AIMS — Applying Interoperable Metadata Standards
New research project supervised by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Robert H. Schmitt to develop metadata standards in the field of mechanical engineering approved.
The project is realized by Patrick Mund and Tobias Müller, who both work at the WZL of the RWTH Aachen University at the Chair of Production Metrology and Quality Management of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Robert H. Schmitt.
Current challenges associated with the use of research data
Precise and understandable documentation via metadata is crucial for management, interpretation and retrieval of research data. This is true both for active use of the data during the research process as well as afterwards, when the data are archived or published in repositories. In order for metadata to be interpretable themselves, they need to follow documented standards defining their format and content. These standards need to be tailored to match the specific requirements of the described data type and scientific discipline. In addition, researchers require not only suitable standards but also adequate tools, methods and an infrastructure supporting their creation and use. At present, these criteria are satisfied only by a very limited number of scientific disciplines.
Metadata is data about data. In other words, the term metadata comprises all additional information, such as information regarding data format or publication, that might be necessary for the interpretation of research data. However, for the majority of scientific disciplines, including mechanical engineering, no adequate metadata standards are available. As a consequence, the research data management in the field of mechanical engineering is usually handled on the basis of simple file systems and relies on the manual organization of directories, files and metadata. Data and metadata are often created on a case by case basis and stored separately, inconsistently and untraceable. The created metadata are in many cases not even really metadata in the sense of being machine actionable auxiliary information about distinct datasets. These circumstances diminish the information value of research data and hinder the development of reusable tools for metadata creation or automation of workflow steps relying on metadata.
Interoperable standards for successful research data management
As an answer to these circumstances, we propose the research project “Applying Interoperable Metadata Standards” (AIMS). AIMS has two main objectives. The first is to establish an infrastructure which enables scientists to create, share and reuse metadata standards satisfying the specific needs of their research. The second, equally important goal is to establish tools and workflows for the effortless creation of standardized metadata during research and deriving direct benefits of these metadata by increasing the efficiency of data handling (including complex tasks like analysis, post-processing and retrieval). As an essential component, the created standards will be stored, indexed and made publicly available.
The project consortium consists of the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL), the IT Center (ITC) from RWTH Aachen University and the Chair of Fluid Systems (FST) and the University and State Library (ULB) from TU Darmstadt.
Our Contribution
Within this research project, we will focus on the development of the interoperable metadata standard for the field of mechanical engineering, the required vocabulary as well as the preparation of training material for the standards and the surrounding infrastructure. A significant contribution to the project and to the improvement of scientifc workflow steps is also the provision of the “Virtual Metrology Frame“ (VMF) as a use case for AIMS. The VMF is a global reference system that allows to combine coordinate systems of different measurement systems. Key to this combination is again a standardized way of describing and formatting (heterogenous) data in order to be able to combine different sources. With the VMF, data from and about (numerous) decentralized measuring systems are combined, stored and processed with the use of interoperable metadata standards to track products and production means on the shop floor. This will help to verify that the standardization we are striving for does neither limit scientific flexibility and creativity nor cause additional work for researchers. Finally, we would like to use these insights to demonstrate the crucial importance of interoperable metadata standards in an industrial context and promote a rethinking of data management.
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