Materials informatics : Fast track to new materials

Abstract

Current methods for new materials development focus on either deeper fundamental-level studies or generation of large quantities of data. The data challenge in materials science is not only the volume of data being generated by many independent investigators, but its heterogeneity and also its complexity that must be transformed, analyzed, correlated and communicated. Materials informatics addresses these issues. Materials informatics is an emerging information-based field combining computational, statistical, and mathematical approaches with materials sciences for accelerating discovery and development of new materials. Within the informatic framework, the various different forms of information form a system architecture, an iterative cycle for transforming data into knowledge.