Welcome to the future of materials research
Motivations: the engineering community invests significantly in generating materials test data. Consideration need only be given to initiatives such as ITER and emerging technologies such as nanomaterials to appreciate the level of investment and the volume of data generated. Well-established procedural testing standards identify exactly what data needs to be recorded, but in the absence of corresponding formats, the data are rarely conserved, and their value diminishes as the material pedigree, test conditions and results become disassociated. Even when conserved, data invariably remain inaccessible to the wider community, which acts to hinder both business and research in the engineering sector. In this context, the MDC is one of a series of complementary initiatives to establish an infrastructure to capture and conserve data in the engineering sciences.
Objectives: the MDC will be aligned to a complementary European project (ELSSI-EMD) that is aimed at engaging the materials community in the development standards-compliant schemas and ontologies. In the planned infrastructure, the role of the MDC will be to provide the engineering community a facility to conserve the significant volumes of materials data generated in the research and business sectors.
Outcomes: although an ambitious effort, the MDC will simply deliver a facility to conserve and expose data. The real value will become apparent as Semantic technologies become established, at which stage the ever-increasing body of experimental data will provide new opportunities for knowledge discovery within and across disciplines.
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