Hersam Subproject for CHiMaD

The classical industrial materials development paradigm rests on a make-and-test strategy that results in unacceptably long times and increased costs before new materials can be inserted into applications. By contrast, materials design strategies offer the potential to radically transform U.S. manufacturing and cut costs dramatically by changing the way in which new products are deployed or inserted into production lines. The Center for Hierarchical Materials Design (CHiMaD) was founded to enable this transformation of U.S. manufacturing. Our mission is to demonstrate, advance, and disseminate the power of the materials design approach by providing opportunities to train scientists and engineers in materials design, by fostering the development of synergistic computational, experimental tools and, most importantly, the data that enable design, and by discovering new materials. CHiMaD has become a forum where multidisciplinary and multi-sector communities convene for in-depth discussions on all topics related to Materials Genome Initiative (MGI). A close partnership with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been central to the Center’s success on all fronts. In the new phase, CHiMaD will build on its record of accomplishment and move in substantially new directions. The Center will maintain the continuity that is required to fulfill our missions of deploying new materials technologies in industrial applications, but moving forward will emphasize more strongly the distribution and development of data and design tools for the materials design community. New use-case and tool groups are being introduced, while the existing use-case groups have been decreased in size to enable a more tightly focused effort that will branch out in new and ambitious research directions and interact strongly with NIST. CHiMaD’s efforts in database development and deployment will be augmented to continue providing the data necessary to enable materials design across materials platforms. Importantly, the Center will expand considerably its pioneering activities in evolutionary optimization, machine learning, and, more generally, artificial intelligence to develop new tools for materials design in which massive amounts of heterogeneous data and information are integrated to address the engineering design challenges that are at the forefront of materials research. By capitalizing on extensive networks that were established during the past funding cycle, CHiMaD will also nurture and enhance its ever-expanding outreach efforts to industry, academe and underrepresented groups.