Ep. 30: The Potential of Generative Artificial Intelligence as a Research Assistant for Measurement Science

Welcome to “Analytically Speaking,” the podcast from LCGC International and Spectroscopy.

In this episode, podcast co-hosts Dr. Dwight Stoll and Dr. James Grinias talk with Dr. Farooq Wahab, Research Engineering Scientist at the University of Texas at Arlington. Wahab has interests and expertise in chiral separations, improving the green-ness of chromatographic separations, new detectors for chromatography such as microwave rotational spectroscopy, and new techniques for signal processing in chromatography, among other areas. He and several coauthors recently published a paper in Analytical Chemistry discussing their experiences using generative artificial intelligence (i.e. chatGPT) as a research assistant when working on tasks in measurement science ranging from extraction of rotational microwave spectra from free induction decay signals, to baseline removal from chromatographic data.

In the conversation we talk about the origins of this study, strengths and weaknesses of chatGPT as a research assistant in the analytical chemistry space, and the role of generative AI in chemistry teaching and learning. We also touch on tips and tricks also published by Wahab and coworkers for dealing with equations and symbol-heavy text when using generative AI tools. One very interesting application of these tricks is in the translation of relatively old (decades) papers that were published before English became the standard language for much of science publication.

Literature Discussed:

• Wahab, M. F.; Handlovic, T. T.; Roy, S.; Burk, R. J.; Armstrong, D. W. Solving Advanced Task-Specific Problems in Measurement Sciences with Generative AI. Anal. Chem. 2024, acs.analchem.4c01734.https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.4c01734.
• Wahab, M. F.; Zulfiqar, S.; Sarwar, M. I.; Lieberwirth, I. Facile Solutions to the Problems Associated with Chemical Information and Mathematical Symbolism While Using Machine Translation Tools. J. Chem. Inf. Model. 2020, 60 (7), 3423–3430.https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.0c00274.
• 700 Science Experiments for Everyone, Revised and enlarged edition.; Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y., 1964.

More about our hosts:

Dwight Stoll, PhD:

Dwight R. Stoll is a professor of chemistry at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. He received his PhD from the University of Minnesota, under Professor Peter Carr, working on the development of fast, comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC). Stoll’s current primary research focus is on the development of 2D-LC for both targeted and untargeted analyses. Active research projects in his laboratory touch on most aspects of multidimensional separation methodologies, including optimization strategies, characterization of selectivity in reversed-phase LC, instrument development, and applications in biopharmaceutical analysis. Stoll is the author or co-author of more than 80 peer-reviewed publications and six book chapters and has instructed numerous short courses in 2D-LC. In 2011 he was the recipient of LCGC’s Emerging Leader in Chromatography Award. In 2017 he received the Georges Guiochon Faculty Fellowship, and was recognized with an Agilent Technologies Thought Leader Award. He is also a member of LCGC’s editorial advisory board and is the editor of the “LC Troubleshooting” column in LCGC.

Jerome Workman, Jr., PhD:

Jerome (Jerry) J. Workman, Jr. is the Executive Editor for LCGC and Spectroscopy. He has held positions as CTO, executive VP, senior research fellow, director, and senior scientist at companies of all sizes, from start-ups to world-leading corporations. He has been an adjunct faculty member of four universities and advised multiple graduate students. He has more than 75 U.S. and international patent applications and 30 issued U.S. and international patents and multiple trade secrets, as well as 500+ technical publications, and 20 reference book volumes on a broad range of spectroscopy and data processing techniques. He has received multiple awards from scientific societies, and has taught annual courses in spectroscopy, chemometrics, and statistics for the AOAC, ACS, ISA, FACSS, and at several universities and corporations. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists (FAIC), the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), and the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK (FRSC, CChem, CSci). Jerry holds B.A and M.A degrees from Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, and a PhD degree from Columbia Pacific University working in near-infrared spectroscopy. He is an alumnus of both Columbia University Business School and the MIT Sloan School of Management.

About the Analytically Speaking Podcast:

Analytically Speaking, the podcast from LCGC and Spectroscopy, addresses important issues in separation science and analytical spectroscopy. Topics include new analytical techniques, methods, and approaches; the latest trends; advances in instrument and software technology; practical solutions for specific applications; recent papers in the scientific literature and their applicability; challenges and solutions for data analysis and interpretation; analytical chemistry theory and fundamentals (from advanced research to tutorials and troubleshooting); and more. Our regular hosts are Dwight Stoll, PhD, a professor of chemistry at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, and Jerry Workman, PhD, a spectroscopist, noted author, and currently the Senior Technical Editor of Spectroscopy and LCGC. Dwight covers separation science and Jerry addresses spectroscopy related topics.

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