2023 workshop - Kiel

On 10 and 11 May 2023, the Olfasense team welcomed a multi-disciplinary group of specialists from all over the world to present and share experiences relating to the field of odour testing, and to exchange future trends and needs.

"Very enjoyable event. Not only was the content of the workshop useful & informative, but also the layout enabled opportunities to mingle between participants." - Craig Simkiss, Saint-Gobain Ecophon AB

We were very excited to welcome Professor Dr. Horst Hellbrück from the Technical University of Applied Sciences Lübeck (Germany) as this year’s keynote speaker. He presented the findings of his research community in terms of the training capabilities of artificial intelligence, so-called Edge AI, for the adaptation of artificial noses. He also outlined various application areas of this type of sensor technology, such as in safety and rescue or in industrial production.

After the keynote address, Björn Maxeiner, director and head of P&M testing at Olfasense, provided a holistic overview of the possibilities in sensory and molecular odour testing and the most important principles to follow to achieve the highest possible quality standards.

In the following, the Olfasense head of P&M laboratory Alina Beier spontaneously had to replace our senior consultant Dr.-Ing. Laura Brosig, who had fallen ill. Nevertheless, Alina held an interesting presentation on the importance of the right sampling methods in odour testing. Depending on the study requirements, these can result in standardised test designs or individual test designs, as Alina showcased based on several case studies. 

The participants were then invited to take part in different practical lab sessions that were designed to provide skills, encourage participation and exchange information on everyday challenges and solutions from all odour-related perspectives, and included sample preparation & sampling, panel training, direct odour evaluation, comparative testing, indoor room evaluation, chamber testing, molecular screening, GC sniffing and many more.

The first workshop day was rounded off by Dr. Aureli Soria-Frisch, Director of Neuroscience at Starlab Barcelona SL with a fascinating talk on the link between olfactory perception, emotion and cognition, and how this knowledge can assist companies, e.g. from the the cosmetic and fragrance sector.

The second day was opened again by Alina Beier, who delivered an interactive opening session on one of the key elements of successful odour testing: the selection, training, and monitoring of the noses in question. The audience was invited to test their skills in identifying odour characters using the Olfasense odour wheel and sniffing sticks for panel training.

Subsequently, Rita Ribau Domingues, senior consultant at Olfasense GmbH, provided a wide overview of analytical sensory measures and affective sensory methods, and their usefulness for different research aims and applications. At the end of her presentation, the participants could test their own sensory skills, this time with a comparison test of different types of liquorice.

Before the participants could continue using their olfactory sense in a second round of practical lab sessions, the lecture part of the worskhop was concluded by Olfasense GC specialist Dr. Luciano Vera. He gave a vivid presentation on the paradoxes of odours in the logic of the chemical analysis and demonstrated how the Olfasense strategy can provide approaches, such as GC sniffing, to overcome the challenging complexity of odour chemistry and olfactory perception.

On behalf of the whole Olfasense team ,we thank everybody for joining us in our 2023 Olfasense odour workshop on product and material testing. We hope the event was a rewarding and useful experience, filled with answers and actionable advice on your odour-related questions. We look forward to continuing to exchange ideas with you around the topic of odour testing in the near future. 

If you were not able to participate in this year's workshop we heartily invite you to subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on future editions via olfasense.com/noseletter.