Category Archives: Eigenvector News
The Gang’s all here: Chemometric software updates released
Nov 5, 2009
In this case, “the Gang” is all our most popular software packages, and they’ve all gotten substantial improvements. This includes our flagship MATLAB toolbox for chemometrics, PLS_Toolbox, and its stand-alone version Solo. Plus our products for Multivariate Image Analysis MIA_Toolbox and the stand alone Solo+MIA.
As evidenced by the release notes, PLS_Toolbox and Solo received a host of additions and improvements. I’m particularly geeked about the performance improvements we’ve made to our Multivariate Curve Resolution (MCR) code, which has been speeded up by a factor of 15-25, and the addition of a new interface for Correlation Spectroscopy. We’ve also added a lot of new file import/export options and further refined many of the plotting tools, making it easier than ever to get the information you want to see right in front of you.
Though considerable, the updates for PLS_Toolbox and Solo might be called evolutionary. But the MIA_Toolbox/Solo+MIA upgrade is revolutionary. The main interface for MIA is now the Image Manager, which provides a place to load, organize, explore, and manipulate images before further analysis with other Eigenvector tools. This plus the new Trend Tool make it easy to explore and edit multivariate images. The whole work flow is streamlined. Add this to the host of analysis methods available, the improved computational tools for things like MCR, and the availability of our tools for 64-bit platforms, and you’ve got a very powerful set of tools for dealing with large multivariate images!
Existing users with current maintenance contracts can down download the new tools from their accounts. New users can order or get free 30-day demos by creating an account.
Enjoy the updates!
BMW
Carl Duchesne Wins Best Poster at MIA Workshop
Oct 27, 2009
The International Workshop on Multivariate Image Analysis was held September 28-29 in Valencia, Spain. We weren’t able to make it, but we were happy to sponsor the Best Poster prize, which was won by Carl Duchesne. Carl is an Assistant Professor at Université Laval, in Sainte-Foy, Quebec, CA, where he works with the Laboratoire d’observation et d’optimisation des procédés (LOOP).
With co-authors Ryan Gosselin and Denis Rodrigue, Prof. Duchesne presented “Hyperspectral Image Analysis and Applications in Polymer Processing.” The poster describes how a spectral imaging system combined with texture analysis can be used with multivariate models to predict the thermo-mechanical properties of polymers during their manufacture. The system can also be used to detect abnormal processing conditions, what we would call Multivariate Statistical Process Control (MSPC).
For his efforts Carl received a copy of our Solo+MIA software, which is our stand-alone version of PLS_Toolbox + MIA_Toolbox. We trust that Carl and his group at Laval will find it useful in their future MIA endeavors. Congratulations Carl!
BMW
FACSS 2009 Wrap-up
Oct 27, 2009
Once again, the Federation of Analytical and Spectroscopy Societies conference, FACSS 2009, has drawn to a successful close. As usual, Eigenvector was there with a booth in the trade show, short courses, and talks.
We were very pleased at the popularity of our Chemometrics without Equations (CWE) and Advanced Chemometrics without Equations (ACWE) courses this year. CWE, led by our Bob Roginski, was at capacity with 20 students. I headed up ACWE, which was nearly full with 17. The courses were hands-on and gave the students a chance to test out the newest versions of our software, the soon to be released PLS_Toolbox 5.5 and MIA_Toolbox 2.0. Thanks to all who attended!
Our Jeremy Shaver gave two talks in the technical sessions. The first, “Soft versus Hard Orthogonalization Filters in Classification Modeling” provided an overview of numerous methods for developing filters. The bottom line is that all of the methods considered, including Orthogonal Signal Correction (OSC), Orthogonal PLS (O-PLS), Modified OSC (M-OSC), External Parameter Orthogonalization (EPO), and Generalized Least Squares weighting (GLS) perform very similarly.
Jeremy also presented “Analyzing and Visualizing Large Raman Images,” which was a joint work with Eunah Lee and Andrew Whitley of HORIBA Jobin Yvon, plus our own R. Scott Koch. This talk presented a method for doing PCA on multivariate images for situations where the entire data set cannot fit into computer memory. “Sequential PCA with updating” was shown to produce a very close approximation to conventional PCA. This is one potential strategy for dealing with the huge imaging data sets that are becoming increasingly common.
We’d like to thank the organizers of FACSS for another great meeting. We’re looking forward to the next one in Raleigh, NC, next year!
BMW
Chuck Miller to take position at Merck
Oct 24, 2009
Charles E. “Chuck” Miller will be leaving Eigenvector as of October 31, 2009. Chuck will be taking a position with Merck in West Point, PA. This is a nice opportunity for Chuck–he’ll be involved in implementing Process Analytical Technology (PAT). Given Chuck’s knowledge of chemometrics, getting systems on-line, and NIR spectroscopy, it should be a good fit.
We understand that knowledge of chemometrics, MATLAB, PLS_Toolbox and EVRI’s other software products were some of the key things that got Chuck the job. We hope he’ll have an chance to continue to work with us in his new capacity. We expect we haven’t seen the last of him!
We are currently in the process of transitioning Chuck’s projects to other Eigenvectorians. While this will mean that the rest of us on the consulting staff (Neal, Jeremy, Willem, Bob and myself) will go from busy to very busy, we expect we’ll be able to pick up the work fairly seamlessly. If you have any questions about this, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
I’m sure you’ll all join me in wishing Chuck and family the best of luck in his new location!
BMW
Chemometrics at SIMS XVII
Sep 17, 2009
The the 17th International Conference on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, SIMS XVII, is being held this week in Toronto, CA. I am here with our Willem Windig. I’ve had an interest in SIMS for about a dozen years now, after being introduced to it by Anna Belu. Anna invited me to do a workshop on chemometrics in SIMS, gave me some data sets to work with, and off I went. SIMS was especially interesting to me because it provides very rich data sets, and is also often done over surfaces, producing what we refer to as multivariate images.
The use of chemometric techniques in SIMS has expanded considerably since I first got involved. The primary tool is still Principal Components Analysis (PCA), though there are certainly applications of other methods, including Maximal Autocorrelation Factors (MAF). However, I still see lots of examples where authors present 10, 20 or even 30 (!) images at different masses that are obviously highly correlated. These images could be replaced with one or two scores images and corresponding loadings plots: there would be less to look at, the images would be clearer due to the noise reduction aspects of PCA, and more might be learned about the chemistry from the loadings. So we still have a way to go before we reach everybody!
Over the years I’ve learned quite a bit about the non-idealities in SIMS. It certainly isn’t like like NIR spectra that follow Beer’s Law and have very high signal-to-noise! But I’ve gotten an additional appreciation for some of the issues from some of the talks here. There are plenty of “problems” such as detector dead time, low ion count statistics, effects due to topography, etc., which must be considered while doing an analysis.
I’ve been known to say that the secret to EVRI is data preprocessing, i.e. what you do the data before it hits the analysis method, e.g. PCA or PLS. That is certainly true with SIMS, and it’s nice to see that this is well appreciated among this group. The challenge for us as software developers will be to integrate these “correction” methods into our packages in a way that makes using them convenient.
I think that SIMS is ripe for more applications of Multivariate Curve Resolution (MCR), and in fact we focused quite a bit on that in our course here, Chemometrics in SIMS. With proper preprocessing, many applications of curve resolution should be possible. The more chemically meaningful results should be a hit with this audience, I would think.
I hope to see more MCR by the time of the SIMS XVIII, which will be held in Riva del Garda, ITALY, September 18-23, 2011. I plan to keep working in this area, if only so I can go to that! Hope to see you there.
BMW
New software releases coming in October
Sep 11, 2009
The Eigenvector programming staff has been working hard all summer, and the fruits of their labor are just about ripe! In October we plan to release new and substantially improved versions of PLS_Toolbox, MIA_Toolbox, Solo, and Solo+MIA. For a rundown of the most significant improvements see the new features brochure.
I’m especially excited about the improvements to our Multivariate Image Analysis (MIA) tools. Our MATLAB-based MIA_Toolbox has undergone it’s most extensive upgrade since it’s introduction. It now features a new interface for organizing, editing and viewing images. There is also a new Texture Analysis interface, and lots of new image manipulation and filtering tools.
Our stand-alone Solo+MIA has all the features of the new MIA_Toolbox (of course!). Plus, we’re making Solo+MIA available for 64-bit operating systems. This makes working with the often very large images produced by advanced analytical techniques much more efficient.
We plan to release our new versions after the FACSS meeting, October 18-22. If you’d like to see them before then, visit us next week at SIMS XVII in Toronto, or at FACSS 2009 in Louisville. Better yet, take one of our hands-on courses at FACSS, where we’ll be using our new versions.
The best chemometrics software just keeps getting better!
BMW
Donal O’Sullivan joins Eigenvector
Sep 5, 2009
We’re pleased to announce that Donal O’Sullivan is the newest Eigenvectorian. As Senior Software Developer, Donal will be working with our Jeremy Shaver and Scott Koch to accelerate development of our off-the-shelf software products (PLS_Toolbox, Solo, etc.) and create custom solutions for our consulting clients.
Donal has a wealth of programming experience and a very interesting scientific background as well. After receiving his M.S. in Applied Mathematics at University College Dublin, he came to University of Washington where he completed his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences. This was followed by several research positions focused on the computationally intensive problem of modeling atmospheric phenomena. Most recently, Donal has worked with biosoftware, in the Algorithm Development Group for the Rosetta Resolver and Syllego genetic data analysis systems.
We’re excited about working with Donal because, in addition to great programming skills, he brings experience working with a diverse set of applications. Beyond that, we find him to be quite thoughtful, dedicated to quality, and easy to be around!
Welcome Donal!
BMW
Eigenvector Awarded SBIR Contract
Jul 8, 2009
We got some good news last week when we found out we won an SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) award to work with NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). The project will focus on continued advancement of the Temperature-Programmed Sensing (TPS) system developed at NIST by Steve Semancik and co-workers.
The TPS system is a multi-sensor array, typically with different materials on the individual sensing elements. But there is a twist: the TPS system allows for temperature control of the individual chemical sensor elements. TPS sensors are also known as “micro-hotplate sensors.” The ability to do temperature programming, i.e. vary the sensing element temperature as a function of time in a prescribed way, provides many opportunities for optimization. In addition, proper utilization of the sensor’s time/temperature response may lead to the realization of the “second order advantage” typically found in much larger and more complex analytical systems such as GS-MS.
We’re excited about working on this project and trust that our collective experience (100+ man-years of chemometrics consulting!) will lead to some improvements in the system performance.
I’ve included below the project title and abstract.
Chemometric Support for Temperature-Programmed Sensing System
The Temperature-Programmed Sensing (TPS) system developed at NIST presents many opportunities and unique challenges. The data output from the system can be quite complex and there are many opportunities to optimize the system for specific sensing scenarios. We propose a program aimed at characterizing the system so that potential problems (such as system drift) can be solved early so that the full potential of the system can be realized. The plan includes studies on the stability and theoretical functionality of the sensors. This will result in procedures for instrument standardization and data base-lining. After this is accomplished, advanced preprocessing methods will be considered, along with the use of multi-way (“second order”) data modeling methods for use in calibration and classification. Finally, procedures for optimizing the system for specific applications will be developed.
BMW
Eigenvector President Goes to Jail
Jun 25, 2009
But it was for a good cause.
I recently participated in the March of Dimes “Jail and Bail” fundraiser. The MoD got it’s start raising money for polio research in 1938. The other name for polio is “infantile paralysis,” as it typically attacked children and young adults. MoD defeated polio in the 1950’s, and has since gone on to work on other aspects of infant health. Most recently they are on a drive to prevent premature birth. Too many babies are born too early and too small, and it often affects their health for the rest of their lives.
In the “Jail and Bail” fundraiser you have to raise bail to avoid being locked up. If you don’t raise your bail beforehand, you are put in the slammer and obligated to get on the phone and solicit your friends and relatives until you raise the dough to get out.
This year the local jail was in the East Wenatchee Mall. I’m not a big fan of hanging out at the mall talking on my cell phone, so I worked my friends, relatives and fellow Eigenvectorians pretty hard over the last couple weeks. And I’m pleased to say that they came through! I raised $1250 and am still expecting to receive a few more pledged contributions. Most donated through my “Jail and Bail” web page. This made for a pleasant incarceration for me: I came in, got my mug shot, handed over my bail, made one last solicitation via email, and headed home.
The EigenGuys came through with 100% participation, although some of them, (Neal and Willem), spent some time trying to figure out how to donate in a way that would keep me in jail. I’m glad they didn’t figure that out–I don’t look good in stripes!
Thanks again to everyone that donated, and to the good folks at MoD for all their efforts on behalf of babies!
BMW
Software Engineer Sought
Jun 19, 2009
The current recession hasn’t slowed things down here at Eigenvector. In fact, we’re looking for another Software Engineer to help us speed up evolution of our current products and develop custom solutions for our consulting clients. Please find below an ad for the position.
BMW
Software Engineer sought for leading role in scientific software development.
Job Description:
The successful candidate will work with our Seattle-based scientific staff to develop MATLAB-based and stand-alone chemometrics products, including our flagship PLS_Toolbox and Solo. This includes design and implementation of interfaces and supporting documentation and development and refinement of numerical algorithms. Will also develop custom solutions for clients, including on-line applications.
About Eigenvector Research:
Eigenvector Research is a chemometrics research and applications company with headquarters in Wenatchee, Washington. Chemometrics is the application of mathematical and statistical methods to problems in chemistry. Our PLS_Toolbox product is used by engineers and scientists in 50+ countries. We also provide training and consulting services for a wide variety of clients in the chemical, petrochemical, consumer products, food & agriculture, pharmaceutical, semiconductor and medical device fields. For more information, please visit our website.
Position Requirements:
Must have experience with MATLAB and either C/C++ or Java, and be familiar with object-oriented programming techniques and development of graphical user interfaces. Strong math skills, especially linear algebra, desired. Background in multivariate statistics and chemical sciences a plus. Good communication skills, both oral and written, required. Must be self-starter, willing to work at home, and productive with only moderate supervision. B.S. or higher degree in chemistry, chemical engineering or other relevant scientific discipline preferred. Three years or more experience desired. Close proximity to Seattle a plus.
To Apply:
Send your cover letter and resume to Barry M. Wise, bmw@eigenvector.com.
EigenU Redux: Chemometrics in Wenatchee, July 13-16
Jun 4, 2009
We had a number of people that just couldn’t make it to EigenU last month and wanted a Chemometrics course this summer. So we’re planning on doing a course here in Wenatchee, WA, July 13-16, 2009. We’re doing our “Basic Chemometrics” course on Monday-Wednesday, including:
Linear Algebra for Chemometricians
MATLAB for Chemometricians
Chemometrics I: Principal Components Analysis
Chemometrics II: Partial Least Squares and Regression
On the optional fourth day, Thursday, we’ll go over some special topics, including:
Instrument Standardization and Calibration Transfer
Variable Selection
Advanced Preprocessing
The cost of the course will be $1475/$650 (industrial/academic) for the first three days, and $475/$225 for the optional fourth day.
Please come with a laptop with either MATLAB + PLS_Toolbox or Solo installed. (The free demo versions are just fine for this.) Let me know if this is a problem and I’ll try to help you out.
For further information and to register, just contact me.
BMW
Chemometrics in Cultural Heritage
May 29, 2009
Last fall I had the pleasure, with Rasmus Bro, to teach a chemometrics course in Rome. The choice of this location was a result of Rasmus just wanting to go to Rome, and me making an email acquaintance of Prof. Giovanni Visco of the University of Rome, (La Sapienza). In 2008 Giovanni was organizing the second CMA4CH meeting, which is a rather un-obvious acronym for “Application of Multivariate Analysis and Chemometry to Cultural Heritage and Environment.” We gave Giovanni a copy of Solo for the Best Presentation Prize at CMA4CH 2008, and a friendship was born. So when we (Rasmus, along with my wife and daughters, had easily convinced me) wanted to do a course in Rome, I contacted Giovanni and he figured it all out for us. Between Giovanni and his colleague Federico Marini, we were very well taken care of during our stay in Rome!
Giovanni is now in the process of organizing CMA4CH 2010, which will be held on the island of Sicily on September 26-29. He was kind enough to ask me to be the Co-chair for Chemometrics, and I gladly agreed. While somewhat specific, this meeting considers in depth a rather important intersection between a scientific method and an application.
Of course, Italy is THE place for a meeting focused on cultural heritage; they have more of it than just about anybody. And there are so many potential applications of chemometric methods in this arena, (identification of artifacts, provenance of origin, fraud detection, effect of climate and pollution, restoration, etc.), that there should be plenty to discuss! We’re looking forward to it.
BMW
Chemometrics and Fortune 500 Companies
May 28, 2009
The other day I was updating my bio for a conference and was working on some sentences regarding our experience teaching chemometrics. It included a reference to teaching employees of Fortune 500 companies. So I decided to try to figure out how many of these companies had sent employees to our courses.
Scanning the list, (and just from memory), I came up with 50+ companies we have either taught in-hours courses for or who have sent people to our open courses, including: 3M Company, Abbott Laboratories, Advanced Micro Devices, Agilent Technologies, Air Products and Chemicals, Alcoa, Amgen, Applied Materials, AT&T, Avery Dennison, Becton, Dickinson & Co., Boston Scientific, Boeing, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chevron, Colgate-Palmolive, ConocoPhillips, Corning, Delphi, Dow Chemical, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Eastman Chemical, Eastman Kodak, Eli Lilly & Co., ExxonMobil, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, Goodrich, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Hershey, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, Huntsman, Intel, IBM, International Paper, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft, Lockheed Martin, Lucent, Merck & Co., Micron, Owens Corning, Pfizer, Praxair, Procter & Gamble, Rohm & Haas, Schering-Plough, Sunoco, Texas Instruments, Weyerhaeuser and Wyeth.
First off, I’m pleased that personnel at all of these companies have thought enough of us to come to our courses, (such as EigenU). But beyond that, it shows that chemometrics is an important and widely applicable discipline. In these companies chemometric methods play a critical role in many aspects of their product life cycles, from basic research, through product development and scale-up to manufacturing. Multivariate methods improve efficiency and, therefore, are part of these companies competitive advantage.
BMW
Another EigenU Complete!
May 26, 2009
The fourth edition of Eigenvector University came to a close last Friday, May 22. The week-long EigenU 2009 had 25 participants from a wide variety of industries and universities. This was somewhat smaller than 2008, but still a good showing given the current state of the economy. Of course, we think it’s the really smart companies that use the slow times to improve the skill sets of their employees!
As usual, the kind folks at the WAC took good care of us. Many thanks to Rick, Amanda, Wayne, Joe, Joshua, Timothy, Bernie, Randall, Eddie, Quentin and all the rest that kept us hydrated and well-fed.
Speaking of well-fed, we all enjoyed Thursday evening’s workshop dinner at Torchy’s. Here everyone contemplates the dinner choices while discussing the day’s courses, which included Chuck and Bob’s “Implementing Chemometrics in PAT,” Rasmus’ “Variable Selection,” and Willem’s “Chemometrics in Mass Spectrometry.”
Thanks to all the course participants for braving the swine flu panic to join us! Also, to the 8 “Eigenvectorian” instructors (Scott, Jeremy, Willem, Neal, Chuck, Bob, Rasmus and myself) for developing and leading the courses.
EigenU 2010 is tentatively scheduled for May 16-21, 2010. In the mean time, catch one of our courses at SIMS XVII, FACSS or EAS, or contact me to schedule in-house training!
BMW
Congratulations Romà!
Apr 17, 2009
This year’s Eastern Analytical Symposium Award for Achievements in Chemometrics goes to Romà Tauler. Romà is a Research Professor at CSIC, the Institute of Chemical and Environmental Research in Barcelona, Spain.
Romà continues to be a pioneer in Multivariate Curve Resolution, the collection of techniques used for decomposing spectral data into its physically meaningful underlying components. Romà has published an astounding number of papers concerning both the theoretical and practical aspects of MCR, in addition to many other papers in the general field of chemometrics.
Romà is also Editor in Chief of Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems.
Professor Tauler joins the previous EAS Chemometrics Award winners (a distinguished group if I may say so myself) listed below:
-
1996-Steven D. Brown
1997-Tormod Næs
1998-Edmund R. Malinowski
1999-Harald Martens
2000-Svante Wold
2001-Barry M. Wise
2002-Paul Geladi
2003-Paul Gemperline
2004-Rasmus Bro
2005-David Haaland
2006-Age Smilde
2007-Philip Hopke
2008-John F. MacGregor
A special session honoring Romà’s achievements will be presented at this year’s EAS in November.
Eigenvector has been the sponsor of the Chemometrics Award since 2002, and we’re pleased to do it again this year. Congratulations Romà!
BMW
EigenU Registration Open
Apr 9, 2009
The fourth edition of Eigenvector University will be held in Seattle May 17-22. We’re excited about this edition in part because we have four new courses: Robust Methods, Correlation Spectroscopy, Common Mistakes in Chemometrics (and how not to make them), and Implementing Chemometrics in PAT.
But we’re also excited because EigenU is about the only time during the year where we get the whole Eigenvector staff together. This is a benefit for us–we like to see each other and exchange ideas on consulting projects, talk about software development, etc. But it’s also a benefit for the attendees–a chance to talk to all the Eigenvectorians and find whichever one of us has the most experience on your problem.
While we’ve been somewhat worried that the current economy would affect our attendance, I’m pleased to report that registrations are coming in and we’re up to 17 participants as of April 9. Apparently, there are some companies out there that realize that the best time to sharpen the saw is before all the orders for logs come in.
Early registration for EigenU ends on April 17. After that, prices go up, so get your training plan in order now!
BMW
PLS_Toolbox and Solo 5.2 Released
Apr 8, 2009
PLS_Toolbox and Solo 5.2 were released on April 7, 2009. This is the first major update to version 5.0. There’s a little too much new stuff in it to call it 5.1 (see the complete list), so we’re calling it 5.2. At first glance you won’t actually notice many of the improvements; most of them are “under the hood.” But that doesn’t mean they aren’t important.
The most exciting advancements in release 5.2 make it easier to use PLS_Toolbox and Solo with the software used to control analytical instruments. EVRIGUI Objects allow manipulation and access to our main interfaces, Analysis and Browse. MATLAB users can use these tools to write scripts to control the GUIs to access data and results. For instance, users can easily write a script which starts up PLS_Toolbox, pushes data into it, sets the parameters of an analysis (such as preprocessing and modeling method), and calculates a preliminary model. Solo Remote Control allows similar functionality with Solo.
The bottom line is that it is now easier than ever for analytical instrument makers to integrate PLS_Toolbox and Solo with their instrument software. In the current release, we’ve used these tools to make our software work with instruments from Hamilton Sundstrand and Horiba. (More about that later.)
So if you are looking for chemometrics software for use with your analytical instruments, check out PLS_Toolbox and Solo. They’re powerful, easy-to-use, economical, and they play nicely!
Eigenvector welcomes Sharon Deram
Nov 11, 2008
Eigenvector Research is pleased to announce that Sharon Deram of SBI Analytical is our new Midwest US Sales Representative. Sharon’s territory includes Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.
SBI Analytical is a manufacuterers’ representative organization specializing in laboratory instrumentation and process analyzers. The company is based near Chicago, IL. President Sharon Deram has over 20 years experience working in process analytics. Sharon has extensive experience matching the needs of her clients with the right analytical instrumentation. With software solutions from EVRI, she’ll be able to further leverage client’s investments in process technology.
Welcome aboard, Sharon!
BMW
Rome Wrap-up
Oct 30, 2008
Thanks to everybody who came to our “Basic Chemometrics” course this week in Rome! We had 20 students from 10 countries, and it was a really good mix.
A special thanks to our hosts, including Giovanni Visco, Maria Pia Sammartino, Federico Marini and the staff at CASPUR. The facility was excellent, and the meals were terrific, though I certainly couldn’t eat that much every day!
We also really enjoyed the conference dinner on Tuesday evening, including the entertainment: Federico on guitar and singing with Rasmus on harmonica. What a treat!
BMW
EigenGuys at FACSS in Reno
Oct 20, 2008
This was the first year in a long time that I didn’t make it to FACSS, but that doesn’t mean that Eigenvector wasn’t there. The EigenGuys attending included Neal Gallagher, Jeremy Shaver, Chuck Miller and Scott Koch.
As usual, EVRI taught some courses: Neal took the lead on our popular Chemometrics without Equations, and introduced a new course, Advanced Chemometrics without Equations. As its name implies, ACWE explains concepts such as advanced preprocessing and variable selection in words and pictures rather than equations.
The EigenGuys also gave a number of talks. Jeremy presented “Making Do-Weighted regression models for use with less-than-perfect data.” This work describes a strategy for developing models based on historical data when the most interesting or critical data is underrepresented.
Chuck presented our still-not-quite-complete study of preprocessing and calibration transfer methods, “Combining Calibration Transfer and Preprocessing: What methods, What Order?” The good news is, as far as the examples we have go, it doesn’t matter if you preprocess then do calibration transfer or the other way around. (If you have data where you think it makes a real difference, please drop a line.) Chuck’s other offering, “Analytical Chemistry and Multi-Block Modeling for Improved NIR Spectral Interpretation,” demonstrated how PLS2 can be used to analyze data from multiple analytical instruments in order improve understanding. This deeper knowledge can be used in turn to improve model performance.
Scott headed up the trade show aspect of the conference, manning our booth. Scott’s main task was doing demos of our new PLS_Toolbox 5.0, which was just released last week. Look for Solo 5.0 shortly!
BMW