Week #1 #

Team Formation and Project Proposal #

Team Members #

Value Proposition #

Identify the Problem: #

As an adult, it is incredibly difficult to keep track of the food in the refrigerator. With a busy schedule filled with work, family, and personal commitments, it’s easy to forget what you have, leading to food going to waste before you’ve even had a chance to use it. This results in wasted food and money. Imagine coming home after a long day and ready to cook dinner, only to find that the fresh vegetables and meat you bought last week have already gone bad. This scenario is all too common for many adults trying to juggle multiple responsibilities. Additionally, many people find it difficult to plan their meals for the week ahead, adding stress and complicating the creation of a balanced and varied diet with the ingredients they have on hand.

Solution Description: #

This problem can be solved by creating a mobile website that tracks the food items a user buys and stores at home, including their expiration dates, and offers a meal plan for a specific period for all products. The website will automatically integrate information about the purchased items using electronic receipts, while manual input will be optional. This digital inventory will help users keep an organized record of what they have at home, making meal planning easier and avoiding duplicate purchases. With all this information at their fingertips, users can easily see which products need to be used soon. Artificial intelligence will not only generate dishes for products nearing their expiration dates but also suggest meal plans that include both existing and new products after each purchase. At the same time, the expiration date and quantity of the proposed dishes will be taken into account so that users can use their products most efficiently.

Benefits to Users: #

• Reduce Food Waste: By tracking expiration dates and offering recipes for products, the website helps users minimize their food costs.
• Savings: Users can save money by efficiently using products they already have, reducing the need for frequent trips to the store.
• Organizing Kitchen Management: Digital inventory helps users maintain an organized kitchen by providing accurate knowledge of available products.
• Personalized Meal Plans: Automatically generated, AI-generated meal plans take into account users’ preferences and dietary restrictions, making meal planning more convenient and tailored to their needs

Differentiation: #

• Generating recipes using artificial intelligence: Unlike other food tracking apps, our mobile website uses artificial intelligence to suggest recipes based on food availability and preferences. This not only reduces food waste, but also inspires users to try new dishes and improve their cooking skills.

• Automatic product integration: Our application automatically generates a list of purchased goods using an electronic receipt, ensuring ease of use and up-to-date information about users’ inventory. Also, for dairy and meat products, the user will be able to indicate the production date of the product, and for all other products, the expiration date will be taken into account automatically, using the product database from the store’s website.

User Impact: #

• Our solution solves a common problem that many adults face when managing food supplies and planning meals amid busy schedules. By providing a streamlined approach to food tracking, offering personalized meal plans and reducing food waste, our mobile website significantly improves the user experience. Users benefit from reduced stress and time spent preparing meals, savings on grocery costs, and a more organized kitchen. Additionally, the integration of artificial intelligence increases user engagement, inspiring users to learn new recipes and expand their cooking skills. With the convenience of automatic grocery integration via electronic receipts, users can easily stay on top of their inventory and make informed meal decisions, ultimately leading to a more efficient and enjoyable cooking experience.

User Testimonials or Use Cases: #

• Meal Planning: A busy cook wants to quickly and easily plan their weekly meals. They use our mobile website to get personalized recipes based on the ingredients they have on hand, reducing time spent on grocery shopping and avoiding unnecessary expenses.

• Budget Optimization: A working gourmet aims to reduce their food expenses and save time on shopping. They use our mobile website for automatic tracking of purchases and generation of meal plans, enabling them to plan their purchases more efficiently and reduce their spending.

• Personalized Recipes: Users with specific dietary restrictions or preferences, such as allergies or personal taste preferences, can utilize our mobile website. Our artificial intelligence helps them obtain personalized recipes tailored to their individual needs, ensuring comfort and satisfaction from the prepared dishes.

Lean Questionnaire #

Please answer the following questions related to the lean methodology:

1. What problem or need does your software project address?

   Our project aims to address the problem of inefficient food utilization and the complexity of meal planning in everyday life. Many adults face the challenge of forgetting about the food in their refrigerators, leading to spoilage and loss of money. Our application allows users to track their food supplies, offering personalized recipes based on the ingredients they have on hand, simplifying meal planning, and reducing food expenses.

2. Who are your target users or customers?

   Our target users include busy professionals looking to reduce their food expenses and save time on grocery shopping, as well as individuals with dietary restrictions or preferences who require a personalized approach to meal planning.

3. How will you validate and test your assumptions about the project?

   We will conduct testing on students to assess the effectiveness of using the application and understand how it helps them manage their groceries and reduce food waste. The testing will involve gathering feedback from users about their experience using the application, as well as analyzing their behavior while using it to identify any weaknesses or improvements that can be made to the application

4. What metrics will you use to measure the success of your project?

   To measure the success of our project, we will track metrics such as the reduction in grocery expenses among tested users over a certain period, for instance, two weeks. This reduction signifies the effectiveness of our application in minimizing food waste and preventing unnecessary purchases, as products will no longer spoil or be thrown away prematurely. Additionally, we will gauge user satisfaction with the recipe recommendations provided by the app. By collecting feedback on recipe variety, ease of preparation, and overall enjoyment, we can ensure that our users find value in the culinary suggestions tailored to their available ingredients. These metrics will serve as key indicators of the project’s impact on both financial savings and user satisfaction, guiding us in refining and improving our application to better meet the needs of our target audience.

5. How do you plan to iterate and pivot if necessary based on user feedback?

   We will take user feedback into account and make changes to the app accordingly. This involves carefully studying user feedback from surveys, app reviews, and direct communication with them to understand what they like and what needs improvement. We will prioritize addressing the most common user requests by adding new features or fixing usability issues. Additionally, we will test new features using A/B testing to ensure they work as intended before rolling them out to all users. Our goal is to make our app better and more user-friendly to better meet their needs.

Leveraging AI, Open-Source, and Experts #

Our team has a strategic plan to leverage the following resources for the development and success of our project:

• AI (Artificial Intelligence): We will use GPT to generate recipes based on the list of ingredients, the number of people, and the duration of the meal plan. Further, we will generate the meal plan using evolutionary algorithms, taking into account the expiration dates of the products and optimizing food consumption.
• Open Source: We will utilize a database of balanced nutrition recipes to train Yandex GPT for recipe generation, ensuring it produces nutritious meal suggestions. Additionally, we will provide ready-made frontend code tailored specifically for this project, facilitating seamless integration and customization. And also open source librieries will be used in our project.
• Experts: On backend and DevOps issues, a fourth-year student from our university, who is also a member of our university community, will be consulted. In addition, the head of the data analysis department of Ak Bars Bank will express his expert opinion.

Defining the Vision for Your Project #

• Overview: Defining the vision for our project is essential for setting clear objectives and guiding our efforts. Our project aims to modernize meal planning through the strategic integration of technology, promoting healthier eating habits and efficient food management. By offering personalized meal plans tailored to users’ dietary preferences, ingredient availability, and nutritional requirements, we seek to empower individuals to make informed decisions about their diet while minimizing waste and optimizing resources. Through the utilization of AI, open-source tools, and expert insights, our vision is to develop a user-centric platform that simplifies meal planning, enhances user satisfaction, and contributes to sustainable food practices.

• Schematic Drawings:

• Tech Stack:

  • ML: Python (NumPy, Pandas, Spark, Scikit-learn, Statsmodels, PyTorch, Transformers)
  • Backend: Kotlin (Spring, Spring Boot, Selenium), PostgreSQL
  • Frontend: React, TypeScript, HTML, CSS