A team of experts from four universities (Duke, RPI, Caltech and Northwestern) creates an open source data resource for the polymer nanocomposites and metamaterials communities. A broad spectrum of users will be able to query the system, identify materials that may have certain characteristics, and automatically produce information about these materials. The new capability (MetaMine) is based on previous work by the research team in nanomaterials (NanoMine). The effort focuses upon two significant domain problems: discovery of factors controlling the dissipation peak in nanocomposites, and tailored mechanical response in metamaterials motivated by an application to personalize running shoes. The project will significantly improve the representation of data and the robustness with which user communities can identify promising materials applications. By expanding interaction of the nanocomposite and metamaterials communities with curated data resources, the project enables new collaborations in materials discovery and design. Strong connections with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and Lockheed Martin facilitate industry and government use of the resulting knowledge base.
The project develops an open source Materials Knowledge Graph (MKG) framework. The framework for materials includes extensible semantic infrastructure, customizable user templates, semi-automatic curation tools, ontology-enabled design tools and custom user dashboards. The work generalizes a prototype data resource (NanoMine) previously developed by the researchers, and demonstrates the extensibility of this framework to metamaterials. NanoMine enables annotation, organization and data storage on a wide variety of nanocomposite samples, including information on composition, processing, microstructure and properties. The extensibility will be demonstrated through creation of a MetaMine module for metamaterials, parallel to the NanoMine module for nanocomposites. The frameworks will allow for curation of data sets and end-user discovery of processing-structure-property relationships. The work supports the Materials Genome Initiative by creating an extensible data ecosystem to share and re-use materials data, enabling faster development of materials via robust testing of models and application of analysis tools. The capability will be compatible with the NIST Material Data Curator System, and the team also engages both AFRL and Lockheed Martin to facilitate industry and government use of the resulting knowledge base.
This award by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure is jointly supported by the Division of Materials Research within the NSF Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
