Over the past year, ProSensus has welcomed growing interest in FormuSense. We have completed numerous public and custom demos, and have noticed that we are often answering the same questions from different prospective users.

We have compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions and provided concise answers to help you understand all the key details you need to know about FormuSense.
 
Jump to your question:

1. What is FormuSense?

FormuSense is a no-code desktop software that harnesses analytics and AI to simplify and accelerate activities related to product development and reformulation.

2. How does FormuSense work?

FormuSense empowers users to efficiently assemble and model their historical product formulation data, as well as to simulate and optimize new formulations.

3. Who should be using FormuSense?

FormuSense was developed by engineers for domain experts (scientists and engineers) who are involved in product development activities. It is beneficial, but not mandatory, for FormuSense users to have some knowledge of data science, predictive modeling and mathematical optimization.

4. Why did ProSensus develop FormuSense?

FormuSense is a result of decades of product formulation experience gained by ProSensus through consulting projects across a variety of industries including food, pharma, polymers, and specialty chemicals. FormuSense was developed to streamline product development activities by taking advantage of commonalities in the structure and characteristics of formulation datasets, the required pre-processing steps and modeling decisions. The vision for FormuSense quickly evolved from being an internal tool, to a commercial software that would directly benefit our clients.

5. What’s the difference between FormuSense and ProMV?

ProMV (sold to AspenTech in 2016) and FormuSense both employ multivariate analysis (MVA) for model-building and interpretation. The ProMV suite is tailored to process troubleshooting, batch analysis, soft-sensors and includes a real-time suite for process monitoring applications. Conversely, FormuSense has features tailored to product development applications; ahead of modeling, FormuSense manages data assembly tasks and mixture property calculations, then following modeling, an advanced optimization framework handles relevant mathematical constraints. The workflow and user interface in FormuSense has been carefully designed allowing users to assemble data, build and interpret models, then simulate and optimize new formulations in as few clicks as possible.

6. How does FormuSense use AI?

Predictive models built in FormuSense leverage a Machine Learning (ML) method called Partial Least Squares (PLS). PLS is a proven statistical regression method used to relate input variables to output variables. PLS is well-suited to product development applications since it can handle complex features common to formulation datasets, and models are amenable to optimization. Unlike Neural Nets (NN) and other AI methods gaining recent popularity for a variety of applications, PLS models can be built on relatively small datasets, with some missing data, and results are easily interpreted (i.e. PLS is not a black-box method).

7. Why choose FormuSense over the competition?

Industry interest in data-driven product development has exploded over the past few years. As a result, investor-backed start-ups are around every corner. Why choose ProSensus and FormuSense? ProSensus was established in 2004, leveraging our founder’s 30+ years of academic research in this field. Since incorporation, we have continued to refine and apply our proven product development framework across a variety of industries, successfully helping our clients get ahead of the competition by arriving at product development targets faster. FormuSense is the culmination of our product development experience (including food, pharma, polymers, and specialty chemicals) and expertise, all bundled into a user-friendly tool.

8. How do I get started using FormuSense?

30-day trials of FormuSense are publicly available. Try FormuSense today! Prefer a demo first? We would be happy to schedule a live demo for you.

    Request a FormuSense demo or support to get started with your trial. We'll contact you shortly!


    9. How much training do I need?

    After you have activated a trial, qualified users will be provided with a self-guided tutorial and sample dataset. These resources are enough to get started with most formulation datasets. We recommend that most users consider participating in a Contextualized Training Session (CTS). During a CTS, you will work alongside ProSensus experts as we interactively build a model from your data and provide more detailed coaching on best-practices relevant to your dataset.

    10. How much formulation data do I need?

    Typically, effective models can be built in FormuSense with as little as 10 data points. Of course, the exact number of historical formulations that you will need is highly dependent upon the complexity of your formulation challenge and the variation within your dataset. It is noteworthy that models can still be built in FormuSense even if only one of the three sources of possible input data (ingredient properties or formulation ratios or process conditions) contain variation.

    FormuSense is an excellent tool for quickly evaluating the potential of your dataset for predictive modeling. Once your data has been imported, FormuSense identifies dataset shortcomings and preliminary models can be built to evaluate signal. Within a matter of minutes, a user will know if their data is ready for a more detailed model-building effort, or where time should be spent improving or expanding their dataset before proceeding.

    11. How do I purchase a FormuSense license?

    Annual licenses can be purchased on a per-user basis. All active licenses are entitled to receive all version releases and updates issued during the subscription term. Request more information on FormuSense pricing.

      Request pricing information for FormuSense. We'll contact you shortly!


      12. I don’t have time to learn a new software. Does ProSensus provide consulting?

      Yes! ProSensus has provided consulting services for over 15 years, and we are happy to execute product development projects on behalf of our clients or to coach FormuSense users.

      More Questions?

      Didn’t find what your were looking for? Contact us.