Are you interested in the research we conduct in sensory analysis? We are looking for industrial partners interested in collaborating on a thesis which was started last October. If you are interested, please read on more details are provided in this issue of “Focus on.”

The format of today’s focus is different from the one you are used to.
As you may already know, we are keen on developing new improvements/alternatives in the field of temporal methods, and particularly Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) with consumers. If you are not aware of the most recent paper we presented during the last EuroSense symposium, you can still read a summary of our work by clicking here and here ?.

In this context, we have recently begun collaborating with the platform ChemoSens at Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation (CSGA – Center for Research on Taste and Food) in order to initiate new thesis work on sensometry with INRA (the National Institute for Research in Agronomics).  Under the management of Pascal Schlich (Research Manager for the ChemoSens platform), this new PhD program aims at pursuing the work carried out by ChemoSens around the use of semi-Markov chains (SMCs) to model temporal perception in TDS and to identify SMC mixes as a way to segment consumers according to their temporal perception of a product.

This new thesis work, which is co-funded by SensoStat and conducted by Benjamin Mahieu, is articulated around three axes:

• First, to apply these methods to a temporal studies database available at the lab in order to establish a solid diagnostic of their upsides and downsides and compare them with classical temporal data analysis methods.
• Second, to develop new methods for massively collecting temporal tasting data outside a laboratory setting. These new methods should be less stringent than TDS and may range from lists of individual descriptors to the automated collection of free or semi-directed consumer interviews. The purpose of these methods, which involve testing during on-site experiments, is to combine sensory description to hedonic evaluations and/or the evaluation of satiation for which the temporal component is essential.
• And third, to propose ways of analyzing and modeling the data produced by these new sensory methods by invoking the SMCs or any other relevant method. Work around this axis will be conducted alongside theoretical work on the mathematical properties of SMCs carried out by another PhD student at Institut de Mathématiques de Bourgogne (the Burgundy Institute of Mathematics).

Do you think this theme of research is something you could envisage? If you do, please do not hesitate to contact us! We will be delighted to discuss the possible research projects that could be set up according to your issues.

We will obviously keep you informed on the progress of this work over the next three years ?. In the meantime, we will see you soon with another “Focus on…”!

Newsletter #16