Sensors and Actuators B 101 (2004) 213–223 Conference report 2nd Workshop of the Second Network on Artificial Olfactory Sensing (NOSE II) Martin Holmberg a,∗ , Mats Eriksson a , Christina Krantz-Rülcker a , Tom Artursson b , Fredrik Winquist a , Anita Lloyd-Spetz a , Ingemar Lundström a a S-SENCE and Laboratory of Applied Physics, Linköpings Universitet, S-581 83 Linköping, Sweden b Applied Sensor AB, Teknikringen 6, S-583 30 Linköping, Sweden Received 27 January 2003; accepted 23 February 2004 Available online 5 May 2004 1. Executive summary The 2nd Workshop of NOSE II (the Second Network on Artificial Olfactory Sensing) was held in Linköping, Swe- den, 18–21 May 2003 and attracted 50 participants from 25 research organisations from 12 different countries. Of these organisations 15 were academic institutions and 10 were companies and end-users (companies, SMEs and research institutes). The main theme of the workshop was ‘New con- cepts for chemical sensing’. A total of 13 key lectures and 10 posters were addressing the following topics: • Electronic noses—chemical sensors versus analytical in- struments • Electronic tongues • Current possibilities and pitfalls in data processing • New concepts for chemical sensing • Distributed sensor systems Each session consisted of two or three speakers who intro- duced the subject, and thereafter plenty of time (30–45 min) for discussion. During each session, experts in the field took notes and later summarised the presentations and discus- sions. An example of a question discussed is: What do dif- ferent people mean by the term ‘Electronic Nose’, or is the term misleading and should be replaced? During the workshop, there was also a report from the NOSE II Standardisation Working Group, who deals with one of the mostly discussed items at the workshop, namely how can exchange of data and information between scien- tists in the field be improved? There is a strong need for a standardised data format that satisfies researchers and users ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: mah@ifm.liu.se (M. Holmberg). and contains all necessary information regarding measure- ment conditions, and also represents the sensor data in a standardised manner. This would enable benchmarking of different instruments and facilitate exchange of data, e.g. for evaluation of different data processing methods. There has been no major scientific or technological break-through in the last few years, and the Electronic Nose companies have not become as successful as we may have anticipated a few years ago. We can also see that researchers have to study new fields, e.g. electronics, sampling and data processing, in order to understand and improve the labo- ratory experiments that previously were made with much less care. Furthermore, several commercial companies have shifted from general-purpose electronic noses to more dedi- cated sensor systems developed for a particular application. These facts show that the technology has matured, and that the community has learnt from past mistakes. Future directions that were discussed at the workshop include the integration of chemical sensors into large systems, finding new interesting applications, development of novel sensitive materials, and the use of new data processing methods to obtain new functionalities of the sensor systems. Upcoming events in the NOSE II network In 2004, NOSE II will conduct three major events for its members and the interested public. The third short course of the NOSE II network, entitled ‘Fundamentals of signal and data processing’, is devoted to signal and data processing issues in electronic noses and smart gas sensor arrays. It is scheduled for March in Alp- bach (Austria), and is addressed to students, researchers, as well as to members of the industry. The course will cover fundamental concepts with a strong emphasis on the appli- cation side (including practical computer exercises). 0925-4005/$ – see front matter © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.snb.2004.02.054