Activity Report for 2007 Summer Workshop by Witoon Prinyawiwatkul, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Food Science, Louisiana State University.

A 3-Day Workshop: Practical Applications of Discriminant, Logistic Regression, and McNemar Analyses in Food Industries.

This workshop, sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and co-hosted by MOST and Kasetsart University (KU), was conducted at KU during August 22-24, 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand. There were approximately 100 people (participants and teaching assistances) attending this workshop. The majority of the participants were from academia.

Each participant was provided with a study document (229 pages). The activities were split into 3 parts: Part I (Day 1): the Discriminant Analysis; Part II (Day 2): the Logistric Regression Analysis, and Part III (Day 3): the McNemar Test. For each part, lecture was delivered first, followed by a real case study with SAS demonstration, then a practice session and the Q&A session. The practice session allowed the participants to use the SAS software to solve a real-world or case problem. The participants were then randomly selected for presentation of the finding or outcome from the practice session. On Day 3, a comprehensive case (a combination of the three parts) was given to the participants, and they presented the findings. This teaching format worked pretty well, as it required participations from every participant, and it alerted them throughout the 3-day workshop. All participants were allowed to copy all 3 data files used for SAS demonstration and practice sessions, including the SAS codes for their future practices or teaching purposes. Unfortunately, the participants were not allowed to duplicate the SAS software, as it would against the copyright of the SAS Co.

The retention rate is almost 100%, an indirect indication of success of this workshop. The participants were given a certificate for participating in this workshop at the end of the 3rd day. They also provided some topics for future workshops, several of which are related to applications of sensory analysis, which coincide with the proposed workshop for summer 2008, which has already been approved by MOST.

A review of the feedback provided by the participants indicates that the participants were overall satisfied with the workshop, and that they gained knowledge which can be implemented in their future work. Many deemed the topics covered in this class as too advanced, but I did not expect them to fully understand everything, as it takes years to comprehend these topics. My expectation was that they should know that these techniques exist, and, after this workshop, they should be able to communicate with statisticians if they want to use these techniques in their research. Some suggested use of software (SPSS) for the next workshop, as SAS is not readily available in Thailand. In my opinion, SAS is pretty useful and being used worldwide, and for one to do a good job in research and teaching, one should invest on this software license.

In closing, I believe this workshop was a successful one. It would not have been possible without the financial support from MOST, and assistances from MOST and KU staffs.