A mobile app that aims to guide UPLB students to eat right, move more, and develop habits that improve their health today and the planet tomorrow emerged as the winner in a hackathon joined by 154 teams nationwide. 

HEAL-PH or Healthy Eating, Active Lifestyle, for Planetary Health mobile app won in the FLExPHD Food is Life Exemplified Mobile App Development Competition for Planetary Health Diet.

The competition was organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) with the National Academy of Science and Technology of the Philippines and the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (PCAARRD-DOST) as partners. 

Team M1R4G3 (read Mirage), HEAL-PH’s developers, is an interdisciplinary group composed of faculty members and a student. The faculty members are Dr. Val Randolf M. Madrid of the Institute of Computer Science (ICS); Ann Cayetano and Anna Teresa Orillo of the Institute of Human Nutrition and Food; Dr. Salvador P. Catelo of the College of Economics and Management; and Avril Adrianne D. Madrid of the College of Development Communication. Rutherford Belleza, BS Computer Science, is the team’s lone student member.

The initial 154 participants were whittled down to 40, one of which was Team M1R4G3. The team went on to best the 12 finalists at The Grand Finals Pitching and Demo Day on June 28 at SEARCA in the UPLB campus. 

Using computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI), the app leverages the habit of students taking photos of their meals. 

The app analyzes these images, detecting and categorizing the food groups to assess nutritional content and diversity. HEAL-PH also interfaces with existing phone apps to track exercise, water intake, and sleep.

One of the app’s unique attributes is its collaborative design approach. UPLB students contributed real-life photos of the food they consumed, which also captured the local cuisine and food culture of UPLB. These were used to train the app’s AI. 

The team also collaborated with students from the College of Development Communication, who designed and pretested the infographics and video used to communicate planetary health science. 

Another unique attribute of HEAL-PH is its use in research. UPLB students who will use the app will contribute data that can be used to gain insights into nutrition and health on a larger scale. 

This wealth of big data will be invaluable for researchers in understanding the impacts on planetary health. The Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health defines it as “the health of human civilization and the state of the natural system on which it depends.” 

Big data will provide evidence-based recommendations for decision-makers to zero in on what constitutes a planetary health diet that will allow 10 billion people to be fed within planetary boundaries by 2050. (Avril Adrianne De Guzman Madrid)