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Jacques Goupy and Lee Creighton discuss their new book Introduction to Design of Experiments with JMP Examples, Third Edition with Authorline.
- Authorline (AL): What was your motivation for writing your book?
- Jacques Goupy (JG): I have spent my life doing scientific research, and it didn't take long to discover that experimental designs were the basis for everything I did. Designed experiments make planning, organizing, and interpreting results easy, and even makes presentations to non-scientific people easier. It's as if a designed experiment is a magic wand: everything becomes easy. Of course, I couldn't just keep this magnificent tool to myself, so, twenty years ago, I decided to write the first edition of this book. It was a success, and has enabled me to share designed experiments with lots of people over that time. Two more editions of the book were necessary to keep up with the evolution of designed experiments and the software that lets us do them. This third edition incorporates everything with JMP 7.
Lee Creighton (LC): My motivation was to work with, and learn from, Jacques. I, too, have been interested in spreading the word about designed experiments. I had read all of Jacques' more advanced DOE books. I was excited to combine our talents in producing a book that could easily introduce people to our topic.
- (AL): Who are you targeting with your book?
- (JG): This book is for anyone who does experiments for their job, who needs to save time and money. Experimenters who need to solve problems in a quick yet thorough way. And who need to then explain their results to non-technical people.
(LC): Exactly. There are still a lot of practitioners who use the change-one-setting-at-a-time method of experimentation, which is inefficient in a lot of ways. This book helps you to spend your resources wisely, and allows your time to be spent in thinking about your subject area.
- (AL): What features of the book are you especially pleased with?
- (JG): This is a difficult question. It's difficult to pick just a part of a book. I'm a chemical engineer, and I consider the necessary statistics, mathematics, and computation as tools - useful tools. So the book is structured by starting with a technical problem and showing how it is solved using these tools. So I suppose the main feature of the book is how practicing scientists can manage statistics, mathematics, and computing to obtain the best technical solution.
(LC): One of the book's best features (due to Jacques) is its simple and clear explanation of why experimental design is worthwhile. It's not a technical, calculus-ridden explanation of maximizing determinants or anything like that. It's a simple explanation using a balance scale.
(JG): That wasn't me. That was Hotelling. And wasn't that in one of your chapters?
(LC): Well, you showed it to me, so I'm giving you credit.
- (AL): How will your book benefit JMP users?
- (JG): There are two problems that experimenters face time and time again. First, it is not always easy to wrap your mind around all the results of an experiment, but scientific people can overcome this difficulty with time and patience. The second difficulty is, after understanding the problem yourself, communicating the problem to other people of varied technical levels. JMP is a wonderful tool that easily - almost automatically - produces graphs and figures that illustrate a study's results. These simple graphics make complicated problems understandable to everybody.
(LC): That's true. A picture is worth a thousand words, and if you don't have to work too hard to draw the picture, you can spend more time thinking about and interpreting the results.
- (AL): What did you learn while writing this book that would be important for other authors to know?
- (JG): I learned something that you'd think would be obvious: a book is written for its readers! Realizing this, I would write a chapter, then leave it for a while, so that I would forget what I'd written. I'd even move from my office to my living room for the second reading to make it seem like it was from an unknown author. During this reading, I would find all sorts of imperfections, omissions, poor explanations, and so on. I'd fix them and again put the chapter aside, and repeat the read-and-correct process until I'm satisfied. But even then I gave the chapters to other people to read, trusting in their opinions and remarks, and taking their advice to heart.
(LC): I learned a lot about being precise with language. This is the first time I've published a book in both French and English. So I learned that you first must know what you want to say, then must think hard about the way you want to say it.
- (AL): How did you decide to publish with SAS?
- (JG): I am a lucky man. While writing a book on response surface designs, I met Lee, who helped me get a demo CD of JMP into the book. He has published several books with SAS Press, and when we decided to write this book together, he suggested we publish with SAS.
(LC): Go with what you know works. And SAS Press works great.
- (AL): Your book will be going to the printer in just a few weeks. How does it feel to be in the home stretch of such a long project?
- (JG): It's like waiting for a baby. I am nervous, anxious, happy, and full of wonder. How will the final book look? Will I like the final fonts and pictures? How many pages did the book end up having? Will it be delivered on time?
(LC): It feels a bit strange to actually be finished. Once you spend a huge chunk of time on a project, you sort of get used to it being there. Don't get me wrong - I'm glad it's coming out, but there is a certain loss there.
- (AL): What advice would you give to potential authors?
- (JG): Writing a book is a long process, and every page presents a new puzzle to be solved. And you must enjoy questioning yourself: Have I made this point clear? Are my calculations correct? Have I chosen an easy notation system? Did I skip a needed explanation? Can I make this easier to read? Is this sentence too complicated? Questions like this are endless.
(LC): This one's easy. Get a good co-author.
- (AL): How were you able to balance your time between your career and writing this book?
- (JG): The key word is "organization". Career and family take a lot of time, so finding time for writing isn't easy. So you have to organize your time, reserving an hour or two each day for the book. Of course, the real secret is, once establishing these rules, to stick to them!
(LC): I agree with that. Writing a book is like running a marathon. You have to pace yourself. The beginning of the project is daunting, but if you set a good pace, maintain it, and do your best not to fall behind, all will be well.
- (AL): When you are not writing or consulting, how do you like to spend your free time?
- (JG): I like to travel. Earlier this year, I visited Brazil, and I soon have plans to go Las Vegas. And, of course, I adore exploring my country, France, where I spend at least one week a year in one of its numerous regions. I like to talk with people, learning about their interests and discovering their way of life. For example, this year I visited Beaujolais in south-central France. It's an amazing place, where every town is the name of a famous wine: Morgon, Fleurie, Régnier, Brouilly, Chiroubles, Juliénas, Chénas and Saint-Amour.
(LC): Same here. I try to get to France at least once a year, and my job lets me dash around the U.S. from time to time. Working on this project has really solidified my interest in French, so I'm pursuing a degree in it now.
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