Knowledge Based Technologies for Promoting Innovation in Material Science

Abstract

Materials and their properties are nowadays mostly represented either in forms of material data bases or digital data sheets. While these are sources of facts about the particular materials, the interconnection between the different materials, their usage and development is still lacking. Besides, the data bases are mostly distributed, run by different institutions or specialized on only one category like metals or polymers. The given article addresses the application of knowledge management in the area of material science and engineering for gathering, representing and distributing knowledge as well as supporting a sustainable material and product development. Sustainability, green engineering and innovativeness are crucial deciding factors for today’s material development and should therefore be addressed and integrated in the scope of promoting innovation in material science. To accomplish the aforementioned goal, a combination of semantic and case based methods will be applied in a holistic concept, entitled MatProSQI. It is thus become possible to interconnect and reference fact or knowledge of materials, like category, property, test results, production requirements, sustainability factors, user feedback and experiences of former applications. In addition to the representation of knowledge, collaboration between the engineers is detected as an essential factor for a steady transfer of knowledge.