The View from Eigenvector

Chimiométrie 2019 was held in Montpellier, January 30 to February 1. Now in its 20th year the conference attracted over 150 participants. The conference is mostly in French, (which I have been trying to learn for many years now), but also with talks in English. The Scientific and Organizing Committee Presidents were Ludovic Duponchel and J.M. Roger, respectively.

Eigenvector was proud to sponsor this event, and it was fun to have a display table and a chance to talk with some of our software users in France. As usual, I was on the lookout for talks and posters using PLS_Toolbox. I especially enjoyed the talk presented by Alice Croguennoc, Some aspects of SVM Regression: an example for spectroscopic quantitative predictions. The talk provided a nice intro to Support Vectors and good examples of what the various parameters in the method do. Alice used our implementation of SVMs, which adds our preprocessing, cross-validation and point-and-click graphics to the publicly available LIBSVM package. Ms. Croguennoc demonstrated some very nice calibrations on a non-linear spectroscopic problem.

I also found three very nice posters which utilized PLS_Toolbox:

Chemometric methods applied to FT-ICR/MS data: comprehensive study of aromatic sulfur compounds in gas oils by J. Guillemant, M. Lacoue-Nègre, F. Albrieux, L. Duponchel, L.P de Oliveira and J.F Joly.

Chemometric tools associated to FTIR and GC-MS for the discrimination and the classification of diesel fuels by suppliers by I. Barra, M. Kharbach, Y. Cherrah and A. Bouklouze.

Preliminary appreciation biodegradation of formate and fluorinated ethers by means of Raman spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics by M. Marchetti, M. Offroy, P. Bourson, C. Jobard, P. Branchu, J.F. Durmont, G. Casteran and B. Saintot.

By all accounts the conference was a great success, with many good talks and posters covering a wide range of chemometric topics, a great history of the field by Professor Steven D. Brown, and a delicious and fun Gala dinner at the fabulous Chez Parguel, shown at left. The evening included dancing, and also a song, La Place De la Conférence Chimiométrie, (sung to the tune of Patrick Bruel’s Place des Grands Hommes), written by Sylvie Roussel in celebration of the conference’s 20th year and sung with great gusto by the conferees. Also, the lecture hall on the SupAgro campus was very comfortable!

Congratulations to the conference committees for a great edition of this French tradition, with special thanks to Cécile Fontange and Sylvie Roussel of Ondalys for their organizational efforts. À l’année prochaine!

BMW

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I logged in to LinkedIn this morning and found a discussion about Python that had a lot of references to PLS_Toolbox in it. The thread was started by one of our long time users, Erik Skibsted who wrote:

“MATLAB and PLS_Toolbox has always been my preferred tools for data science, but now I have started to play a little with Python (and finalised my first on-line course on Data Camp). At Novo Nordisk we have also seen a lot of small data science initiatives last year where people are using Python and I expect that a lot more of my colleagues will start coding small and big data science projects in 2019. It is pretty impressive what you can do now with this open source software and different libraries. And I believe Python will be very important in the journey towards a general use of machine learning and AI in our company.”

This post prompted well over 20 responses. As creator of PLS_Toolbox I thought I should jump in on the discussion!

In his response, Matej Horvat noted that Python and other open source initiatives were great “if you have the required coding skills.” This a key phrase. PLS_Toolbox doesn’t require any coding skills _at all_. You can use it entirely in point-and-click mode and still get to 90% of what it has to offer. (This makes it the equivalent of using our stand-alone product Solo.) When you are working with PLS_Toolbox interfaces it looks like the first figure below.

Of course if you are a coder you can take advantage of the ability to also use it in command line mode and build it into your own scripts and functions, just like you would do with other MATLAB toolboxes. The caveat is that you can’t redistribute it without an additional license from us. (We do sell these of course, contact me if you are interested.) When you are working with Python, (or developing MATLAB scripts incorporating PLS_Toolbox functions for that matter), it looks like the second figure.

Like Python, PLS_Toolbox is “open source” in the sense that you can actually see the code. We’re not hiding anything proprietary in it. You can find out exactly how it works. You can also modify if you wish, just don’t ask for help once you do that!

Unlike typical open source projects, with PLS_Toolbox you also get user support. If something doesn’t work we’re there to fix it. Our helpdesk has a great reputation for prompt responses that are actually helpful. That’s because the help comes from the people that actually developed the software.

Another reason to use PLS_Toolbox is that we have implemented a very wide array of methods and put them into the same framework so that they can be evaluated in a consistent way. For instance, we have PLS-DA, SVM-C, and now XGBoost all in the same interface that use the exact same preprocessing and are all cross-validated and validated in the same exact way so that they can be compared directly.

If you want to be able to freely distribute the models you generate with PLS_Toolbox we have have a tool for that: Model_Exporter. Model_Exporter allows users to export the majority of our models as code that you can compile into other languages, including direct export of Python code. You can then run the models anywhere you like, such as for making online predictions in a control system or with handheld spectrometers such as ThermoFisher’s Truscan. Another route to online predictions is using our stand-alone Solo_Predictor which can run any PLS_Toolbox/Solo model and communicates using a number of popular protocols.

PLS_Toolbox is just one piece of the complete chemometrics solutions we provide. We offer training at our renowned Eigenvector University and many other venues such as the upcoming course in Tokyo, EigenU Online, and an extensive array of help videos. And if that isn’t enough we also offer consulting services to help you develop and implement new instruments and applications.

So before you spend a lot of valuable time developing applications in Python, make sure you’re not just recreating tools that already exist at Eigenvector!

BMW

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The Lake Chelan Valley Scholarship Foundation (LCVSF) will award 18 scholarships in the amount of $2500 each. The recipients include three members of Chelan’s Class of 2018: Ahimelec Diaz, Gage Martin and Madeline Peebles; six members of Manson’s Class of 2018: Alyssa La Mar, Veronica Lulo, Jessica Medina, Joe Strecker, Adeleine Torgesen and Magali Vargas; and nine renewals by previous recipients: Neil Carleton, Henry Elsner, Melena Evig, Delacy Machus, Anabeth Morales, Jessica Oules, Abbigail Phelps, Zachary Phelps and Bethany Trusel.

“The nine successful renewals show that most of our previous recipients are doing well in college, and we’re certainly glad to see that” noted LCVSF board member Barry Wise. “This year’s batch of new awards included several students with quite compelling stories of overcoming hardships to get through high school and successfully apply for college. It is always humbling to read these. We’re happy to help make it just a bit easier for these kids to continue in school.”

The awards will be presented at Riverwalk Park on Saturday, August 11 at 10am. Please join us to celebrate the achievements of these young scholars.

The LCVSF was made possible by Doug and Eva Dewar, who wished that their estates be used to help the children of the Chelan Valley. LCVSF was founded in 1991, and in that year five scholarships in the amount of $1000 each were awarded. The fund has grown substantially over the years from contributions from many people, but especially significant contributions from John Gladney, Ray Bumgardner, Don & Betty Schmitten, Marian McFadden, Virginia Husted, the Dick Slaugenhaupt Memorial and Irma Keeney. This year’s scholarships total $45,000.

LCVSF accepts applications from residents of the Chelan valley for undergraduate education. The awards are renewable for up to four years. LCVSF welcomes applications from graduating high school seniors as well as current college students and adults returning to school.

The LCVSF board includes Betsy Kronschnabel (President), Arthur Campbell, III, Linda Mayer (Secretary), Sue Clouse, Barry M. Wise, Ph.D. and John Pleyte, M.D. (Treasurer). For further information, please contact Barry Wise at bmw@eigenvector.com.

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The 13th Annual Eigenvector University was held April 29-May 4 in Seattle. It was a busy, vibrant week with 40 students with a wide variety of backgrounds attending along with 10 instructors. Users of our PLS_Toolbox and Solo chemometrics packages showed some of their recent results at the Wednesday evening poster session, which has become an EigenU tradition. Now combined with our PowerUser Tips & Tricks session, it makes for a full evening of scientific and technical exchange fueled by hors d’oeuvres and adult beverages.

This year’s best poster, (as judged by the EVRI staff), was “Nondestructive Analysis of Historic Photographs” by Arthur McClelland, Elena Bulat, Melissa Banta, Erin Murphy, and Brenda Bernier. The poster described how Specular Reflection FTIR was used with Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to discriminate between coatings applied to prints in the Harvard class albums from 1853-1864.

For his efforts Arthur took home a pair of Bose Soundsport Wireless Headphones. Arthur is shown above accepting his prize from Eigenvector President Barry M. Wise and Vice-president Neal B. Gallagher. Congratulations Arthur!

The runner up poster was “Analytical Approach to Investigate Salt Disproportionation in Tablet Matrices by Stimulated Raman Scattering Microscopy” by Benjamin Figueroa, Tai Nguyen, Yongchao Su, Wei Xu, Tim Rhodes, Matt Lamm, and Dan Fu. The poster demonstrates how the the conversion of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) from its active salt form to its inactive free base form can be quantified in Raman images of tablets. Benjamin received a Bose Soundlink Bluetooth Speaker for his contribution. Kudos Benjamin!

We were also pleased to have several other very interesting poster submissions, as shown below:

Candace D. Harris, Xianglei Mao, Jiaojin Song, Jonathan Woodward, Lewis Johnson, and Ashley C. Stowe, “Multivariate Limit of Detection Interval for PLS Calibration Models via Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy on U-235 and U-238 Enriched Glasses.”

Po Ki Tse, Amanda Lines, Sam Bryan, and Jenifer Shafer, “Chemometric Analysis to Predict the Formation of Interfacial Solids.”

Yulan Hernandez, Lesly Lagos and Betty C. Galarreta, “Selective and Efficient Mycotoxin Detection with Nanoaptasensors using SERS and Multivariate Analysis.”

Devanand Luthria and James Harnly, “Applications of Spectral Fingerprinting and Multivariate Analysis in Agricultural Sciences.”

Thanks to all EigenU 2018 poster presenters for a fun and informative evening!

BMW

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Integration of Eigenvector’s multivariate analysis software with Metrohm’s Vis-NIR analyzers will give users access to advanced calibration and classification methods.

Metrohm’s spectroscopy software Vision Air 2.0 supports prediction models created in EVRI’s PLS_Toolbox and Solo software and offers convenient export and import functionality to enable measurement execution and sample analysis in Metrohm’s Vision Air software. Customers will benefit from data transfer between PLS_Toolbox/Solo and Vision Air and will enjoy a seamless experience when managing models and using Metrohm’s NIR laboratory instruments. Metrohm has integrated Eigenvector’s prediction engine, Solo_Predictor, so that users can apply any model created in PLS_Toolbox/Solo.

Data scientists, researchers and process engineers in a wide variety of industries that already use or would like to use Eigenvector software will find this solution appealing. PLS_Toolbox and Solo’s intuitive interface and advanced visualization tools make calibration, classification and validation model building a straightforward process. A wide array of model types, preprocessing methods and the ability to create more complex model forms, such as hierarchical models with conditional branches, make Eigenvector software the preferred solution for many.

“This a win-win for users of Metrohm NIR instruments and users of Eigenvector chemometrics software” says Eigenvector President Dr. Barry M. Wise. “Thousands of users of EVRI software will be able to make models for use on Metrohm NIR instruments in their preferred environment. And users of Metrohm NIR instruments will have access to more advanced data modeling techniques.”

Researchers benefit from Metrohm’s Vis-NIR Instrument and Vision Air software through instruments covering the visible and NIR wavelength range, intuitive operation, state-of-the art user management with strict SOPs and global networking capabilities. Combining the solutions will create an integrated experience that will save time, improve product development process and provide better control of product quality.

Key Advantages PLS_Toolbox/Solo:

• Integration of Solo_Predictor allows users to run any model developed in PLS_Toolbox/Solo
• Allows users to make calibration and classification models in PLS_Toolbox and Solo’s user-friendly modeling environment
• Supports standard model types (PCA, PLS, PLS-DA, etc.) with wide array of data preprocessing methods
• Advanced models (SVMs, ANNs, etc.) and hierarchical models also supported

Key Advantages Vision Air:

• Intuitive workflow due to appealing and smart software concept with specific working interfaces for routine users, and lab managers
• Database approach for secure data handling and easy data management
• Powerful network option with global networking possibility and one-click instruments maintenance
• Full CFR Part 11 compliance

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Hello EigenFriends and EigenFans,

The ICNIRS conference was held June 11-15 in Copenhagen, Denmark, where close to 500 colleagues gathered for the largest forum on Near-Infared Spectroscopy in the world. The conference featured several keynote lectures, classes taught by EVRI associate Professor Rasmus Bro, and also held several poster sessions where over 20 conference attendees displayed their research using EVRI software! We’d like to feature some of the posters and authors below: thanks for using our software, everyone!

• Y. Allouche, J.A. Fernandez Perna, V. Baeten, & A. Jimenez. “On-line Near Infrared Spectroscopy and Chemometrics for Characterization of Olive Oils at the Exit of a Decanter Centrifuge”
• C. Y. Bastidas, C. von Plessing, J. Troncoso, & R. del Pilar Castillo. “Quantification of an Antibiotic in Salmon Feed Pellets with NIR Spectroscopy and Multivariate Calibration”
• B. Carrasco, D. Vincke, V. Baeten, & J.A. Fernandez Perna. “Application of Near Infrared Spectroscopy and Chemometrics for the Characterization of Complex Mixtures of Food Additives”
• M. Chaudhry, G. Colelli, & M. Amodio.“Potential of Hyperspectral Imaging to Predict Quality and Shelf-Life of Fresh Rocket Leaves to be Used for Fresh-Cut Processing”
• S.Duthen, D. Kleiber, J. Dayde, C. Raynaud, & C. Levasseur-Garcia. “Determination of the Moisture Content of Gelatin Sample”
• D. Eylenbosch, J. A. Fernandez Pierna, V. Baeten, & B. Bodson. “Comparison of PLS and SVM Discriminant Analysis for NIR Hyperspectral Data of Wheat Roots in Soil”
• L. Franca, S. Grassi, M. F. Pimentel, & J. M. Amigo. “Handcraft Beer Monitoring Using NIR Handheld Equipment”
• R. Gasbarrone, S. Serranti & G. Bonifazi. “An Investigation on Non-ferrous Metals Particles Separability from Electronic Scraps using Hyperspectral Imaging and Micro-XRF Analysis”
• S. Montagneir, J. Lallemand, P. Herbert, J. Guilment, & S. Roussel. “Discriminant Strategies for Polymer Identification during Continuous On-line Processes by Near Infrared Spectroscopy”




• R. Palmieri, S. Serranti, G. Bonifazi, & F. Maffei. “Monitoring of Microplastics from Marine Environment Adopting HyperSpectral Imaging”
• J. F. Q. Pereira, C. S. Silva, M. J. Vieira, M. F. Pimentel, A. Braz, & R. S. Honorato. “Evaluation and Identification of Blood Stains in Crime Scenes with Ultra-portable NIR Spectrometer”
• Y. Pu, D. Sun, C. Riccioli, M. Buccheri, M. Grassi, T. M. P. Cattaneo, & A. Gowen. “Calibration Transfer from MicroNIR Spectrometer to Hyperspectral Imaging: A Case Study on Predicting Soluble Solids Content of Bananito Fruit (Musa acuminata)”
• M. M. Reis, I. Kaur, G. Weralupitiya, C. Wang, & M. G. Reis. “Near InfraRed Spectroscopy Applied to Non-invasive Assessment of Physical-chemical Attributes of Dairy Powders”
• R. Rios-Reina, D. L. Garcia-Gonzalez, R. M. Collejon, & J. M. Amigo. “Application of Near-Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy and Chemometrics to Classify and Authentify Wine Vinegars from Different Protected Designation of Origin”
• J. Sun, A. McGlone, R. Kunnememeyer, N. Tomer, & M. Punter. “Which Optical Geometry is Best to Detect Vascular Browning in Apples?”
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One of my more satisfying off-work activities has been my involvement with the Lake Chelan Valley Scholarship Foundation. LCVSF gives awards for undergraduate education to residents of the Chelan Valley, including Manson, Chelan, Stehekin and Holden. Below you’ll find a note on this summer’s awards.

We are pleased to announce the Lake Chelan Valley Scholarship Foundation (LCVSF) will award 16 scholarships this Saturday in the amount of $3000 each. The recipients include six members of Chelan’s Class of 2017: Sierra Burkhard, Henry Elsner, Addie Ivory, Anabeth Morales, Jessica Oules, and Celeste Verduzco; two members of Manson’s Class of 2017: Bowen Charlton and Aurelio Gutierrez; and 8 renewals by previous recipients: Drew Carleton, Neil Carleton, Ivan DeJesus-Ramierrez, Melena Evig, Kristen Gibson, Abbigail Phelps, Megan Robinson and Tess Young.

“We had some great applications this year and we’re especially pleased that so many of our previous recipients are doing so well in school” noted LCVSF board member Barry Wise. “A slightly smaller pool of applicants plus continued growth of our fund allowed us to give both the largest awards, $3K each, and the highest total amount, $48K, ever.”

The awards will be presented at Riverwalk Park on Saturday, August 5 at 10am. Please join us to celebrate the achievements of these young scholars.

The LCVSF was made possible by Doug and Eva Dewar, who wished that their estates be used to help the children of the Chelan Valley. LCVSF was founded in 1991, and in that year five scholarships in the amount of $1000 each were awarded. The fund has grown substantially over the years from contributions from many people, but especially significant contributions from John Gladney, Ray Bumgardner, Don & Betty Schmitten, Marian McFadden, Virginia Husted, the Dick Slaugenhaupt Memorial, and Irma Keeney.

LCVSF accepts applications from residents of the Chelan valley for undergraduate education. The awards are renewable for up to four years. LCVSF welcomes applications from graduating high school seniors as well as current college students and adults returning to school.

The LCVSF board includes Betsy Kronschnabel (President), Arthur Campbell, III, Linda Mayer (Secretary), Sue Clouse, Barry M. Wise, Ph.D. and John Pleyte, M.D. (Treasurer). For further information, please contact Barry Wise at bmw@eigenvector.com.

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Hello EigenFriends and EigenFans,

Two months ago we hosted the 12th Annual EigenU at the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle, WA. We had over 50 people join us through six days of hands-on chemometric courses, and once again had an awesome poster session where users got to display their use of PLS_Toolbox and EVRI methods in their recent research. We named two winners to take home the poster prizes from the session: Dr. Gordon G. Allison of Aberystwyth University, and Dr. Amanda Lines of PNNL. Information about their posters are attached below; congrats to you both!

21866_IBERS Seattle Conference Poster_FINAL1

Says Allison, “The Eigenvector PLS toolbox, and later the MIA toolbox, has been a staple of my data analysis platform for over 10 years. If it wasn’t the best I would have moved on. The software integrates seamlessly into Matlab and I move between command line and gui at will. The flexibility and variety of algorithms in the PLS toolbox never ceases to impress me, and Eigenvector seem to never run out of ideas of how the toolbox can be refined and expanded… I heartedly recommend that PLS toolbox users come along to the annual Eigen University in Seattle, to hone their skills in basic to advanced chemomentrics. I’ve been to 3 and always learn something new and valuable. The atmosphere is vibrant, fun, friendly and informal, the quality of instruction excellent, and the location couldn’t be better.”

Dr. Amanda Lines of PNNL also took home a poster prize regarding her work on “Using multivariate analysis to quantify and identify speciation of plutonium”. The abstract is below:

Amanda M. Lines1, Susan R. Adami1, Sergey I. Sinkov1, Amanda J. Casella1; Gregg J. Lumetta1, and Samuel A, Bryan1

1- Energy and Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352

Development of more effective, reliable, and fast methods for monitoring process streams is a growing opportunity for analytical applications. Many fields can benefit from on-line monitoring, including the nuclear fuel cycle where improved methods for monitoring radioactive materials will facilitate maintenance of proper safeguards and ensure safe and efficient processing of materials. On-line process monitoring with a focus on optical spectroscopy can provide a fast, non-destructive method for monitoring chemical species. However, identification and quantification of species can be hindered by the complexity of the solutions if bands overlap or show condition-dependent spectral features. Plutonium (IV) is one example of a species which displays significant spectral variation with changing nitric acid concentration. Single variate analysis (i.e. Beer’s Law) is difficult to apply to the quantification of Pu(IV) unless the nitric acid concentration is known and separate calibration curves have been made for all possible acid strengths. Multivariate, or chemometric, analysis is an approach that allows for the accurate quantification of Pu(IV) without a priori knowledge of nitric acid concentration. Chemometric analysis is also an effective avenue for quantifying multiple species in solution that exhibit overlapping bands. This is demonstrated by the accurate measurement of multiple actinides (Pu(IV), Pu(III), U(IV), U(VI)) in multicomponent streams under dynamic conditions.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the poster session this year; all the posters were fantastic and it was dubbed the best EigenU poster session yet!

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Howdy folks! All of us here at EVRI are getting excited for the 12th annual Eigenvector University, April 23-28 at the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle, WA. We’ve been updating our class list, and adding new examples and modeling techniques to make sure you get the best training in multivariate methods and chemometrics. Here are the top 10 reasons why we think you should be excited too:

1. More experienced instructors – Courses at EigenU 2017 will be led by the EVRI staff including Neal B. Gallagher, R. Scott Koch, Robert T. Roginski, and Willem Windig, plus our Associate Rasmus Bro, and of course myself. Together we’ve got over 100 man-years of chemometric experience, and we’re all here to make sure you have a productive, fruitful week at EigenU.
2. Wider variety of courses – In addition to our beginning track including PCA and PLS, we offer 11 advanced and specialty courses. This year features encore presentations of Managing Data, Models & Plots in PLS_Toolbox, and Model Deployment with Solo_Predictor & Model_Exporter. Calibration Model Maintenance returns this year with new and updated tools, as does the popular Bring Your Own Data (BYOD) Workshop where you work with your own data while you learn hands-on with EVRI’s team of instructors.
3. Method-centric instruction – At EigenU we provide the background required to truly understand chemometric methods; we don’t just show you what buttons to push. Our goal is to make the literature in the field accessible to our graduates. Deeper understanding of the methods leads to better analysis!
4. Spend a week in beautiful Seattle, WA – With Puget Sound and the Olympics to the West and Lake Washington and the Cascades to the East, the Emerald City is distractingly scenic. Plus, with attractions like the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Mariners, and the largest ferry system in the US, there’s plenty to see and explore while not in class.
5. The Washington Athletic Club – EigenU is held at the WAC, the nation’s premier city athletic club. The historic 21-story facility includes 5 floors of fitness facilities, 10 floors of Euro-styled techno-centric sleeping rooms, full service spa, and 3 restaurants.
6. The food – From the continental breakfast, including the WAC’s signature sticky buns, the gourmet plated lunches, to afternoon snack bars, our guests always rave about the food.
7. Networking – EigenU attendance is typically about 40 scientists and engineers with a range of chemometric expertise and wide variety of interests. This means you’ll have plenty of opportunity to find colleagues with common problems and complementary solutions.
8. Evening events – EigenU provides ample opportunity to continue your chemometric learning and networking into the evening. This includes Tuesday’s PLS_Toolbox/Solo User Poster Session, Wednesday’s PowerUser Tips & Tricks Session, and Thursday’s Workshop Dinner, which is one more opportunity to enjoy the WAC’s fabulous food. The best two posters on Tuesday evening’s User Session will win a pair of Bose wireless headphones or wireless speakers!
9. Flexible, multi-platform software – With PLS_Toolbox and MIA_Toolbox EVRI offers the most comprehensive set of chemometric tools available plus the flexibility of MATLAB. Our stand-alone packages Solo and Solo+MIA offer all the point and click tools of their MATLAB-based siblings. Plus they’re all available for Windows, Linux and MacOS. On-line tools Solo_Predictor and Model_Exporter provide a plethora of options for automating model application.
10. Costs less – In spite of all its advantages, EigenU actually costs less than similar courses from our competitors, making it a reasonable and affordable option for everyone interested in honing their chemometric and advanced data analysis skills!

So it probably isn’t surprising that EigenU attendees are more than satisfied. Here’s what a couple of them had to say:

“EigenU is a wonderful, positive and informative place to learn about chemometrics methods that I feel confident applying to not only my research, but suggesting to collaborators as well.” -Brooke Reaser, University of Washington PhD Candidate.

“What you are offering here is unmatched.” – David A. Russell, Dupont.

Spots are already filling quickly so register today to reserve your place at EigenU 2017! Early registration ends March 23.

See you in April!

BMW

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This past year has brought several additions to our team and we’d like to take some time to introduce them to our community. This spring Eigenvector welcomed two new members, Dr. Benjamin Kehimkar and Mathias Darr. Benjamin completed his PhD at the University of Washington in Analytical Chemistry, and specializes in chromatography and mass spectrometry. Before joining EVRI, he was a video game developer and is the creator of two Unity3D-based games. He also enjoys cycling, cooking, and chemistry.

Mathias hails from Western Washington University, where he graduated with a degree in Applied Mathematics in 2014. Here at EVRI his focus is on signal processing and numerical methods. Mathias plays the guitar and piano, and also enjoys backpacking and hiking in the nearby Cascade mountains.

We’re really excited to have both Benjamin and Mathias on the team. Says Barry M. Wise, President of EVRI: “Benjamin and Mathias weren’t afraid to dive right into our software support and development efforts. They got up to speed quickly and have been helping customers and working on new methods for our spring 2017 releases. With them on board we can continue to accelerate our development while maintaining our high level of user support.”

Clare Wise also joins the team as a marketing and engineering intern. Clare attended University of Colorado and just graduated with a degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering. She also skied for CU’s NCAA National Champion ski team. Ms. Wise hopes to start medical school in Fall 2017, but in the meantime she’ll be updating the website as well as taking on many of the communications from EVRI (like this one!).

In addition, Eigenvectorian Dr. Robert T. “Bob” Roginski celebrated his 10th anniversary with EVRI this summer. Says Barry, “Bob is equally at home on consulting projects in pharma, medical devices and petrochemical as he is with software development. He leads our on-line applications team where all these technical areas come together. Bob’s in-depth knowledge and thoroughness assure that our customers’ models will run seamlessly and produce the expected results. We congratulate Dr. Roginski on his first 10 years at EVRI and look forward to the next 10!”

We’re very excited to have newcomers Mathias, Benjamin, and Clare on the team along with veteran Bob. They’ll all be at Eigenvector University in spring 2017, so be sure to sign up before space runs out!

CEW

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Another successful EigenU Europe is in the books with the conclusion of classes October 27 in Montpellier, France! We had a great group of students who participated in this four-day course series. Instructors included myself and Prof. Rasmus Bro, plus our special guest Dr. Sébastian Preys of Ondalys.

After a rainy start to the week, the sun finally came out on Thursday and provided an opportunity for an outdoor class photo (top). You can tell that we’re all having trouble looking towards the tremendously bright, southern France sun. The weather made for a great travel day to end the class on.

Rasmus Bro is shown introducing Parallel Factor Analysis (PARAFAC) to the class (bottom) in the Intro to Multi-way Analysis course module. Rasmus also did a module on Variable Selection, while Sébastian Preys covered Multi-block Models for Data Fusion. We also covered Clustering and Classification in addition to our introductory block of basic classes.

Many thanks to Sylvie Roussel, President of Ondalys, Cécile Fontange and Sandra Aubert for help with the local arrangements: you really made things easy for us! We really enjoyed the Marriott Courtyard, which provided a convenient location, modern conference and sleeping rooms, and delicious group lunches (I especially enjoyed the foie gras and lamb shank). We’re seriously considering return to Montpellier again next year–details to come!

Thanks to all our participants, many of whom travelled great distances to join us. This included students from across Europe and also from the United States and Australia. We trust your new chemometric skills will serve you well!

BMW

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Scott Koch joined Eigenvector in January, 2004, and quickly made himself indispensable. Although his title is Senior Software Engineer, Scott commented the other day, “we wear so many hats in a small company that I don’t know if a title is really useful.” He tackles a variety of jobs at EVRI including interface and database design, software version control and general troubleshooting. Scott is fluent in MATLAB, SQL, Java, Subversion and Python and contributes to our products, e.g. PLS_Toolbox and Solo, as well as working with our clients on custom applications. You can also catch him as a guest blogger for Undocumented Matlab, where he discusses his work involving Matlab-Java programming.

In addition to working at Eigenvector, Scott is also an outdoor enthusiast and distance runner, and can often be seen flying through the trails of the west coast. Here he is running the Broken Arrow Trial near Sedona, AZ. He’s also an avid backcountry skier and rally car driver.

Says Barry, President of EVRI: “When we hired Scott there was one thing on his resume that really caught my eye: ‘PSIA level II Ski Instructor: Possess an uncanny ability to coax terrified beginners down steep slopes and back onto the chair lift.’ Scott has been all that and more with regard to helping users with our software, and he’s filled a lot of gaps in our development process I didn’t even realize we had. We’re so glad Scott is part of our team!”

Thanks Scott for all your hard work! We have a lot of fun hanging out with you, and you inspire us with your athletic passions and drive to make this company better.

BMW

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Each spring at Eigenvector University in Seattle we showcase the scientific accomplishments of our users at the PLS_Toolbox/Solo Poster Session. With EigenU Europe quickly approaching, we thought it was about time to congratulate our poster winners from EigenU 2016 last April!

Brooke Reaser of the University of Washington, and Claire Muro of the University at Albany took home the poster prizes at the 11th Annual Eigenvector University. Brooke’s work used principal component analysis to determine the uptake of 13-C-labeling in Methylobacterium extorquens, while Claire’s poster focused on the differentiation of body fluid traces using PLSDA models. Their posters are attached below; congrats, ladies!

Forensic Body Fluid Differentiation Poster
“PLS_Toolbox doesn’t just help with my research, it is an integral part of all of my work. I work with Raman spectroscopy, and my experimental data for any given project is usually thousands of spectra. I would say that PLS_Toolbox is just as important to my research as my Raman spectrometer, and I mean that. I wouldn’t be able to process the data or learn anything from it any way other than multivariate data analysis.” -Claire Muro, University at Albany PhD Candidate.

PCA C-13 Labeled Methylobacterium Extorquens AM1 poster
“EigenU helped give me the idea to apply PCA to my metabolomics project in the first place, and the skills I learned there helped me in applying it successfully and meaningfully. EigenU is a wonderful, positive and informative place to learn about chemometrics methods that I feel confident applying to not only my research, but suggesting to collaborators as well.” -Brooke Reaser, University of Washington PhD Candidate.

For their efforts both Claire and Brooke took home Bose sound system products. Claire selected the Bose QuietComfort Headphones while Brooke took home the Bose Soundtouch Speaker System. We hope you enjoy them, you earned them! Congratulations again!

STAY CONNECTED WITH US!
Eigenvector now has an Instagram account! Follow @eigen_guys to keep up with the latest adventures of the Eigenvector team, and make sure to check out our Twitter account for up-to-date info on courses and software.

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Registration for EigenU Europe in Montpellier, FRANCE is open! Join Dr. Barry M. Wise, Prof. Rasmus Bro and Dr. Sébastien Preys for four days, October 24-27, of beginning and intermediate chemometrics courses from the classic Eigenvector University series. The course will include:

To register and view lodging information, visit the EigenU Europe page. We hope to see you there in beautiful Montpellier next month!

STAY CONNECTED WITH US!
Eigenvector now has an Instagram account! Follow @eigen_guys to keep up with the latest adventures of the Eigenvector team, and make sure to check out our Twitter account for up-to-date info on courses and software.

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Last month I had the pleasure of attending Chimiométrie XVII. This installment ran from January 17-20 in the beautiful city of Namur, BELGIUM. The conference was largely in French but with many talks and posters in English. (My French is just good enough that I can get the gist of most of the French talks if the speakers put enough text on their slides!) There were many good talks and posters demonstrating a lot of chemometric activity in the French speaking world.

I was pleased to see evidence of EVRI software in many presentations and posters. I particularly enjoyed “An NIRS Prediction Engine for Discrimination of Animal Feed Ingredients” by Aitziber Miguel Oyarbide working with the folks at AUNIR. This presentation was done with Prezi which I find quite refreshing. I also enjoyed posters about standardization in milk analysis, determination of post mortem interval, evaluation of pesticide coating on cereal seeds, and sorting of archeological material. All of these researchers used PLS_Toolbox, MIA_Toolbox or Solo to good effect.

EVRI was also proud to sponsor the poster contest which was won by Juan Antonio Fernández Pierna et al. with “Chemometrics and Vibrational Spectroscopy for the Detection of Melamine Levels in Milk.” For his efforts Juan received licenses for PLS_Toolbox and MIA_Toolbox. Congratulations! We wish him continued success in his chemometric endeavors!

Finally I’d like to thank the organizing committee, headed by Pierre Dardenne of Le Centre wallon de Recherches agronomiques. The scientific content was excellent and, oh my, the food was fantastic! I’m already looking forward to the next one!

BMW

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The Fifth Eigenvector University Europe ran October 5-8 at the FOSS Innovation Centre in Hillerød, Denmark. Rasmus Bro and I really enjoyed the group. Everybody came well prepared (MATLAB and PLS_Toolbox installed and tested!) and loaded with questions. We covered basic chemometrics then moved on to more advanced topics.

Many thanks to the kind folks at FOSS, especially Lars Nørgaard, for use of the venue. The Innovation Centre is a beautiful facility. The coffee and snack service is great and I love lunches in the cafeteria!

Chemometrics, of course, is critical to FOSS’ success. At the heart of many of FOSS’ user-friendly application specific analyzers lies a very sophisticated calibration model. Lars leads what is possibly the largest chemometrics group in the world with a staff of about 30. We appreciate their support of the field!

We’re already starting to think about EigenU Europe for fall of 2016. We’d like to move south next year and are considering Italy, Spain or southern France. If you’ve got an idea for a venue write to me with details.

Good job class, and thanks for coming!

BMW

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On October 1, 1985 I walked into Bruce Kowalski’s chemometrics class and my world changed forever. It was my first day of chemical engineering graduate school at the University of Washington. My M.S. thesis advisor, Prof. Harold Hager, told me that I’d probably find the methods in Bruce’s class useful in treating the data I was to collect. He was right, but more than that, it wasn’t long before I knew that I’d found something I wanted to do for a living.

A big part of the class was a project, due at the end of the semester in early December. I spent my Thanksgiving vacation working with Infometrix’s Ein*Sight software doing PCA on data from a Liquid-Fed Ceramic Melter I’d worked on at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Ein*Sight had a limit of 100 samples and 10 variables but it ran on an IBM AT. I spent a lot of time swapping interesting samples in and out of the analysis and trying to interpret the results. I got an A on the project (Bruce gave lots of A’s!) and my study became a piece of Infometrix sales literature (left). From there I started working with Prof. Larry Ricker on my ChemE Ph.D. with Bruce on my committee. The rest, as they say, is history.

I always liked data analysis. As an undergrad in ChemE my lab partners referred to me as the “Data Magician.” I just liked massaging the numbers to see what I could tease out. Chemometrics gave me a whole new set of tools and opened my world up to high dimension data.

Chemometrics has taken me lots of interesting places over the last 30 years, and I mean that both with regards to the travel and the intellectual challenges. And I’ve been blessed to meet lots of great people. It’s awesome to go to a conference in a faraway place and walk into a room full of friends.

Thanks to all my friends and colleagues for a great 30 year adventure! But, man!, that was fast! Where did the time go? But I’m looking forward to a couple more decades of chemometrics escapades.

BMW

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Like its predecessors, the 10th Annual Eigenvector University included the Tuesday evening PLS_Toolbox/Solo User poster session. Eight posters, which spanned a wide range of applications, were scrutinized by about 40 attendees. A good time was had by presenters and viewers alike as we enjoyed hors d’oeuvres, beverages and scientific discussion.

Amanda Lines of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) captured this year’s top prize with “Remote Raman technology for in-situ identification of nuclear tank waste.” The poster revealed how Raman spectroscopy combined with multivariate calibration can be used to analyze surfaces at distances up to 50 feet. Ms. Lines is shown below with her poster and EVRI Vice-President Neal B. Gallagher.

In a very close contest the runner up Anna Klimkiewicz of the University of Copenhagen presented “A chemometric approach to the optimization of bio-industrial processes.” The work illustrated the application of multivariate analysis to understand and improve performance in an industrial-scale continuous enzyme purification process. Ms. Klimkiewicz can be seen with her poster (and me) below.

Both of these posters clearly presented an interesting story and made especially good use of our PLS_Toolbox. As a reward for their efforts Amanda took home a pair of Bose Noise Canceling Headphones while Anna took home a Bose Bluetooth Speaker system. Well deserved! 👍 We hope you enjoy them.

Thanks to everybody who attended and presented at EigenU!

BMW

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The 2014-15 ski season wrapped up at Mission Ridge on April 9-12 with the Eigenvector Research NW Cup Finals. It was a great four days which included two days of Giant Slalom (GS) races and two days of Slalom (SL) races, plus a bonus Dual Slalom on the final afternoon. Mission Ridge Ski Team (MRST) athletes had an awesome weekend winning 8 out of the 10 races along with many other podium finishes. Victories were captured by Lindsey Ahmann (GS1, SL1), Hannah Bodily (GS2, SL2 and the Dual SL) and Brian Davidson (GS1, GS2 and the Dual SL). There were also numerous other podium appearances including 2 each from Max Tobler and Gunnar Lundteigen. Plus Max Tobler, who also coaches young skiers for MRST, captured the overall NW Cup title based on his performance over the whole season. Max can be seen ripping up the Dual SL course. (Thanks to Brian Platt and SkiRacePhoto.com for the great shot!)

With all the possible things that a company might sponsor, why ski racing? Well, anybody who knows me very well knows that I just love skiing and ski racing in particular. Although I’ve skied since I was five, I got a late start at racing and really didn’t get serious about it until after I graduated from undergrad. I never got enough of it and still compete when I can squeeze it into the schedule. And of course we raised two ski racing daughters, with one still racing and one coaching, so we’ve had something of a vested interest.

But we’re happy to support ski racing because, like most sports, it is good for kids. The youngest kids learn to be on time, keep track of their gear, be good sports, work on their conditioning, etc. As they get older and more time and travel is involved, athletes learn time management so they can keep up their studies and get their ski prep work done in addition to the time they spend on the hill and in the gym. They learn about living with teammates and sharing work duties like meal prep and clean up. Plus it promotes an appreciation of nature and love of the outdoors.

But beyond that, ski racing combines speed, athleticism, skill and mental toughness like no other sport. Strength and conditioning are key, but they don’t guarantee success. To be fast, ski racers must learn techniques that at first seem awkward and, well, dangerous. Example: getting pressure on the new ski at the TOP of the turn. To do this requires skill and confidence. You have to believe it is going to work, and if you don’t believe it, it won’t. When they are in the start gate ski racers have to believe that they can execute their plan in spite of often sub-optimal course and weather conditions, all at 40+ mph.

In short, ski racing teaches a great work ethic and instills confidence. It turns good kids into great young adults. And that’s why Eigenvector is proud to sponsor the Mission Ridge Ski Team and NW Cup Finals.

BMW

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If you are in the market for training in multivariate methods you have a number of choices. In North America, you could attend classes given by CAMO, ProSensus, or Umetrics. Here are 10 reasons you should come to the 10th Annual EigenU 2015, May 10-15 in Seattle, instead:

1. More experienced instructors – Courses at EigenU 2015 will be led by the EVRI staff including Neal B. Gallagher, Jeremy M. Shaver, Robert T. Roginski, and Willem Windig, plus our Associate Rasmus Bro, and of course myself. Plus this year’s special guest Johan Westerhuis will lead the second edition of our Chemometrics in Metabolomics course. Together we’ve got over 100 man-years of chemometric experience.
2. Wider variety of courses – In addition to our beginning track including PCA and PLS, we offer 11 advanced and specialty courses. This year we’re introducing three new courses: Hierarchical and Optimized Models, Multi-block, Multi-set, Multi-level and Data Fusion Methods, and Classical Least Squares Methods. Calibration Model Maintenance returns this year, as does the popular Bring Your Own Data (BYOD) Workshop where you work with your own data while you learn hands-on with EVRI’s team of instructors.
3. Method-centric instruction – At EigenU we provide the background required to truly understand chemometric methods; we don’t just show you what buttons to push. Our goal is to make the literature in the field accessible to our graduates. Deeper understanding of the methods leads to better analysis!
4. Beautiful Seattle, WA – With Puget Sound and the Olympics to the West and Lake Washington and the Cascades to the East, the Emerald City is distractingly scenic. Plus, it is home to the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Mariners (home games May 8-10, & 12-15), the largest ferry system in the US, plus tons of other attractions.
5. The Washington Athletic Club – EigenU is held at the WAC, the nation’s premier city athletic club. The historic 21 story facility includes 5 floors of fitness facilities, 10 floors of Euro-styled techno-centric sleeping rooms, full service spa, and 3 restaurants.
6. The food – From the continental breakfast, including the WAC’s signature sticky buns, through the gourmet plated lunches, to afternoon snack bars, our guests always rave about the food.
7. Networking – EigenU attendance is typically about 40 scientists and engineers with a range of chemometric expertise and wide variety of interests. This means you’ll have plenty of opportunity to find colleagues with common problems and complementary solutions.
8. Evening events – EigenU provides ample opportunity to continue your chemometric learning and networking into the evening. This includes Tuesday’s PLS_Toolbox/Solo User Poster Session, Wednesday’s PowerUser Tips & Tricks Session, and Thursday’s Workshop Dinner, which is one more opportunity to enjoy the WAC’s fabulous food. Present a poster at the Tuesday evening User Session and you could win a pair of Bose Noise-cancelling Headphones or Bluetooth Wireless Speaker!
9. Flexible, multi-platform software – With PLS_Toolbox and MIA_Toolbox EVRI offers the most comprehensive set of chemometric tools available plus the flexibility of MATLAB. Our stand-alone packages Solo and Solo+MIA offer all the point and click tools of their MATLAB-based siblings. Plus they’re all available for Windows, Linux and MacOS. On-line tools Solo_Predictor and Model_Exporter provide a plethora of options for automating model application.
10. Costs less – In spite of all its advantages, EigenU actually costs less than similar courses from CAMO, Umetrics and ProSensus.

So it probably isn’t surprising that EigenU attendees are more than satisfied. Here’s what a couple of them had to say:

“I attended the Eigenvector University 2010 earlier this year. It was the best short-course I have ever taken on any subject. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a short-course, immersion kind of training.” – James M. Roberts, GSK

“What you are offering here is unmatched.” – David A. Russell, Dupont.

Discount registration ends soon, register and pay by April 10 for the best prices.

See you at EigenU!

BMW

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