A June workshop is being organized to address issues relating to ceramic materials property data. Credit: data.gov.

Steve Freiman (along with Lynnette Madsen and John Rumble) first brought the issue of ceramic property data to the attention of the broader ACerS community last year with their article in The Bulletin, “A perspective on materials databases.” The article outlines the status and issues related to collection, verification, standardization and access to ceramic materials property data. They conclude with a call to action:

The time has come to plan for the future and assess where we are and where we need to go. This assessment requires understanding of what and how materials property data are currently available electronically on an international basis. … It is critical to determine viable business models that can be applied to establish a sustainable materials property data access approach.

Since the article was published, the issue of data has become urgent with the announcement of the Materials Genome Initiative and the National Nanotechnology Initiative. Also, integrated computational materials engineering, modeling and simulation are increasingly important R&D tools that are data dependent,

Answering his own call to action, Freiman is organizing a workshop in June to begin addressing these issues. It will be June 4-5, 2012, at the Virginia Tech Research Center in Arlington, Va. Freiman outlines the goals and approach of worshop and invites all interested parties to contact him for more information. His announcement follows:

E-Ceramics 2012: A Workshop on Improved Access to Ceramics Property Data

E-Ceramics 2012 is a workshop on the prospects and challenges for improved access to and quality of ceramics property data. The workshop is designed to bring together expert users to define and address issues related to today’s ceramics property data.

The increasing pace of technological advances and the need for shortened product development times requires rapid access to up-to-date and accurate ceramics property data. Data are needed for design and manufacture of advanced components as well as for predictions of long-term reliability. For example, the National Nanotechnology Initiative and the Materials Genome Initiative both underline the need for such data to reduce times from innovation to commercialization. In today’s connected world with ubiquitous search engines, it might be assumed that data access is no longer an issue. As any user of ceramics data knows, however, that is not the case for many types of important data.

The goal of this workshop is to determine whether the needs of industry, government laboratories and academia for electronic access to ceramics property data are being met, and if not, what actions are needed. Workshop participants will hear from key researchers, informatics experts and industrial developers. Sufficient time for detailed discussions has been allowed. The outcome of this workshop will provide major input in decisions regarding how to meet stated needs. Topics to be discussed include:

• What are today’s requirements for access to ceramics property data?
• Are the needs of ceramics data users being met, and if not, which needs are most critical?
• Is the quality of available ceramics data, especially that available online, adequate, and if not, what are the gaps?
• Is there a need for more centralized access to ceramics data?
• What actions are other disciplines taking to make their data more readily available?
• What resources might be required to provide improved access and quality?

A workshop report will describe and prioritize the needs of the ceramics community and make recommendations as to further actions.

If you are interested, please contact Diane Rumble at diane.rumble@randrdata.com

Workshop Organizer: Stephen Freiman; Steve.freiman@comcast.net; 240-499-6447

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