RCA and Sodexo announce winners of innovative Eats and Algorithms project to design sustainable solutions for digitising food

Sodexo, the global leader in sustainable food services and valued experiences, has collaborated with the RCA School of Design to deliver the Eats and Algorithms during the 2024/25 academic year. This innovative project has provided students with the opportunity to design new experiences and sustainable solutions for digitising food in an industry context, creating real world change.

The winning projects are:

1st Prize (£5,000) – Interlude

Interlude directly addresses an identified and pressing need, within modern professional and academic settings, for improved micro-food solutions within time-constrained modern settings. By integrating thoughtfully-designed micro-food items with an intelligent, semi-automated dispensing system and a personalised mobile application, Interlude presents a robust and compelling value proposition. The project underscores the principle that convenient eating can also be intelligent and satisfying.

Team: Matthew Lee (MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering), Wigy Ramadhan (MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering), Hanna Park (MDes Design Futures), Yuki Abe (MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering).

2nd Prize (£3,000) – Sous Chef

Sous Chef is a smart, AI-powered meal companion designed to elevate Sodexo’s food services by seamlessly integrating into the daily lives of employees, both at home and at the office. It supports personalised, data-driven meal planning while enhancing employee wellbeing and workplace culture through social food experiences. As the workforce evolves, so must the systems that support it. Sous Chef reimagines food not just as sustenance, but as a shared value system - a way to feel good, work better, and connect meaningfully.

Team: Sanyukta Mathure (MDes Design Futures), Neha Parekh (MA Service Design), Simran Kad (MA Service Design), Kan Yen Chen (MA Design Products).

3rd Prize (£2,000) – Smataste

Smataste is an Al-centric platform that uses algorithms for connecting a Smart Taste Index with a user’s personal health and taste preferences, enhancing wellbeing, and flexibility in the Gen Z workplace food experience. This approach provides the business with a Societal Dietary Trend tool for forecasting an ingredients management, whilst providing the Gen Z user with Personalised Dining Solutions and dynamic health support through a nutritionist-approved meal.

Team: Zixiang Feng (MDes Design Futures), Fangzhou Wu (MDes Design Futures), Yutong Zhu (MDes Design Futures), Wenjinhan Chen (MDes Design Futures).

Eats and Algorithms set out to generate interdisciplinary design solutions that have the potential to be implemented into Sodexo’s operations within 2 - 5 years. Led by RCA academic Dr Elif Ozden Yenigun and 9 interdisciplinary teams consisting of Masters students from a variety of School of Design programmes (MA Service Design, MA Textiles, MDes Design Futures, MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering and MA Design Products), the project saw students take part in seminars and workshops centred around three core themes:

• Food experience and new societal and lifestyle innovation. Delivering a top-tier consumer experience that focuses on food in a hybrid-working environment and considers social, societal and environmental impacts.
• Sustainability by design. Developing sustainable design solutions to reduce environmental footprints, such as cutting carbon emissions, promoting local and responsible food choices, and reducing food waste.
• Technological, digital and AI transformation. Creating new digital and AI-driven services that enhance consumer experiences with food in the workplace while promoting the well-being and health of communities.

Over the course of the project, student groups received mentorship and feedback from expert speakers and professionals in the fields of AI in Design, Sustainability by Design, and Consumer Behaviour in Food, before presenting their final projects to leaders from Sodexo and the RCA.