JUNE WORKSHOP EXAMINES DRAFT LANGUAGE FOR MATERIALS DATA EXCHANGE.

At a workshop scheduled in June 2001, an international working group of materials scientists and engineers will present the draft of new software--Materials Markup Language, or MatML--designed to facilitate the exchange of data on materials and their properties over the Internet. Representing industry, national laboratories, universities and standards and professional organizations, the working group will seek input from participants on the technical aspects and strategic direction of MatML.

Addressing the problems of data interpretation and interoperability among different computer systems, MatML will provide a standard format for exchanging materials property data on the World Wide Web, enabling researchers to understand and use data from various sources. Based on the eXtensible Markup Language (known as XML), MatML provides a scheme for describing data with consistent tags, which will lead to the transfer of materials data directly into other computer applications, such as modeling, simulation or databases, without the need for human intervention.

The workshop was held at NIST's Gaithersburg, MD, headquarters. NIST has been coordinating the MatML development effort for the past 18 months.