Weeks 1-4 - Project Pivot

Hello again,

My project shifted slightly over the past few weeks—positively. At first, when I showcased my senior project, I planned on implementing a machine learning algorithm that predicted water’s solubility in salt at different temperatures and comparing it afterward through user testing within a focus group. The idea was to determine if a more user-experience-friendly algorithm would aid users with their creative cooking challenges.

But the more I ventured into the technical and logistical ends, the more I realized that doing human subject research would be more complex than expected. From IRB clearance to creating an effective study and working around ethical requirements, I found that much of my time would be robbed from what I most eagerly anticipated: building the algorithm itself.

So I changed my direction. I chose to put my energy into tuning the machine learning algorithm, and I’m happy to report that I’ve finished building it!

The model uses a simple, data-driven approach to predict the solubility of table salt (NaCl) in water at various temperatures. I taught it using publicly sourced solubility data and set out to build something lightweight, open, and accessible—even to the non-chemist. Results? It’s not the best, but it’s reasonably accurate, and that’s a victory considering the narrow scope and tiny dataset I was working with. The algorithm can now return reasonably close approximations and may form the basis of more sophisticated, general-purpose kitchen science tools.

With the model now complete, I’ve been dedicating my efforts to crafting the research paper that will outline the process from the issue I was attempting to resolve to how the algorithm was trained and tested. In addition, I will include a discussion on the transition to human testing, what was gained from this shift, and how it altered the course of my project.

In the end, though, the emphasis has changed while the project’s purpose has remained the same: developing tools that will better make people creative and more self-assured in the kitchen by using science in a useful and accessible manner.

Thanks for hanging in there with me—I’ll be glad to post more when I finish the paper!