LABORATORY INFORMATICS
Hacking science
ROBERT ROE LEARNS THAT VOICE-CONTROLLED DEVICES SUCH AS THE AMAZON ALEXA, CAN BE USED TO INTEGRATE SMART TECHNOLOGIES IN THE LABORATORY
As part of the Pistoia Alliance European Conference, the organisation held a two-day event
to show the importance of intensive collaboration around the use of new technology which can present new ways to solve scientific challenges. The event focused on three challenges that aimed to use technologies such as Amazon’s Alexa and AI to overcome industry problems. The event also provides an opportunity for lab users and organisations to gain valuable experience in using and even understanding the potential for smart laboratory technology. The challenges focused on the use of machine learning to predict laboratory equipment failure; integrating smart technologies into the laboratory and use cases for the Chemical Safety Library – another project started by the Pistoia Alliance. A team from Southampton University decided to focus on two out of the three tasks by integrating smart technology and using the Chemical Safety Library (CSL) in a single project. Dr Samantha Kanza, a postgraduate research student at the University of Southampton, stated: ‘We thought it would be good to combine the challenges to integrate the CSL data with Alexa and IoT devices. We have been doing work with IoT devices predominantly to retrieve information in the lab, so this was a novel spin on how we could access useful information using the IoT.’ Dr Kanza noted that she had worked on this kind of project before with colleagues from the university, including Dr Nicola Knight, a researcher from the university’s department of electronics and computer science, who also worked on the Pistoia Alliance hackathon. Their previous
16 Scientific Computing World August/September 2018
research focused on placing sensors in the physics lab at the university. ‘We have been using Alexa to retrieve information from that from outside the lab,’ said Dr Kanza.
The Chemical Safety Library Gabrielle Whittick, a consultant for the Pistoia Alliance, noted that the activities carried out by the team from were helping to make use of the data collected by the CSL project. CSL aims to collect hazardous reaction data and collect it into a single database that can be shared. Once the CSL has enough relevant data it could become a valuable resource in promoting safety in the laboratory, as users can consult the CSL and look for potential dangers in the experiments that they plan to carry out. ‘The hackathon gave us an opportunity
to look at the data that has been collected through the Chemical Safety Library project. The work that Samantha and Nicola have been doing in their team is creating new ways to present that information and to generate more value out of the data that has been collected,’ said Whittick.
While the benefit of this technology
is clear, there has still been some apprehension for companies to work with Pistoia on the CSL project, as it requires them to share data on experiments. While this is just safety information related to hazardous reactions, there is still some reluctance for companies to share private data.
‘Sometimes people might say that
they do not want Alexa, or whatever the new technology is, because their data is competitive and needs to be kept secret, but I would argue that this is sometimes used as an excuse,’ said Whittick.
The slow evolution of lab technology As part of her research, Dr Kanza observed laboratories and their practices and held focus groups with scientists from the University of Southampton. ‘The feeling was very much that technology is lagging behind. I’m not just talking with the use of IoT, in general, it is still quite a paper-based environment. I was looking at Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELN) and how
people did their note taking in the lab, what data was digitised, what devices they might use for that,’ commented Dr Kanza. Dr Kanza also noted that even basic IT equipment was often outdated or not used in some cases. ‘There were some computers used for inventories, but they were generally quite old, some of them did not have the internet, some labs did not have them at all and people generally do not want to take their electronic devices into the lab.’ One of the reasons that scientists do not want to take their devices into the lab is because of hazardous materials, contamination or other factors which mean it is not appropriate to operate a smartphone in a room using powerful magnets, such as some physics labs or in chemistry, were acids and toxic chemicals may be present. ‘That is one reason that we wanted
to look at using the IoT, particularly at voice-activated equipment, because one of the barriers to adoption is the physical hardware interaction. If you have got gloves on, or your hands are covered in some chemical, you do not necessarily want to take those gloves off to type something,’ added Dr Kanza. ‘If you can give out information verbally, then we can bring technology into the lab in a fashion that will be useful to scientists.’ The CSL was first initiated based on an idea which was brought to Pistoia from a large pharma company. They had two separate incidents involving the same reaction within a month. It shows how this
”Sometimes people might say that they do not want Alexa or whatever the new technology is because their data is competitive and needs to be kept secret but I would argue that this is sometimes used as an excuse”
@scwmagazine |
www.scientific-computing.com
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