University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Reggio Emilia, Italy
Class hours:
45
Description:
This course focuses on taking manufacturing locally. As improvements in small-scale electronics continue over the next decade, an increasing number of food manufacturing tasks that previously required large-scale factories and equipment will shift to supermarkets and even at home.
The course will explore how direct-to-consumer devices and 3D printers will disrupt large-scale manufacturing processes with locally customizable foods. The course will also analyze the advances in digital manufacturing, sustainable energy, citizen-led bioengineering and automation and how the convergences of these technologies could make even very sophisticated food processing system accessible around the world, increasing transparency while reducing set-up costs.
Goal:
Students will obtain knowledge of remixing standardization in local and hyperlocal processing systems through the convergence of technologies. Students will also gain knowledge of self-sustaining food commons that could rival advanced technologies of large-scale multinationals.
Instructors:
Andrea Pulvirenti MANUFACTURING | REMIXING STANDARDIZATION
Professor, Department of Life Sciences at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
Jeffrey Lipton MANUFACTURING
Professor at Cornell University Creative Machines Lab; Founder & Chief Technology Officer, SERAPH ROBOTICS
The Education Platform
The Food Innovation Program
is a 12-month full time Master’s Program that offers aspiring food innovators and entrepreneurs an invaluable experience in enhancing their professional goals and personal growth. The Program is structured in three distinct phases with final thesis project. First phases is the INSPIRATION Track in Reggio Emilia, Italy that offers an intense and comprehensive academic experience combining classical and innovative educational methodologies, such as foresight training and design thinking. Once complete, students then go through the ASPIRATION Track to expand their entrepreneurial horizons and engage in the cross-pollination of ideas, cultures and culinary traditions through a global tour of Silicon Valley, California, Shanghai and other Asian cities. Finally, the PERSPIRATION track includes laboratory training and prototyping in the Officucina, the unique kitchen maker-space designed specifically for the Food Innovation Program.
