JMP Discovery Summit Europe has come to a close in Manchester, UK. JMP colleagues spent the last few days connecting and sharing with JMP users about all things JMP. If you attended Discovery, share photos of the event, tag @JMP, and use the #JMPDiscoverySummit hashtag.
Don't forget! Discovery Summit Europe Online takes place April 16-18. Encourage customers and prospects to join us!
Presentations from this week should be available next week on the JMP Community.
The calm before the storm
The signage is up. The tables are set. The rehearsals are in full swing. It’s nearly time to shine a light on JMP in Manchester.
While JMP staff from around the world settled in, delegates began to arrive. Some came early for additional training and were welcomed by the smiling faces of Events Project Manager Chris Sanger and Marketing Manager Amy Bullock.
Meanwhile, JMP CEO Jon Weisz, JMP User Enablement Director Jeff Perkinson, and Principal Events Technology Specialist Jeff Hudgins put their finishing touches on the day one opening session. They are 'in-vest-ed' in Discovery’s success.
The Welcome Dinner
The conference officially opened with a Welcome Dinner.
Plenary: "JMP 18: It just works."
Jeff Perkinson opened the conference by welcoming 204 delegates to Manchester. Using Manchester’s history as the site of industrial innovation in the late 18th century, he outlined how one technical advancement in textile manufacturing spurred the next one. That never-ending cycle of innovation continues today, as is evidenced in this week’s presentations, posters, and hallway conversations.
“You are here to learn new techniques, exchange best practices, make connections, build a culture of analytics, and most importantly, to get inspired,” Perkinson told the delegates.
He was then joined by Jon Weisz, who challenged delegates to get out of their comfort zones by meeting and talking to JMP users in other industries.
“Go to talks on topics you know nothing about. Some amazing innovations have come to fruition as a result of the cross-pollination of disciplines,” explained Weisz.
The first plenary began with John Sall giving an overview of the newest features and functions found in JMP 18. He and five other developers each detailed one of the six Ps of JMP 18:
- Profiler: Improvements to Profiler
- Peaks: Exploring peak data in Functional Data Explorer
- People: New reports in JMP Clinical; Basic Expression Workflow in Genomics in JMP Pro
- Pipes: Enhancements to JMP Live to make it even easier to share data and reports
- Python: Easy Python integration that just works
- Presets: Streamlining work makes users more productive
Sall focused on the improved Profiler. “You may have thought JMP had prediction intervals in the past. It really didn’t, but it does now,” Sall told an appreciative audience.
Two other new features he highlighted were data points and overlaid interactions. “Profiler is 30 years old in JMP and still growing up,” concluded Sall.
Next up was Senior Research Statistician Developer Ryan Parker, who demonstrated new tools in Functional Date Explorer (FDE) to explore peak data. “With FDE, you can examine the variability of your function by breaking it down into smaller shape functions,” said Parker. He then showed various ways to do this in FDE, including Penalized SVD. Peak Finding, the last tool Parker debuted, allows users to find and summarize peaks more easily. Parker told attendees, “With the new peak enhancements in JMP 18, you can more easily gain insights from the data you already have.”
Life Sciences Researcher Statistician Developer Meichen Dong focused on how JMP helps people, specifically through the use of JMP Clinical and Genomics in JMP Pro. Dong said, “JMP Clinical has new reports available, including Risk-Based Monitoring and Drug-Induced Liver Injury. Risk-Based Monitoring helps identify patient risk factors, with risk indicators that can be used at various levels: site, country, or monitor.” Genomics is improved with the inclusion of Basic Expression Workflow. More genomics data importation has been included in JMP Pro 18, as well as additional marker functions and mixed models.
Distinguished Technical Leader Eric Hill focused on the pipes of JMP, specifically JMP Live. Hill first outlined the different data connectors, which were first introduced in JMP 16, ranging from ODBC to historians to Snowflake. JMP Live addresses the problem of how to get data and visualizations out of a computer so that it can be shared with anyone in an organization who needs to see it, even if they don’t have JMP.
“It’s not just a snapshot; they can actually interact with it,” said Hill. “In JMP 18, we’ve added @mentioning to facilitate conversations.” But what if you want to limit who can see specific data? JMP Live now allows users and groups to be imported so you can decide exactly who can see it. “If you want to get the most out of JMP, your investment in JMP, you need to use all the plumbing,” Hill concluded.
Principal Systems Developer Paul Nelson was the next speaker, elaborating on how Python has been integrated into JMP 18. “The goal of Python integration is to just get it to work,” said Nelson. “JMP 18 now has an embedded version of Python. We know it works because you will be using what we’ve been using.” JMP 18 also allows Python to be easily extended in JMP. “Think of Python as a peer to JSL, not a replacement,” he said. “There’s much more to come.”
R&D Director Julian Parris closed out the plenary extolling the virtues of presets. “Presets,” said Parris, “make your work feel more streamlined so you can be more productive in JMP. They help with the purpose of your different platforms; presets are not about the column or the data table, but they are about the platform.”
By demonstrating how to drag and drop presets, Parris drew oohs, aahs, and sporadic applause from the crowd. He then used presets to settle a bet with his partner, Margot, to determine which character in Star Trek: The Next Generation is the most like Hermione Granger. Parris championed Wesley Crusher, while Margot thought it was Jean-Luc Picard. Using a database of fictional character attributes, Parris was able to demonstrate presets. After setting up all the presets, he then came to the irrefutable conclusion that Picard was the Hermione of TNG, thus proving himself wrong. As a result of losing the bet, he had to send a video to Margot of the Discovery crowd booing him; they enthusiastically complied.
Perkinson closed the session with an explanation of how My JMP will make using JMP easier. Or in other words, rest in peace, the .per file. He then boiled down all the presentations with just one simple phrase: “JMP 18. It just works."
Dinner at the National Football Museum
Delegates enjoyed a meal at the National Football Museum Wednesday evening, where they could peruse several intriguing exhibits on the history of football (or, soccer) in Manchester and across the globe. The museum houses an impressive collection of silverware and game-worn kits from some of England's greatest football legends. Some attendees tried their hand at a penalty kick challenge while others attempted passing and accuracy challenges.
A wonderful time was had by all following a day full of thought-provoking conversation, excitement around the launch of JMP 18, and user-created paper presentations.
This is why we call it Discovery
Users are the heart of Discovery Summit. Breakout sessions commenced following the opening plenary and continued throughout the day, spanning topics such as Graph Builder, Text Explorer, and Workflow Builder, seamless Python integration in JMP, process modeling, and machine learning.
Over lunch, attendees within the semiconductor industry gathered to share best practices and collaborate, while Discovery Expo and JMP Lab provided opportunities for delegates to meet with our experts and test features. Later, our Product Management team shared what's new in JMP 18 and what's planned for upcoming versions during a lightning talk.
That's a wrap!
Two days of connections, conversations, and community were capped off with a plenary address by zoologist, broadcaster, and New York Times best-selling author Lucy Cooke. She began her presentation by admitting she is “fascinated by diversity.” She then gave a nod to the groundbreaking work of Charles Darwin, asserting that “evolution has come up with solutions to the problems on Earth.”
However, she said, Darwin missed the mark when recognizing the contributions and diversity within female animals of all sorts. “Darwin suffered from a chronic case of confirmation bias,” Cooke said, when he ascribed the idealized norms of the demure Victorian woman within his social circle to all females, regardless of species. This bias led to his dismissal of the female half of any animal population as a “feminine footnote to the macho male event.”
“Try telling this hyena that she’s coy…before she bites off your face,” Cooke said as she flashed a photo of the snarling creature.
Cooke then gave example after example of female animals that defied Darwin’s theories, from same-sex albatross couples to the matriarchal society of naked mole rats to downright murderous meerkat mamas to post-menopausal orca grandmothers who rule their pods with compassion. Each of these females evolved to behave in ways that are in direct opposition to the assertions that Darwin made and that dominated scientific thinking for more than a century.
“We can only evolve if we have diversity, which means we need to have diversity in scientists," Cooke told the rapt crowd. "Darwin was blinded by his own experience. Thank you all for dedicating your lives to finding data that finds the truth.”
When asked for advice on how we should check our own biases, Cooke said, “Accept the fact that we are all biased. Choose to work with people who you know will have a different opinion. That’s sometimes easier said than done, since it may lead to uncomfortable conversations. But it is vital to figure out who should read your work – at the risk of disagreeing with it – so that it keeps you honest. You’ve got to be totally sure that your data is solid.”
Cooke concluded with a plea for scientists and other data explorers to work with colleagues representing as much diversity as possible, including diversity in gender, geography, and culture. It’s hard to address a problem if you haven’t looked at it from all angles, especially the ones you may not have known you weren’t seeing.
As we say goodbye to Manchester, having wrapped up yet another successful event, hear what European Sales Director Adrian Turner had to say.
