People have successfully applied advanced analysis techniques to big data and have solved significant challenges in several areas of society including business, biology, and astronomy. Using these techniques has provided people with new and valuable information from the data that was not readily available by other means. However, materials science and engineering data has not yet been exploited to its full potential because of its complexity. This complexity also stands to provide rich insights if the mysteries the data hold can be unraveled.
To advance the national goals of the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), the Air Force Research Lab is soliciting innovative approaches to solve materials science and engineering problems primarily through the analysis of publicly accessible digital data. Areas of particular interest include discovery of new materials to meet an application need, or development of a new model describing processing-structure-property relationships in either a structural (load bearing), functional (electrical, optical or magnetic), or multifunctional material.
Emphasis is on use of existing and accessible data sources, novelty of the approach, and validation of results. Winners will be invited to present their work at a special session (reasonable expenses paid) during Materials Science & Technology 2016 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
This challenge requires only a written research report in a format suitable for peer-reviewed scientific publication be submitted. The challenge award will be contingent upon evaluation of the proposal by the review committee. The Air Force Research Laboratory intends to make multiple awards with the top award being $25K and no award less than $5K depending on creativity and completeness of the report.
To receive an award, solvers will not have to transfer their exclusive IP rights to the U.S. Government. Instead, they will grant to the U.S. Government non-exclusive license to practice their solutions. Other arrangements may be considered, if a license cannot be granted. The US Government is soliciting advanced approaches to analysis of digital materials data that would provide new knowledge for materials science and engineering to a level where they would enable:
- Discovery of new material structures and/or compositions that provide previously unattained and useful properties that enable new industrial applications or products.
- Development of new models to link at least two elements in materials processing-structure-property relationships where those relationships are currently poorly described by physics-based models.
Note: Solvers can be individuals or teams from academia, industry, or any other area. Solvers can submit reports for solutions to either or both of the needs described in 1 & 2 above, but they should submit a separate report for each if responding to both. Reports must detail the source of the materials data, the research approaches used, and methods used to validate the findings.
We are not seeking submissions for the following areas: Research in biology for pharmaceutical, medical, or other biological or biomedical purposes.
Background
Reuse or repurposing of digital scientific data has been applied in many scientific disciplines to solve important technical challenges for that discipline. Advances in computational power and data science techniques have enabled these innovations by providing new means to extract information from large datasets. Materials science and engineering progress is dependent on understanding, connecting, and applying extraordinarily complex information across large temporal and spatial scales. However, researchers often times encounter hard limits on the availability of accurate physical models to describe behavior. This lack of well-developed physics-based approaches across scales hampers advances in the discovery of new materials and an ability to link processing-structure-property relationships in such a way as to enable quantitative and predictive materials design tools.
The goal of the Materials Genome Initiative is to halve the time it takes to discover, develop and deploy a new material and at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional approaches. Application of data science techniques to accessible digital materials data to develop new knowledge is expected to be part of the solution to reaching this goal.
The goal of this project is to leverage advanced computational and data science techniques to solve challenges associated with discovery, development, and production of new materials. The US Government is soliciting innovative, detailed approaches that can solve barrier issues in materials science and engineering research and offer new avenues for providing rapid and insightful information in materials research and development.
Previously unpublished materials data may be submitted here (subject to NIST approval).
Submission dates: Jul 1, 2015 – Mar 31, 2016
Judging dates: Apr 1 – May 11, 2016
Winners will be announced on May 11, 2016
