The Industrial Information and Control Centre (I2C2) is a joint research institute between Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and the University of Auckland. It was established to improve process simulation and control in New Zealand’s dairy and other export industries.
Among the institute’s industrial partners is Fonterra, the largest producer of milk powder in the country. In a recent project, I2C2 researchers developed machine learning models that are helping Fonterra to optimize product quality and streamline production processes.
Using MATLAB® and Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox™, the researchers analyzed data collected from a number of production facilities across New Zealand to predict the functional properties of milk powder based on process conditions.
“The breadth of MATLAB is unmatched by other environments we’ve used for statistical analysis,” says David Wilson, co-director of I2C2 and associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at AUT. “With MATLAB, we work with huge amounts of information within a single environment without needing to move large datasets from one tool to another.”