New tool BAM Enhances Efficiency in Computer-Aided Material Research

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The German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) is developing more efficient tools to significantly improve the safety of materials.

The BAM (Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing) is developing more efficient tools to optimize the safety of materials as part of the DFG (German Research Foundation) Collaborative Research Center Fonda. The generation, processing, and analysis of large data sets are increasingly important for the targeted search for new materials, as well as for the optimization of existing materials. However, the existing workflows in materials science are often too complex to be executed with sufficient precision. Scientific insights are increasingly based on the computer-assisted analysis of large data sets. Researchers rely on optimal data analysis workflows (DAW)—structured processes that enable more efficient processing and analysis of collected data. However, DAWs themselves are highly complex, require long development times, and are therefore rarely available to scientists without specialized prior knowledge, as stated by the BAM. This situation is intended to change.

Material development should become more productive

In materials science, Data Analysis Workflows (DAW) are playing an increasingly important role, particularly for the development of materials for the energy transition or the introduction of hydrogen technologies. The specific challenge lies in the coupling of various mechanisms within the material, which must also be reflected in the workflows. To address this, BAM will investigate interacting DAW and also their function in conducting large-scale simulations. The goal is to make DAW even more efficient to achieve an understanding of materials that would otherwise not be capturable with currently available computers. The Collaborative Research Center Fonda (Foundations of Workflows for Large-Scale Scientific Data Analysis), established by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in 2020, addresses this very issue. It aims to enhance the productivity of data analysis workflows for science in the long term. A second funding period has now been approved, in which BAM is also involved. The focus for the next four years will be on improving the user-friendliness and sustainability of DAW. Data management is to be simplified by combining computing powers of spatially separate systems. This integration is expected to facilitate more streamlined and efficient workflows, contributing significantly to advancements in scientific research and technology development in the field of materials science.

Incidentally, Fonda is coordinated by Humboldt University, Berlin. In addition to the BAM, participants include Charité, Free University Berlin, the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Technical University Berlin, Technical University Darmstadt, University of Potsdam, and the Zuse Institute Berlin.