IAS Seminar: Carbo AI

Full title: IAS Seminar: Carbo AI: An Artificial Intelligence-Based Photographic Application to Support Dietary and Lifestyle Education for the Management of Type 2 Diabetes

IAS Residential Fellow Dr Alice Ojwang delivers a seminar on their research -

Type 2 diabetes is a rapidly growing global health challenge, with dietary management central to its prevention and control. However, estimating the carbohydrate content of meals remains difficult, particularly for locally consumed foods.

Carbo AI is an artificial intelligence-powered mobile application that uses photographic image recognition, computer vision, and machine learning to identify foods, estimate portion sizes, calculate carbohydrate content, and provide instant dietary guidance. The project was led by the Human Nutrition and Dietetics Team in the Department of Health and Biomedical Sciences, Technical University of Kenya, in collaboration with experts in computer science, medical physics, and software engineering. Development was supported by Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure and KENET's High-Performance Computing (HPC) platform. Carbo AI aims to improve carbohydrate literacy, strengthen diabetes self-management, enhance nutrition counselling, and demonstrate the potential of interdisciplinary AI-driven innovations to improve health outcomes.

Arrivals from 11:45 am for a 12:00 noon start. For those joining in-person, lunch will be served after the seminar from 1:00pm.