Finding the clue to better health
On 8 August 2025, the EU-funded CoDiet(opens in new window) project took part in the Imperial College London’s STEM Futures programme, a multi-year initiative of activities and support for students of Black heritage who are interested in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. The project’s participation took the form of a hands-on engagement activity that focused on health and nutrition and aimed to spark curiosity and confidence in the next generation of STEM leaders. Black people are currently underrepresented in STEM, making it difficult for young Black students to find out first-hand what their next steps should be. The STEM Futures programme was developed to help students discover the wide range of subjects within STEM studies and help them to get into university.
Solving the nutrition puzzle
The activity created for CoDiet was titled ‘Supermarket Sweep: The CoDiet Escape Room’. Designed by Imperial College London’s Research Impact Management Office, it offered Year 12 students the opportunity to learn about personalised nutrition and health while solving puzzles and cracking codes. The fastest team completed the escape room challenge in just 20 minutes and 46 seconds. Hanna Jama, Diversity and Inclusion Programme Coordinator at Imperial College London, commented on the activity in a news item(opens in new window) posted on the university’s website: “The CoDiet escape room was a real highlight of the Year 12 STEM Futures summer school! It was brilliant to see the students so engaged in a science-based activity that was fun and interactive but also educational. It got students involved and aware of the research taking place at Imperial in a truly unique setting and, most importantly, in a way that felt exciting and accessible. The students were also especially impressed by how their usual classroom was transformed for the experience! Overall, it sparked curiosity, laughter and teamwork, while also helping the students build connections and strengthen their sense of community within the cohort, all through a fun educational experience. It was science with a twist and they loved it!”
A poster for discussion
CoDiet also presented a poster(opens in new window) at this year’s jointly held International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology and European Conference on Computational Biology. Presented by Tim Beck of project partner University of Nottingham, the poster described current technology-assisted literature triage developments from the CoDiet project. As part of the Text Mining track, Beck delivered a flash talk highlighting CoDiet’s work in accelerating the retrieval of information about diet, disease and biological factors from scientific publications. His presentation sparked considerable interest and lively discussions, reflecting the growing recognition of the importance of natural language processing in unlocking insights from scientific literature. CoDiet (COMBATTING DIET RELATED NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASE THROUGH ENHANCED SURVEILLANCE) was launched in 2023 to combat diet-related diseases through innovative diet-monitoring technologies and personalised nutrition. It is trialling new diet-monitoring technologies to improve people’s understanding of the relationship between the food they eat and common diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity. For more information, please see: CoDiet project website(opens in new window)
