AB Vista’s Senior R&D Applications Specialist Ali Gahkani has been awarded first prize in The Council for Near-Infrared Spectroscopy’s global NIR data analysis competition, hosted at the recent International Diffuse Reflectance Conference (IDRC) in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Open to all conference attendees, the biennial competition takes the form of a ‘data analysis shootout’. Having received a complex dataset in advance of the conference, participants are required to analyse the data and build a model for presentation to the judging panel.
Dr Gahkani, who develops NIR calibrations and applications for AB Vista’s NIR services, explains that this year’s dataset broke new ground, by exploring one of the emerging areas of NIR spectroscopy:
“The competition this year was based around the field of aquaphotomics – which involves examining water-light interaction across the whole electromagnetic spectrum. Our challenge as participants involved analysing the differences in the spectrum of water, in order to draw conclusions about the components dissolved in it.”
Dr Gahkani’s novel methodology – which was presented at the conference by his colleague Simon Flanagan – is believed to be a first for the industry, having never previously been used in conjunction with aquaphotomic data.
A former Purdue University postdoctoral researcher, Dr Gahkani next month celebrates his tenth year of working with commercial NIR. He recently contributed to AB Vista’s guide to NIR, which explores key areas relating to NIR technology. To download a copy, visit https://www.abvista.com/Products/GB/FeedQualityService.aspx
For more information, contact AB Vista on +44(0)1672 517 650 or info@abvista.com. Follow AB Vista on Twitter: @ABVista.
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Notes to editor:
AB Vista is an animal nutrition technology company offering pioneering products and technical services to the global animal feed industry. Since its establishment in 2004, AB Vista has grown to be a top-three player in feed enzymes and is also one of the largest suppliers of natural betaine to the global animal nutrition industry. The company invests heavily in research and development and has a growing portfolio of products and services spanning the poultry, swine, ruminant and aquaculture sectors. AB Vista is headquartered in the UK, with regional offices located in the USA, Brazil, Singapore, Spain, India, China, Germany and Finland.
AB Vista is part of AB Agri, the agricultural division of Associated British Foods, one of Europe’s largest food & retail companies with a market capitalisation of £22 billion.
For further press information please contact Sonya Hayden or Sue Milne-Bennett on +44 (0)20 8647 4467.
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