On 25 March 2024, Prof Tobi Louw and Prof Lidia Auret presented an online workshop focused on exploratory data analysis for industrial processes. The event was part of a series organised by the South African Council for Automation and Control (SACAC). Tobi is an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, while Lidia holds an extraordinary associate professorship, alongside her full-time role as Senior Process Data Scientist at Stone Three.
The workshop aimed to introduce participants to the practicalities of industrial data. Topics included the nature of process datasets, working with time series data, dimensionality reduction and visualisation, as well as clustering and model interpretation using tree-based methods. The workshop drew professionals from various industries, as well as postgraduate students.
Participants expressed appreciation for the workshop’s practical relevance, the well-structured format, and the valuable insights shared by the presenters. One participant specifically mentioned that the workshop made complex concepts easy to understand and provided useful resources for further learning.
The success of this workshop highlights the Department of Chemical Engineering’s dedication to sharing knowledge and skills with industry professionals. Such events help bridge the gap between academic research and real-world applications, empowering professionals to make better use of data for improving industrial processes.
