Open Access

This poster presents the focused ion beam preparation methodologies developed within the framework of the EU funded EURAMET project ADVENT (Advanced Energy-Saving Technology). It summarises the key breakthroughs achieved for various in situ investigation techniques, e.g. in situ experiments at the Synchrotron facility BESSY II (IR-SNOM and XRS), TEM and SMM instrumentation. The created experimental devices from diverse thin-film semiconductor materials paved the way to dynamic structural studies bearing the potential to determine nanoscale correlations between strain and electric fields and, moreover, for the fundamental development of new in situ capabilities.

The application and benefits of Semantic Web Technologies (SWT) for managing, sharing, and (re-)using of research data are demonstrated in implementations in the field of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). However, a compilation and classification are needed to fully recognize the scattered published works with its unique added values. Here, the primary use of SWT at the interface with MSE is identified using specifically created categories. This overview highlights promising opportunities for the application of SWT to MSE, such as enhancing the quality of experimental processes, enriching data with contextual information in knowledge graphs, or using ontologies to perform specific queries on semantically structured data. While interdisciplinary work between the two fields is still in its early stages, a great need is identified to facilitate access for nonexperts and develop and provide user-friendly tools and workflows. The full potential of SWT can best be achieved in the long term by the broad acceptance and active participation of the MSE community. In perspective, these technological solutions will advance the field of MSE by making data FAIR. Data-driven approaches will benefit from these data structures and their connections to catalyze knowledge generation in MSE.

The PMD Core Ontology (PMDco) is a comprehensive set of building blocks produced via consensus building. The ontological building blocks provide a framework representing knowledge about fundamental concepts used in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) today. The PMDco is a mid-level ontology that establishes connections between narrower MSE application ontologies and domain neutral concepts used in already established broader (top-level) ontologies. The primary goal of the PMDco design is to enable interoperability between various other MSE-related ontologies and other common ontologies. PMDco’s class structure is both comprehensive and extensible, rendering it an efficient tool to structure MSE knowledge. The PMDco serves as a semantic middle-layer unifying common MSE concepts via semantic mapping to other semantic representations using well-known key terms used in the MSE domain. The PMDco enables straight-forward documentation and tracking of science data generation and in consequence enables high-quality FAIR data that allows for precise reproducibility of scientific experiments. The design of PMDco is based on the W3C Provenance Ontology (PROV-O), which provides a standard framework for capturing the production, derivation, and attribution of resources. Via this foundation, the PMDco enables the integration of data from various data origins and the representation of complex workflows. In summary, the PMDco is a valuable advancement for researchers and practitioners in MSE domains. It provides a common MSE vocabulary to represent and share knowledge, allowing for efficient collaboration and promoting interoperability between diverse domains. Its design allows for the systematic integration of data and metadata, enabling seamless tracing of science data. Overall, the PMDco is a crucial step towards a unified and comprehensive understanding of the MSE domain in general.

Knowledge representation in the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) domain is a vast and multi-faceted challenge: Overlap, ambiguity, and inconsistency in terminology are common. Invariant (consistent) and variant (context-specific) knowledge are difficult to align cross-domain. Generic top-level semantic terminology often is too abstract, while MSE domain terminology often is too specific. In this paper, an approach how to maintain a comprehensive MSE-centric terminology composing a mid-level ontology–the Platform MaterialDigital Core Ontology (PMDco)–via MSE community-based curation procedures is presented. The illustrated findings show how the PMDco bridges semantic gaps between high-level, MSE-specific, and other science domain semantics. Additionally, it demonstrates how the PMDco lowers development and integration thresholds. Moreover, the research highlights how to fuel it with real-world data sources ranging from manually conducted experiments and simulations with continuously automated industrial applications.

This presentation provides a comprehensive overview of recent developments and the current status within the Semantic Interoperability work area, with a particular emphasis on the advancements related to the Platform MaterialDigital Core Ontology (PMDco). The presentation will delve into the collaborative and community-supported curation process that has been instrumental in shaping PMDco. Additionally, we will introduce the innovative Ontology Playground, showcasing its role in fostering experimentation and exploration within the realm of ontology development.