SEARCHThe View from Eigenvector
EigenNews and EigenViews from Barry and the Eigenvector staff.
Overfit < 1??
Feb 25, 2025
I’ve learned a number of things using Diviner, our new semi-automated Machine Learning tool for creating regression models. When you make models in large numbers on each data set you are presented, you begin to see some trends. For me, one of these was the discovery of how some data preprocessing methods work well surprisingly […]
On Turning 30
Jan 6, 2025
Eigenvector Research was founded on January 1, 1995, which means that we just turned 30. When I mentioned writing a piece for the occasion of our 30th anniversary, our Donal O’Sullivan replied “I don’t know if you want people to know we’re that old!” And I understand where he’s coming from. In the software business, especially […]
Year 30
Dec 27, 2023
I believe that days go slow and years go fastAnd every breath’s a gift, the first one to the last – Luke Bryan, ‘Most People are Good’ Eigenvector Research starts its 30th year this January. Reflecting on that made me think of the Luke Bryan quote above. Some days have been long, for sure. For […]
Transparency
Dec 26, 2023
Jonathan Stratton of Optimal posted a nice summary on LinkedIn of the 2nd Annual PAT and Real Time Quality Summit which took place in Boston this month. In it he included the following bullet point: “The age-old concept of data modeling with spectroscopy has been revitalized through the integration of Machine Learning and AI initiatives. […]
In-Person, Live Online or Recorded?
Sep 25, 2023
At Eigenvector Research we offer many courses in chemometrics and machine learning and several ways to take them. As such, I often get variations on the question “what’s the difference between your in-person classes and your online classes?” I’ll address this by starting with what stays the same. We use the same notes, and have […]
Why Solo?
Aug 30, 2023
Eigenvector Software Explained
Jun 15, 2023
Eigenvector Research produces a variety of software products for chemometrics and machine learning and we often get asked how they work together. Here’s the roadmap! We have two main packages for modeling, our MATLAB® based PLS_Toolbox, and our stand alone Solo (with versions for Windows, macOS and Linux). Solo is the compiled version of PLS_Toolbox, […]
Chemometrics without Equations
Nov 29, 2022
In 1988 Donald Dahlberg, Professor of Chemistry at Lebanon Valley College (LVC), decided to take a sabbatical leave at the University of Washington (UW) Center for Process Analytical Chemistry (CPAC). At the time, his former student Mary Beth Seasholtz was a second year graduate student in Bruce Kowalski’s Laboratory for Chemometrics. Mary Beth asked Don […]
Evaluating Models: Hating on R-squared
Jun 16, 2022
There are a number of measures that are used to evaluate the performance of machine learning/chemometric models for calibration, i.e. for predicting a continuous value. Most of these come down to reducing the model error, the difference between the reference values and the values predicted (estimated) by the model, to some single measure of “goodness.” […]
Python is free
Apr 5, 2022
PLS_Toolbox is not free. But you don’t have to be a dedicated data scientist to use PLS_Toolbox (or its stand-alone equivalent Solo). Many of its users are, but the real expertise of most users is in something else such as analytical instrumentation (typically spectroscopy) or the specific problem they are working on (e.g. chemical process […]
We used to call it “Chemometrics”
Feb 23, 2022
The term chemometrics was coined by Svante Wold in a grant application he submitted in 1971 while at the University of Umeå. Supposedly, he thought that creating a new term, (in Swedish it is ‘kemometri’), would increase the likelihood of his application being funded. In 1974, while on a visit to the University of Washington, […]
Remembering Svante
Jan 6, 2022
Svante Wold passed away on January 4, 2022, at the age of 81. In the fields of chemometrics and data science, there is no need to use his last name. If you say “Svante,” everybody knows who you are talking about. I first met Svante almost 30 years ago at the Chemometrics in Analytical Chemistry […]
Under Same (Old) Management
Oct 21, 2021
That’s not a headline you see very often. Usually it’s “Under New Management.” But here at Eigenvector Research we’re proud of our stability. I wrote the first version of our MATLAB-based PLS_Toolbox while I was in graduate school thirty-one years ago. I still oversee its development along with our other software products. In 1990 Partial […]
New Year, New Courses and Webinars
Jan 12, 2021
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 we offered many online courses, over 100 hours of lectures in total (not counting the classes we did for specific clients). We gave ourselves a break towards the end of the year but we’re now re-energized and ready to get going again. Our first webinar of the […]
Year 27
Jan 5, 2021
And so it begins again! For the 27th time I’ve gotten up on the first business day of January looking forward to a new year with Eigenvector Research. The overall plan doesn’t change much: keep improving the software, provide training in data science/chemometric methods and help clients with their challenging data problems. But the details! […]
COVID-19 Upate: Still Here to Help You
Mar 18, 2020
As with most of you, we here at Eigenvector are very concerned about the COVID-19 outbreak and its impact on our families, friends, customers and communities. We continue to monitor its evolution closely, especially in regard to our employees and their families. The direct effect of COVID-19 on the daily business of Eigenvector, however, is […]
Chimiométrie 2020: Models, Models Everywhere!
Feb 4, 2020
Domain Knowledge and the New “Turn Your Data Into Gold” Rush
Jan 29, 2020
A colleague wrote to me recently and asked if Eigenvector was considering rebranding itself as a Data Science company. My knee-jerk response was “isn’t that what we’ve been for the last 25 years?” But I know exactly what she meant: few people have heard of Chemometrics but everybody has heard about Data Science. She went […]
Eigenvector Turns 25
Jan 1, 2020
Eigenvector Research, Inc. was founded on January 1, 1995 by myself and Neal B. Gallagher, so we’re now 25 years old. On this occasion I feel that I should write something though I’m at a bit of loss with regards to coming up with a significantly profound message. In the paragraphs below I’ve written a […]
Everybody’s Welcome in the Eigenvector Sandbox
Nov 20, 2019
When I was a kid I was lucky to have a great sandbox. The fact that it was on the shores of Lake Chelan made it especially nice, but there were a lot of other things that made it great. First off, it was big enough for several kids to play in at the same […]