Briefs

NOVEMBER 18, 2003 -- MIT News

A computational technique used to predict everything from books that a given customer might like to the function of an unknown protein is now being applied by MIT engineers and colleagues to the search for new materials.

The team's ultimate goal: a public online database that could aid the design of materials for almost any application, from nanostructure computer components to ultralight, high-strength alloys for airplanes.

The technique, known as data mining, uses statistics and correlations to search for patterns within a large data set. Those patterns can then be used to predict an unknown. "Amazon.com, for example, tracks a customer's past purchases, then uses data mining to suggest, based on those purchases, additional books the customer might like," said Dane Morgan, a research associate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE).

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