Digital Transformation in Materials Science through Semantic Technologies and Knowledge Graphs
- The field of materials science is undergoing a transformative shift driven by digitalization. In this respect, semantic and AI technologies are paving the way for advancements in materials development, design, and optimization while leaping towards an Industry 4.0 environment. Addressing the dual challenges of quality assurance and data interoperability, this presentation examines the integration of semantic technologies and knowledge representation methods. By adhering to FAIR principles, this approach enhances data management, storage, and reuse. That way, both machine-actionable and human-understandable data structures crucial for digital research environments are fostered.
This presentation focuses on the ‘platform MaterialDigital’ (PMD) initiative, which aims to support efforts from both industrial and academic sectors to solve digitalization challenges and implement sustainable digital solutions. Besides establishing structures to create virtual material data spaces, PMDThe field of materials science is undergoing a transformative shift driven by digitalization. In this respect, semantic and AI technologies are paving the way for advancements in materials development, design, and optimization while leaping towards an Industry 4.0 environment. Addressing the dual challenges of quality assurance and data interoperability, this presentation examines the integration of semantic technologies and knowledge representation methods. By adhering to FAIR principles, this approach enhances data management, storage, and reuse. That way, both machine-actionable and human-understandable data structures crucial for digital research environments are fostered.
This presentation focuses on the ‘platform MaterialDigital’ (PMD) initiative, which aims to support efforts from both industrial and academic sectors to solve digitalization challenges and implement sustainable digital solutions. Besides establishing structures to create virtual material data spaces, PMD develops solutions for systematizing and unifying the handling of hierarchical, process-dependent material data. Semantic technologies play a crucial role in digitalization efforts as they enable the storage, processing, and querying of data in a contextualized form. Therefore, the development and prototypical application of the PMD Core Ontology 3.0 (PMDco 3.0) tailored for materials science is highlighted. This includes the design and documentation of graph patterns that may be compiled into rule-based semantic shapes. Its integration into daily lab life is demonstrated through its application to electronic lab notebooks (ELN). This illustrates potentials of standardized protocols and automation-ready solutions for managing diverse experimental data across different sources.
Outlining best practices and illustrating the possibilities that semantic technologies bring to modern labs, examples from materials processing and mechanical testing will underscore how knowledge graphs bridge the gap between data and decision-making in materials science, with potential for increased productivity and streamlined workflows across the field.…

