PRICM9 in Kyoto

MMM lab head and Office of the Chief Executive Science Leader Dr Amanda Barnard represented Australia as our Plenary Speaker at the ninth Pacific Rim International Conference on advanced Materials in Kyoto (PRICM9).  Engaging the audience from across the pacific and around the world, Dr Barnard described the challenges and opportunities residing at the interface between Data Science and Nanoscience; a complicated research area.

Data science offers a range of statistical methods ideal for dealing with the complexity and structural diversity characteristic of real samples of nanostructures and materials.  “When perfection is not possible, it is the impact of persistent imperfection that becomes the issue”, Dr Barnard explained, “and dealing with imperfection does not hinder innovation.  In fact, it can help drive it, as it gives us another feature we can manipulate to suit our needs.”

“So much existing data is undervalued; archived and ignored.” says Barnard, “Data-driven techniques are robust, reliable and reproducible, and already available, so there is no reason to wait to explore the next big thing in materials research.”