Data-Enabled Discovery and Design of Energy Materials (D3EM): Structure of An Interdisciplinary Materials Design Graduate Program

The Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) calls for the acceleration of the materials development cycle through the integration of experiments and simulations within a data-aware/enabling framework. To realize this vision, MGI recognizes the need for the creation of a new kind of workforce capable of creating and/or deploying advanced informatics tools and methods into the materials discovery/development cycle. An interdisciplinary team at Texas A&M seeks to address this challenge by creating an interdisciplinary program that goes beyond MGI in that it incorporates the discipline of engineering systems design as an essential component of the new accelerated materials development paradigm. The Data-Enabled Discovery and Development of Energy Materials (D3EM) program seeks to create an interdisciplinary graduate program at the intersection of materials science, informatics, and design. In this paper, we describe the rationale for the creation of such a program, present the pedagogical model that forms the basis of the program, and describe some of the major elements of the program.