Articles

FOOD PEOPLE

Hugo Liu and the Synthetic Cookbook

August 2007

Hugo Liu is an America On-Line Fellow at MIT’s Media Laboratory and a Postdoctoral Scholar in MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program. With a background in computational linguistics and a bent for aesthetics, Hugo’s doctoral dissertation pioneered the computational modeling and simulation of people’s tastes and their critical perspective.

The Synthetic Cookbook

Through a collaboration with MIT’s Counter Intelligence group and culinary historian Barbara Wheaton, Hugo created the Synesthetic Cookbook - an interactive collection of 160,000 recipes that can be explored by tastes, moods, and imagery.

Gulp Fiction (cookbook)

His latest dynamic cookbook, Gulp Fiction, explores the combinatorial possibilities of food by automatically composing known influences into new recipes.

About Hugo Liu

Hugo’s work in artificial intelligence and design aesthetics has been reviewed in periodicals such as Technology Review, Slashdot, and New York Times Magazine. He has lectured and published over 30 academic articles on topics ranging from computation and philosophy, to emotion, art and creativity. His recent editorial works include a workshop volume on computational approaches to beauty and happiness, and a journal special issue on the semantics of people and culture.

Hugo Liu is a faculty advisor to MIT’s Convergence Culture Consortium; and through his design consultancy, he advises cutting edge ventures in the Internet reputation and taste space such as McAfee SiteAdvisor, Haystack Media, and ScanScout.

Hugo earned a Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, and bachelors and masters degrees in Computer Science.

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