Materials Informatics and Combinatorial Materials Science: An Information Portal for Materials Discovery & Design

位于伦斯勒理工学院的材料信息学与组合材料科学国际材料研究所(IMI)是与马里兰大学和佛罗里达国际大学(美国最大的拉美裔服务机构)的合作项目。这个国际材料研究所(IMI)将追求两个广泛的目标：i)使材料信息和知识能够在全球范围内获得、共享和利用，以解决关键问题；ii)展示和推广新的方法(组合实验、信息学、建模和数据库)，以显著提高当地和国际材料工程的性能。此外，IMI处于独特的地位，能够在国家一级有意义地促进高等教育的多样性，并为IMI在国际上展示美国科学界的多样性提供一个重要机会。该研究所将与一个实验室联盟成立，这些实验室在材料科学数据库和材料科学组合方法方面处于世界领先地位，代表分布在欧洲、日本、中东和美洲的10个国家。IMI将促进和协调在材料问题上的合作，这些问题对信息存储和能源技术等领域的全球化对技术进步和经济增长产生了强烈影响。示例性的例子包括用于新型磁性材料的新化学以及用于功能和结构陶瓷的组合工艺设计。这些活动将作为推动信息学/组合方法的国际合作平台开展。研究主题将作为扩大信息学和组合方法范围的平台，并处理与材料有关的技术，以解决紧迫的全球社会和经济问题。为确保研究与教育相结合，国际教育研究所将把研究工作直接纳入一个可访问的信息网络，作为国际材料网络的一部分，作为教育和信息传播的信息技术载体。信息管理研究所还将作为这一信息网络的枢纽，通过一个基于网络的门户网站随时提供访问，以支持对精通材料科学和信息科学技能的新科学队伍的培训。将围绕因特网2的联网能力建立协作基础设施，以便利用下一代信息高速公路的主干。为进一步促进研究和教育的融合，将为国际材料界提供一条途径，使其能够有效利用分布在世界各地实验室的一系列数字图书馆、数据库、实验设施和计算专门知识。在这一基础设施内，将建造利用这种丰富的信息技术环境的教育工具，以提供对远程仪器的实时访问，教室和实验室之间的多媒体链接，以及传达组合实验和材料信息学的概念和好处的基于模拟的电子学习系统。国际材料研究所(IMI)将把这种新的研究和教育模式引入材料科学，解决能源、环境和通信领域的重要材料需求。信息学与组合实验之间的协同作用，为材料科学从原子到应用的加速发展提供了关键。国际管理信息系统的工作还将涉及超大规模数据库和数字图书馆的开发和整合，以及能够进行高效和快速试验的新技术。研究所将利用国际材料合作，利用信息技术，以便迅速开发和发现与全球经济关切有关的关键材料技术的解决办法。通过有选择地研究全球感兴趣的热门材料科学主题，并将它们连接到一个可访问的信息网络，IMI将成为以互联网为基础的国际材料网络的枢纽。将建立一个国际教育基础设施，可通过网上门户网站随时访问，以支持培训一支精通材料科学和信息科学技能的新科学队伍。因特网2将作为国际材料信息高速公路的有形基础设施。

The International Materials Institute (IMI) for Materials Informatics & Combinatorial Materials Science, which is based at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is a joint effort with the University of Maryland and Florida International University (the largest Hispanic Serving Institution in the US). This International Materials Institute (IMI) will pursue two broad goals: i) enabling global access, sharing, and utilization of materials information and knowledge to solve critical problems; and ii) demonstrating and promoting new methods (combinatorial experimentation, informatics, modeling and databases)which dramatically enhance the performance of materials engineering locally and internationally. In addition, the IMI is in a unique position to meaningfully promote diversity in higher education at a national level and to provide a significant opportunity for the IMI to showcase the diversity of the American scientific community at the international level. The Institute will be initiated with a consortium of laboratories that are world leaders in materials science databases and combinatorial methodologies in materials science, representing ten countries spread across Europe, Japan, the Middle East, and the Americas. The IMI will foster and coordinate collaborations on materials issues, which strongly impact on technological progress and economic growth from globalization in fields such as information storage and energy technologies. Illustrative examples include new chemistries for novel magnetic materials and combinatorial process design for functional and structural ceramics. These activities will be carried out as international collaboration platforms that advance the informatics/combinatorial methodology. The research themes will serve as platforms for enhancing the scope of informatics and combinatorial methods as well as serving to address materials related technologies that address pressing global social and economic concerns. To ensure the integration of research and education the IMI will interface the research efforts directly into an accessible information network that will serve as the information technology vehicle for education and information dissemination as part of an international materials network. The IMI will also serve as the hub for this information network, providing ready access through a web-based portal to support the training of a new scientific workforce well versed in the skills of both the materials sciences and the information sciences. A collaboratory infrastructure will be built around the networking capabilities of INTERNET 2 so as to take advantage of the backbone of the next generation of the information highway. To further promote the integration of research and education, an avenue will be provided for the international materials community to effectively use an array of digital libraries, databases, experimental facilities and computational expertise distributed in laboratories around the world. Within this infrastructure, educational vehicles to exploit this rich IT environment will be built to deliver real time access to remote instrumentation, multimedia links between classrooms and laboratories, and simulation-based electronic learning systems which convey the concepts and benefits of combinatorial experimentation and materials informatics. %%%The International Materials Institute (IMI) will introduce this new paradigm of research and education into the materials sciences, addressing important materials needs in the fields of energy, environment and communications. The synergism between informatics and combinatorial experimentation provides the key for accelerated development of materials science from "atoms to applications". The work of the IMI will also involve the development and integration of ultra large-scale databases and digital libraries in conjunction with new technologies permitting highly efficient and rapid experimentation. The Institute will exploit international materials collaborations through the use of information technology in order to rapidly develop and discover solutions to critical materials technologies relevant to global economic concerns. By selectively working on topical materials science themes of global interest and interfacing them into an accessible information network, the IMI will serve as the hub for an internet-based international materials network. An international educational infrastructure that is readily accessible through a web-based portal will be established to support the training of a new scientific workforce well versed in the skills of both the materials sciences and the information sciences. INTERNET 2 will serve as the physical infrastructure on which the IMI will build the International Materials Information Highway.