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“Hello, I’m Caden. I’m an engineer whose research deals with complex sequences of processing and analysing steps, applied to samples and/or data sets. My professional background is mostly informed by materials science, building materials science, materials technology, process engineering, and technical chemistry.
For me, the output of one processing step is the input of a subsequent one. The processed objects can be physical samples (specimens) or data samples. For instance, I synthesise an alloy sample, temper, and etch it. After that, I analyse the sample in various measurement setups, creating data sets. Thus, in the context of my data management, physical and data samples are treated the same and both are commonly referred to as “entities”. Similarly, all kinds of processing steps, whether working on physical or data samples are referred to as “activities”. The resulting graph of entities and activities comprises my workflow.
Services - Caden's Picks
Listed below are services of particular interest to researchers like Caden
SciMesh provides a specification and a reference implementation for a knowledge graph schema. It is supposed to represent scientific workflows and insights. While originating in experimental research of the engineering and material sciences, its basic principle is the connection of cause and effect, which can be applied to most empiric research. Its applications range from research publication over data exchange between electronic lab notebooks to timestamping of scientific work in blockchains.
SM4RO-C is a specification that defines how to use SciMesh graphs in RO-Crates in order to describe the raw data files stored within the crate. It enables researchers to publish and/or share their research results in the richest way possible, i.e. raw data, intermediate data, and workflow graphs combined in one ZIP file.
Services - General
Researchers like Caden might also be interested in the following services
Basic RDM Training for Engineers provides essential resources for self-paced trainings in RDM tailored specifically to engineering disciplines. Driven by the needs and characteristics of the engineering domain, these trainings provide basic RDM topics adapted for engineering, including use cases and interactive quiz elements. Based on that, users can start learning and enhancing their skills in managing research data effectively, improving collaboration in their projects, and reuse research data.
Coscine is a RDM platform for the active phase of research projects that enables NFDI4ING researchers to access storage space on DataStorage.nrw while guaranteeing the FAIR principles. Projects created in Coscine enable role management, metadata management, public sharing of data, referencing with PIDs and archiving of research and metadata for 10 years. In addition, project-related GitLab repositories can be integrated and external files linked. Registration takes place via your own organization (using the NFDI4ING community AAI) or ORCiD.
The Data Collections Explorer is an information system for the engineering community. It facilitates sharing of and searching for discipline specific repositories, archives, and databases, as well as for datasets published individually by research groups. Scientists can get a quick overview of the most important facts about services and datasets, such as access rights or usage restrictions. A SPARQL endpoint ensures programmatic access for integration with third-party services.
"Data Quality Metrics Webpage" is a knowledge platform offering in-depth resources on data quality, FAIR principles, and image and machine learning metrics. Built on ReadTheDocs with GitHub, it supports decentralized editing and easy updates using reStructuredText, requiring no specialized software. The platform provides, practical guidance with examples, images, and code snippets, making it accessible to users for applying data concepts, optimizing models, and enhancing understanding.
The data transfer federation aims to increase mobility of data by providing a low-level service that allows asynchronous bulk transfer of large quantities of files from one storage cluster to another.
DataDesc is a framework that allows describing data models of software interfaces with machine-actionable metadata. The framework provides a specialized metadata schema, an exchange format and support tools for the easy collection and automated publishing of software documentation. DataDesc practically increases the FAIRness, i.e., findability, accessibility, interoperability, and the reusability of research software, as well as effectively promotes its impact on research.
The Field Database Platform (FDP) prioritizes the accessibility and reusability of data, allowing researchers to interact with field datasets more effectively. By providing tools for data exploration and previewing based on operational and environmental parameters, FDP ensures users are guided in finding relevant datasets, avoiding irrelevant or redundant information. This platform enhances data reusability and promotes FAIR principles, significantly improving the research experience compared to traditional data platforms.
GitLab is an open-source-software to host and manage own Git-repositories. Besides the main task of the code-management other functions like a simple issue-tracking-system, a wiki and also an option to review codes are covered. With this GitLab supports the developer, who increase the quality of the developed program codes.
Jarves provides guidance in RDM by ordering the RDM activities based on their occurrence in the engineering research process. Taking into account the specific RDM requirements of a research project, e.g. requirements of funding organisations or institutional boundaries, a decision support system provides information on the next steps and available tools. Alongside, matching trainings for the current step are provided. Furthermore, Jarves offers a broad connectivity to other services, allowing for seamless (meta)data exchange.
Kadi4Mat is a generic and open source virtual research environment, which can be hosted as a web-based service. The instances hosted at KIT can be leveraged to enhance (meta)data management and integration in the engineering community working in academia, research institutions, or industry.
The software ecosystem of Kadi4Mat includes different tools and libraries that are built around and on top of Kadi4Mat, the generic and open source virtual research environment.
Are you an engineer in a project to (re-)program scientific code? Or are you a student in a likewise project? Or maybe you are a project/data manager looking for some inspiration and advice? Then this Knowledge Base might be just for you! We cover multiple topics regarding the development of scientific software, e.g. Version Control and Continuous Integration.
The NFDI4ING Metadata Profile Service facilitates creation and utilization of FAIR (RDF-based) metadata by making use of metadata profiles that combine terms from existing ontologies into reusable metadata templates. The platform provides functionality for creation, sharing and curation of metadata profiles.
The MetadataHub enables easy access to multiple repositories via a uniform interface. Metadata documents can be created, updated, read, deleted, listed and searched for. Currently AIMS, Coscine and MetaStore are supported via their REST interfaces. New repositories could be easily added by adding a specific mapping to the MetadataHub service.
MetaStore is a research data repository for storing metadata documents and schemas for researchers. Quality and consistency are ensured by associating and validating each (metadata) document against a schema registered in beforehand in the MetaStore. XML and JSON are supported as possible schemas.
The NFDI-RFC (Request For Comments) process is adopted from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard. This process ensures that NFDI community submitted standards are practical, effective, and widely used within the research community. A review process for the publication of NFDI-RFCs was also designed to ensure that they meet the highest quality and integrity standards.
The NFDI4Ing Jupyter Service provides Jupyterlab servers to the NFDI4Ing community. Jupyter allows interactive programming via the browser in more than 40 programming languages. Via computational notebooks, the code can be enriched with text descriptions, images, videos and more (literate programming).
To evaluate the implementation of research data management, maturity models are provided for individual phases, which researchers can use for self-evaluation. The models are aimed at a standardised and optimised implementation of RDM in engineering research projects.
The NFDI4ING Q&A platform is here to empower researchers in the engineering sciences with a collaborative space to ask and answer questions about their research data management. Whether you’re a seasoned expert or just starting out, this platform is designed to foster knowledge exchange and support your research journey.
The NFDI4ING Terminology Service bundles and standardises access to existing terminologies and semantic models for research data management purposes. They form the basis for clear and meaningful communication between producers and users of research data for their subsequent use in innovative research. Clear communication is a basic prerequisite for innovative research, especially in areas such as the highly complex engineering sciences.
The Open Research Knowledge Graph (ORKG) helps researchers find, compare, and reuse scientific findings efficiently. User can organize research contributions semantically so that both humans and machines can easily understand and use them. With ORKG, you can explore knowledge across various disciplines, stay updated, and collaborate on new research. Additionally, ORKG enhances the visibility of research outputs, facilitating better discovery and innovation in the scientific community.
OTGroundTruther is a tool that can be used to carry out manual traffic counting at intersections based on video material. It is possible to capture traffic flows in detail and to distinguish between different road users. It enables the rapid counting of traffic flows if automated recording is not possible with sufficient certainty. In addition, this tool can be used to generate ground truth data for benchmarking the counting accuracy of automated systems.
The Research Data Management Organiser (RDMO) guides researchers through the planning, implementation and administration of all research data management tasks. It offers structured questionnaires with detailed guidance, enabling efficient and comprehensive data management planning for research projects, ensuring compliance with funding requirements.
Ellen's RESODATE will be a service that enables the task- and problem-oriented search and discovery of research data artifacts. Based on formalized procedural information embedded in knowledge graphs, it utilizes relationships between research tasks and methods to organize research software and data according to their possible uses. It aims to support the integration of software and data into executable research workflows that can be used to cover individual information and data requirements.
SciKGTeX is a LaTeX package that allows researchers to annotate specific research contributions in their scientific documents. By embedding these annotations into the PDF metadata, SciKGTeX makes it easier for search engines and knowledge graphs to find and understand the research. This enhances the discoverability and usability of scientific work, making it a valuable tool for anyone looking to improve the visibility and impact of their research.
TUstorage is a document repository containing all kinds of research literature in different file formats. The documents include journal articles, e-books and conference proceedings, mainly in XML and PDF file format. Where available, image and supplementary information files are provided along with the XML versions. Documents under open access licences can be downloaded via an API without the need to register.
