The Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) is a multi-agency partnership that seeks to accelerate the pace of materials development across the Materials Development Continuum. Through use of a computationally-led and data-driven approach, MGI promotes the rapid discovery and deployment of advanced materials that will ensure sustained American leadership in sectors including energy, electronics, and photonics. The goals of the MGI include 1) leading a culture shift in materials research through use of an iterative feedback-loop approach, 2) integrating experiment, computation, and theory throughout the materials research community, 3) making digital data accessible and useful to the larger community, and 4) creating a world-class materials science and engineering workforce. The Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) partners with a number of other federal funding agencies to promote these objectives. DMREF includes participation from ten divisions in three directorates at the NSF to address fundamental materials discovery and development. This program currently funds about one hundred projects that cover the full spectrum of materials research. Among these are a number of projects that focus on electronic and photonic materials and devices in both the organic and inorganic realms. Graphenebased origami and kirigami metamaterials are among those being developed thought this methodology. The principles of the MGI are described and examples from specific DMREF projects are provided.
|