Design of Experiments, DOE: The Benefits and Challenges Encountered

For the past 15 years Mr. John Davies has been a Research Physicist with the U.S. Army DEVCOM Chemical Biological Center at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD. He is a member of the Decontamination Sciences Branch which specializes in developing techniques/chemistries to neutralize chemical warfare agents. Mr. Davies specializes in applied Design of Experiments, DOE, for research and engineering efforts. He has been successful in promoting the use of DOE across the Chemical Biological Center. Since 2022 he has collaborated with over 100 researchers/engineers on more than 40 projects. He has facilitated the application of DOE for a wide variety of research areas such as DNA synthesis, Bio Manufacturing, Chemical/Bio Warfare Agent decontamination, Additive Manufacturing, Biological Agent detectors, Smoke Obscuration, Protective Coatings formulation, and Chemical Agent filters. Mr. Davies has worked with researchers to develop DOE techniques to simultaneously model the influences of formulation components and process factors which has reduced experimental sample sizes by 70% to 95% and transformed the way that decontamination formulations are optimized.

This virtual presentation will highlight several case studies such as a recent DoD research program in which a Mixture-Process DOE was created to formulate the point of use “Sprayable Decontaminant Slurry," SDS, using just three laboratory days of testing.

This presentation will also address the “soft side” issues encountered while transitioning an organization from conventional experimentation to DOE. Examples of what George Box described as statistics being a “catalyst for scientific discovery” will be provided to illustrate how DOE allows for many hypotheses to be tested simultaneously.