Chimiométrie 2020: Models, Models Everywhere!

I’ve just returned from Conference Chimiométrie 2020, the annual French language chemometrics conference, now in its 21st edition. The conference was held in Liège and unfortunately there wasn’t much time to explore the city. I can tell you they have a magnificent train station, Gare de Liège is pictured at right.

The vibrant French chemometrics community always produces a great conference with good attendance, well over 120 at this event, and food and other aspects were as enjoyable as ever thanks to the local organizing committee and conference chair Professor Eric Ziemons.

Age Smilde got the conference off to a good start with “Common and Distinct Components in Data Fusion.” In it he described a number of different model forms, all related to ANOVA Simultaneous Components Analysis (ASCA), for determining if the components in different blocks of data are unique or shared. What struck me most about this talk and many of the ones that followed is that there are a lot of different models out there. As Age says, “Think about the structure of your data!” The choice of model structure is critical to answering the questions posed to the data. And it is only with solid domain knowledge that appropriate modeling choices are made.

In addition to a significant number of papers on multi-block methods, Chimiométrie included quite a few papers in the domain of metabolomics, machine learning, Bayesian methods, and a large number of papers on hyper spectral image analysis (see the Programme du Congrès). All in all, a very well rounded affair!

I was pleased to see a good number of posters that utilized our PLS_Toolbox and in some instances MIA_Toolbox software very well! The titles are given below with links to the posters. We’re always happy to help researchers achieve an end result or provide a benchmark towards the development of new methods!

Identification of falsified antimalarial drugs using an innovative low cost portable near infrared spectrophotometer by Moussa Yabré et. al.

Development of plant phenotyping tools for potato resistance against Phytophthora infestans by François Stevens et. al.

Metabolomic fingerprinting of Moroccan Argan kernels using two platform techniques UPLC-TOF/MS and UPLC-DAD: A geographic classification by Mourad Kharbach et. al.

Quantitative resolution of emulsifiers in an agrochemical formulation by S. Mukherjee et. al.

Assay of Ibuprofen Tablets at High Speed with Spatially Resolved Near Infrared Spectroscopy by Philipe Hubert

Discrimination of Diesel Fuels Marketed in Morocco Using FTIR, GC-MS Analysis and Chemometric Methods by Issam Barra et. al.

Partial Least Squares (PLS) versus Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Which model is the best performer in predicting monosaccharide content of pharmaceutical proteins based on their FT-IR spectrum? by Sabrina Hamla et. al.

Application of vibrational spectroscopy and chemometrics to assess the quality of locally produced antimalarial medicines in the Democratic Republic of Congo by P.H. Ciza et. al.

Thanks again to the conference organizers. À l’année prochaine!

BMW