Great minds may think alike, but sometimes it’s better when they don’t.
Thirty Illinois State University students from a wide range of majors gathered in the State Farm Hall of Business on Friday, March 20, with unique perspectives and a shared goal: create a solution to reduce food waste and improve food security in the community.
Junior Brice Banning, a fashion design and merchandising major, was thrilled by the opportunity to collaborate with peers from different departments.
“I’m working with people in business law and marketing MBAs, environmental studies, and information technology. If I wasn’t here, I wouldn’t really interact with them in this way,” Banning said. “I love being able to work with really smart, passionate people at a fast pace.”
The AI Community Innovation Workshop was organized by Dr. Peter Kaufman, marketing professor and director of the Hagge Innovation Institute. The “hackathon” event began with participants learning how to ethically and responsibly use artificial intelligence tools with a presentation from Marketing Professor Chiharu Ishida-Lambert and Julie Hinman, M.S. ‘96, the creator of a local entrepreneur program for high school seniors.
Students also heard from representatives with Illinois State’s Office of Sustainability and Center for Civic Engagement, Green Top Grocery, and the School Street Food Pantry about local and national challenges. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in 2019 an estimated 66 million tons of wasted food was generated in the food retail, food service, and residential sectors, with most of the waste sent to landfills.
With a fresh understanding of AI and the issues at hand, teams spent the day researching and developing a business model to address food waste.
“One team might be looking at composting food scraps from a campus dining hall. Another might be looking at collecting and donating a grocery store’s leftover food. No matter the focus, we know we need a more systematic, organized way of managing this challenge,” Kaufman said.
Junior fashion design and merchandising major Brice Banning, center, checks data with teammates during the AI Community Innovation Workshop.
Banning’s team designed an app for college students to log daily food waste they generate in campus dining halls—snapping photos of their plates before and after meals so AI could analyze what was left behind. Beyond motivating students to form better consumption habits, the data could be provided to universities, giving dining services a clearer picture of what is and isn’t being eaten.
Also contributing to the team was junior Brooke Bauer, an environmental systems science and sustainability major, who was intrigured by the workshop’s focus on ethical AI use.
“As an environmental science person, there’s a lot of concern about impacts from data centers,” Bauer said. “I learned that AI can be employed tactically and pointedly, like by installing smaller models that just use resources locally from my personal computer rather than relying on outside data center resources.
“Responsible use of AI is a big deal, and I think that’s something we need to see more of as AI establishes its place in our culture.”
Second-year creative technologies graduate student Jacob Beinborn ’13 joined the workshop to learn how AI tools could be applied in his role as instructional media producer at the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“These are tools that weren’t around when I did my undergrad. This is an opportunity to provide ISU students with skill sets that are going to exist in the real world,” he said.
“These are tools that weren’t around when I did my undergrad. This is an opportunity to provide ISU students with skill sets that are going to exist in the real world.”
—Jacob Beinborn ’13
Beinborn’s team designed an app for users to analyze soon-to-expire ingredients at home and connect with a grocery store, generating a recipe and a shopping list, and setting an order for pickup, all in one program.
“The idea is that this kind of workshop could feasibly leave somebody with a product they could actually bring into existence, something that does tangible good in the community,” Beinborn said.
After spending hours researching, brainstorming, and creating, each student team presented their pitch to a panel of judges from local organizations like the Ecology Action Center, GROWMARK, State Farm, and U.S. Foods based near Chicago.
Lindsey Meister, MBA ’25, brought her perspective as senior events manager at GROWMARK to the judging panel.
“Food waste is a real issue in events management,” Meister said. “The legalities that go into being able to donate food in the community is a challenge, so I’m very interested to see what realistic solutions the teams come up with.”
Second-year creative technologies graduate student Jacob Beinborn ’13, left, remains focused with his team as they prepare to pitch an app designed to reduce food waste in homes and in grocery stores.
The winning team—including Franklin Chen (renewable energy), Alex Dahlhauser (international business), Tristan Cravens (computer science), Zarin Atia (MBA), and Jacob Ciesielski (economics)—pitched the concept of FreshBridge. The platform would allow local food pantries to make food requests and notify participating organizations and donors of the current need. Volunteers would be notified and dispatched to assist with food pickup and delivery. The team used AI to build a working prototype application.
This workshop stems from a similar event held in fall 2025 presented in collaboration with Ramtin Davanlou, M.S. ’14, an information technology alum who currently serves as ecosystem AI chief technology officer for the Accenture and Intel Partnership.
Dr. Ajay Samant, dean of the College of Business, said an event that attracts Redbirds from more than 10 majors to solve an important community challenge is a unique professional development opportunity.
“Giving them the tools to ethically, responsibly, and collectively solve a problem is extremely valuable,” Samant said.
Kaufman is hoping to host similar workshops in the future, aiming to strengthen a culture of innovation and foster student connections across campus.
“These professional development experiences are great opportunities for students to collaborate across disciplines, network with motiviated students from diverse backgrounds, share their skill sets, and expand their world views to solve real challenges,” he said.
Dining and Cooking