there are also many non-USDA supported international conferences on food value chains, including conferences in: India (OTAI, 2017), New Zealand (PFIS, 2017), and Russia (NRUHSE, 2017). There are food science/engineering conferences not supported by USDA that include nanotechnology (FCT, 2017), and these events are productive and impactful. However, the focus of conferences such as FCT is primarily on the underlying chemistry, and there are rarely speakers with expertise in extension, education or outreach that focus on the topic of food.There have been a plethora of nanotechnology conferences in the last few decades, with primary focus on applications in environmental, medical, energy, pharma, or defense areas (NanoCongress, 2017; GNST, 2017; ICEN, 2017; ACS, 2017; IFT, 2017; TechConnect, 2017, EFFoST, 2017). While existing nanotechnology conferences have a limited number of speakers and/or small sessions that cover topic of food nanotechnology, there are no conferences that specifically focus on nanotechnology for food manufacturing and support attendance by a diverse group of researchers, educators, and stakeholders.USDA currently funds a Gordon Research Conference (Walker et al., 2017), but this conference is primarily focused on environmental issues related to agriculture, and specific topics related to food manufacturing are only discussed by a small percentage of attendees, if any at all. Additionally, USDA currently supports a Gordon Conference that focuses on nanotechnology for food, but this meeting does not contain any activities related to the production of animations, short films, comics, or other materials as outputs for the existing GRC (see letter of support from Dr. Bäumner and Britt, the chairs of the existing GRC). Moreover, the GRC is attended only by invitation only limiting the outreach of the discussed topics. There is currently a lack of information available to the general public on nanotechnology for food manufacturing, particularly, educational and extension materials, which are appropriate for a wide target audience.Previous and ongoing efforts have been critical for defining national strategic roadmaps related to nanotechnology and food, but there is a pressing need for a focused effort on addressing the challenges and opportunities of nanotechnology within the food manufacturing domain. To initiate a sustainable effort in this area, we propose to provide a platform for shared innovation and idea exchange by hosting activities related to food manufacturing and nanotechnology together with CoFE. The two conferences include: 1) a research vision meeting for organizing efforts around the future of food manufacturing, and 2) roundtable discussions, technical sessions, and student activities at the CoFE 2018 annual conference.Recent meetings on the same subject (description above)OTAI, 2017; PFIS, 2017; NRUHSE, 2017; FCT, 2017; NanoCongress, 2017; GNST, 2017; ICEN, 2017; ACS, 2017; IFT, 2017; EFFoST, 2017, TechConnect, 2017; GRC 2017. Complete information on meeting locations and dates may be found in the work cited section.Members of the organizing committeeResearch vision conference co-chair: Eric S. McLamoreResearch vision conference co-chair, CoFE advisory board member: Carmen GomesOrganiizing committee/Visionary team, Shoumen DattaInterim President of Society of Food Engineering: Sudhir SastryCoFE organization committee co-Chairs: Roger Ruan and Kumar MallikarjunanCoFE organization committee members Sudhir Sastry, Paul Chen, Lester Wilson, Juming Tang, Gonul Kaletunc, Yanyun Zhao, Ashim Datta, Jonathan Wong, Joanna Montenegro, Vivian WuProgram agendaA one-day research vision conference will be held on the topic of convergence of nanotechnology for food manufacturing. Following this conference, CoNFoMA will merge with the CoFE 2018 annual conference. After the events, co-chairs McLamore and Gomes will lead attendees of CoNFoMa 2018 to draft proceedings and also a white paper for submission to a peer reviewed scientific journal (Journal of Food Engineering). In addition, CoFE student leaders will also create a wiki page on "Nanotechnology in Food Manufacturing" to maintain long term momentum and build the community. As a part of international engagement, we will host international speakers from Canada to strengthen research on convergence in the Americas and initiate new partnerships for future CoFE conferences.?Method of announcement or invitation that will be usedEach invited speaker has been contacted directly by a designated member of the conference organizing committee via phone, email, or in person. All plenary/keynote speakers have confirmed, and to date we have a list of at least 29 participants who have confirmed to attend the research vision conference. The organizing committee member provided a list of responsibilities to each speaker (30 minutes lecture, sharing of slides/presentation material, participation throughout the events, contribution to proceedings or white paper). The committee will follow-up with each speaker to answer any questions the speaker may have regarding the program, travel and lodging, manuscript, etc.The organizing committee plans to announce the conference widely and via different approaches. Announcements will be added to the CoFE website and registration will be available concomitantly for both conferences, which has an existing network for meeting announcements. Announcements for CoNFoMa 2018 will also be placed in professional journals, newsletters and on organizational websites. Target journals include ACS Nano, IFT journal (Food Technology and Journal of Food Science), and ASABE journal (Resources Magazine). In addition, pamphlets will be prepared describing the conference and will be sent to food science, engineering, and nutrition programs for posting on their departmental bulletin boards. Flyers will be used to recruit speakers from relevant conferences such as IFT 2018 and AIM 2018 (ASABE international meeting). The conference announcement will also be listed on the University of Florida, Iowa State University, Purdue University, Texas A&M University, The Ohio State University, University of Minnesota and New Mexico State University websites. Finally, the University of Florida Development Office will advertise the conference in their mailings and public relations activities.