Beatriz Nunes Silva (Early Career Investigator)

The support of COST Action CA15118 FoodMC provided me with the opportunity to participate at 2019’s IAFP’s European Symposium with one technical oral presentation and one poster presentation, the latter being awarded as one of the two winners of the Student Award Competition, as the Poster Presentation Award Winner. My presence at said conference was a great opportunity to receive feedback from highly qualified researchers that can assess the quality of my work and have valuable inputs about it. It also helped on starting to build the path for possible future collaborations with other researchers, institutes, and organizations. The support of COST Action CA15118 FoodMC is thankfully acknowledged!

Nikola Puvača (Early Career Investigator)

My name is Prof. dr Nikola Puvača, and I’m a Ph.D. in Biotechnology. I’m also Vice Dean for International Relations, double Ph.D. holder in Veterinary Medicine, and a first-year student of a third Ph.D. program in Medicine and Health Sciences in Spain. Within the COST Action CA15118 “Mathematical and Computer Science Methods for Food Science and Industry (FoodMC)“, I participated in ITC Conferences in Spain and Greece. I was also participating as an ECI in STSM entitled “Mathematical regression models in fatty acids prediction in edible tissues of food animals: Healthy food source of fatty acids”, at the Faculty of Veterinarian Medicine, University of Bari in Italy. My aim and motivation to apply for this STSM was to learn how the nutritional benefits of consuming n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) can increase n-3 PUFA content in edible tissues of food animals aimed for human daily nutrition. The main aim was to find possible solutions for food animal edible tissue enrichment with n-3 fatty acids from feedstuffs rich in PUFAs and to give possible answers to the inclusion level of fatty acids in the diets using mathematical regression models.

This Action allowed me to make a strong network, new friendships, and to meat scientist from different fields of study with whom I will collaborate in the future on new mutual scientific projects.

Slaðana Rakita (Early Career Investigator)

With the support of COST Action 15118 FoodMC, I had a great opportunity to carry out Short Term Scientific Mission in the Agricultural University of Athens in Greece under the supervision of Prof. Nickolas Kavallieratos. This STSM enabled me to improve my expertise, broaden scientific horizons, upgrade research skills, share ideas and knowledge as well as to promote networking between researchers and establishing future collaboration. I am thankful to FoodMC network for financial support and providing this valuable opportunity for both my professional and personal development.

Jovan Ilic (Early Career Investigator)

COST Action gave me an opportunity to visit Imperial College located in London, Great Britain. It was a great honor for me to meet professor Maria Charalambides, one of the leading experts in the field of soft solids mechanics. At the same time, I was able to meet her Ph.D. students, my colleagues, and to share thoughts on our research topics. Work in the lab of the Soft Solids Department was a real pleasure, especially since Dr. Ruth Brooker appeared as a kind host, ready to jump in and help when needed. I also have to mention my colleagues, Ph.D. students at that time, Dimitrios Bikos and Joseph Wood, who also took part in the lab examinations of meat. Finally, our work was valorized with a publication entitled “Effect of the direction of m. psoas major fibres on the results of tensile test - can we model meat as a material?”, that was also presented at the 60th International Meat Industry Conference MEATCON2019.

Aberham Hailu Feyissa (Senior Scientific Researcher)

Thanks to the cost action grant (CA15118 FoodMC), I participated in FoodMC workshops and meetings; met many wonderful people and experts in the area of modelling for food industries, where we discussed challenges and opportunity in food industries, shared our research topics, thoughts and experiences. As result, I have created links with several colleagues for current and future collaborations. Thanks for the cost action grant, I have also participated in common publications with members of the FoodMC network and new collaborator with help of Short-Term Scientific Missions (STSMs). Overall, because of the FoodMC, I have easily expanded my networks and collaboration with many researchers with common interest in computer and mathematical modelling for food process systems. Thank you.

Eugen Pop (Senior Scientific Researcher)

The impact of my participation in the FoodMC CA15118, for my scientific career is very significant. The very interesting discussions and workshops, which were organized during the high professional level FoodMC CA15118 scientific group meetings, improved my knowledge in applying the modelling, processing, and optimization methods from Mathematics and Computer Science in the food sector domain.

As important personal achievements, following my paticipation in the FoodMC CA15118, I am co-author of the scientific papers:

„Modelling Food Business in the Context of Agriculture 4.0” - The 11st Biennial FOODSIM2020 Conference Ghent, Belgium, September 6-9, 2020, University of Leuven

„Review on environmental models in the food chain - current status and future perspectives”  – published in Elsevier Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 176, 1 March 2018, Pages 1012-1025;

Also, I have registered and presented the 5-th webinar of FoodMC CA15118: „E-Business Platform for Food Science and Industry”. I am very interested to continue the cooperation initiated, with all our colleagues, within the  FoodMC CA15118, in new projects.