’Visionary project’ farms crickets for food

Returning to in-person experiences in February: for more information. Waterloo Engineering spinoff recognized by United Nations for sustainable AI innovation A company that was founded by two Waterloo Engineering professors and several alumni has been recognized by an agency of the United Nations (UN) for its contributions to a state-of-the-art facility to farm crickets as a source of protein. DarwinAI and the Aspire Food Group , which is leading the initiative, were named to a list of the top 10 projects using artificial intelligence (AI) to advance the UN's sustainability goals. "It's been inspiring to work on such a visionary project that brings artificial intelligence into tangible, meaningful reality, given the increasing global demand for sustainable solutions for food and material production," says Alexander Wong (BASc '05, computer engineering, MASc '07, electrical and computer engineering, PhD '10, systems design engineering), a systems design engineering professor who is leading the development of AI algorithms for the facility. "The hope is to work with DarwinAI to scale this solution with Aspire Food Group as the number of automated production facilities grows around the world." Aspire is working with several industry partners, including Waterloo-based DarwinAI, on a facility in London, Ontario expected to be the largest fully automated cricket production and processing operation in the world. DarwinAI is contributing automated visual inspection and explainable AI with Internet of Things (IoT) sensor data analysis to optimize yield and provide insight into plant conditions and operations.