Research Interests
Dr. Kucha’s Precision Food Process Engineering Lab applies engineering principles to support digital revolution technologies in agri-food production. The primary research focus of the lab is to develop and apply sensing technologies, data analytics, and systems modeling to address pre-harvest and post-harvest food quality and safety, as well as food processing challenges. Dr. Kucha’s research group conducts research that aims to enhance food processing efficiency, reduce production costs and time, conserve energy and resources, and minimize food loss and waste amidst resilience, climate change, and sustainability concerns. Key research areas include development of machine vision systems for food analysis, applications of artificial intelligence and chemometrics in food quality and safety, development of process analytical technologies for online food processing, reverse engineering for intelligent food design, “big data” applications for enhanced food processing, and non-destructive real-time assessment of food quality and safety.
Courses Taught
FDST 3000: Introduction to Food Science and Technology
FDST 2001: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence in Food Systems
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