Happy 2022! We had hoped to have left COVID behind and have everyone well on the way to recover and strive! At least, I did have high hopes -- hoping that I can wrap up nicely my contributions to creating safe, reliable, and affordable ride-sharing at DiDi, hoping that I would have a retired life focusing on advising young entrepreneurs and angel investing. Nonetheless, we are living in a dynamic world with many challenges -- COVID-19 and its variants testing the limit of our human spirit, climate changes creating extreme weathers and fire hazards, once seemingly-collaborative world starts to embrace nationalism & isolation. These are indeed challenges, but they are not insurmountable!
"So what are you ending up doing then?" you may ask. I have "retired" into a role to lead a team of passionate dreamers, innovators, and food service industry veterans, to create a set of solutions that will allow restaurant owners and food service providers to double, triple the profits by reducing food waste and operation cost via AI & automation, and to increase the top line by providing the ultimate consumer experiences with consistent food labelling and unprecedented freedom of meal selection. Let's approach the digital transformation of the food service industry from the industry's perspective, one establishment and one sector at a time!
From my DiDi experience, I learned to appreciate both the rewarding experience and the challenges with transforming industries through innovation! Transportation is a necessity for almost everyone a lot of the times, food is a necessity for all of us all the time, not to mention the fact that food waste and food security have profound impact on our environment and society at large! I believe we can create solutions that will not only allow the restaurant owners and operators to sustain and thrive through hard times, but also enable them to help the rest of the society overcome challenges like COVID pandemic, to eat happy and healthy, no matter what!
I just went on family vacation to Egypt and Jordan. Aside from having a deep appreciation of the hospitality and impressive historical preservation by the Egyptian and Jordanian people, the great pyramids, the Luxor Temples, the Treasury at Petra, and the Wadi Rum desert all got me thinking about what Eternity really means. Maybe, you and I, we can just start by working on some real "sustainability" challenges?
I observed that most of the hotels provide very nice breakfast and dinner buffet. They protect the diners and staffs by requiring everyone to wear masks while not eating or drinking (one is made available at the entrance), and staffed servers at all food stations to fix your plates. Some offered self-serve buffet as well. Two things worth noting (1) There is significant food left wasted on the plates (2) Supply-demand mis-match during the buffet seriously affected dining experiences.
Food for thought, Happy New Year! #innovation #entrepreneurs
AI Research Scientist @ Meta, Ph.D., Ex-manager
1yThe challenge report is available for download at CVPR 2022 Workshop on Autonomous Driving https://cvpr2022.wad.vision