As competitions go, this one most resembled the hit TV show Shark Tank, but with an artificial twist. For The Tinker @ The Toaster Challenge, 53 University of Minnesota students put to use their own creativity and ingenuity, using AI as a catalyst, to come up with an innovation in the food and beverage industry.
The event was sponsored by General Mills, Google Cloud, the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship, and the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS). The student contestants were from multiple colleges across the U of M, including CFANS, the Carlson School of Management, the College of Liberal Arts, and the College of Science and Engineering.
Ultimately, CFANS students shone the brightest, sweeping the top three honors with their ideas blending AI technology and food innovation. The winners:
1st Place: Jack Mosh, an applied economics junior, won for WaffleEgg, a protein-packed breakfast sandwich that combines health, convenience, and deliciousness. (His idea was presented by Maxwell Kotecki.)
Runner-up: Robert McKee, an agricultural and food business management senior, earned second place with Chef’s Select Meal Helper, a premium alternative to traditional meal kits designed to simplify cooking while elevating taste.
Crowd Favorite: Lia Novak, an applied economics student graduating fall 2025, captured the audience’s hearts with Jelly Bites, a guilt-free dessert crafted without added sugars or artificial flavors.
Healthy foods, by design
Mosh’s winning idea, the WaffleEgg, is essentially a breakfast sandwich that could be warmed up in a microwave. But the traditional bread or English muffin on the outside would be replaced by a protein-enriched waffle. In addition to having an egg in the middle it could be supplemented with other protein sources, too. The idea ties to his personal passion for healthy eating.
Mosh studied recent consumer food trends, and “the rave in the last few years is protein,” he says. “Protein is an energy source and a source to keep you healthy. So I wanted to incorporate that.”
For his AI catalyst, he went on ChatGPT and searched for potential inventions involving a protein waffle, since he loves waffles. ChatGPT suggested a breakfast sandwich, and he ran with that AI-generated idea. After the competition, he went into the kitchen to tinker with a few prototypes. Says Mosh: “My roommates and I tried them, and we’re like, ‘This is good. I would eat this!’”
Novak, the winner in the “Crowd Favorite” category with her Jelly Bites idea, set out to create a healthy gummy bears–type snack targeted for older women—long on vitamins and “good-for-you” ingredients, but without the colors and shapes associated with kid treats. Novak envisions her Jelly Bites as generic squares in shape, looking less like fruit “and more like a snack that you can eat in the office and not look like a 5-year-old when you eat it.”
She used AI to help determine the types and amounts of additives the snacks might have to ensure their healthiness. AI also helped her create a consumer persona and images for what the product might look like.
The Tinker @ The Toaster Challenge was designed and led by Jeff Stamp, a professor in the Department of Applied Economics at CFANS. Stamp emphasizes the importance of early-stage ideation and bold thinking. “This competition is about creativity with purpose,” he says. “I enjoy seeing the light in students’ faces when they have something (an idea) and are proud of it.”
As for Mosh and his WaffleEgg, he’s not ruling out trying to bring his idea to market. But first he has another year of school and of playing for the Gopher baseball team, then he plans to attend law school.
“I’ll probably keep this idea in the back pocket though,” he says. “I’ve gotten so much positive feedback from it, it’d almost be a shame to not pursue it one day.”
(AI was not used in the creation of this headline.)
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