Exchanges with Inprodat e.V.

Richard BAUR, representative of Shell Global Solutions International BV, president of CO-LaN and Oliver KOCH, representative of Linde, discussed today in a conference call with Dr Martin T. HORSCH about the potential collaboration between Inprodat e.V. and CO-LaN. Dr Martin HORSCH, as member of Inprodat e.V., represented this public-interest organization in the discussion. Michel PONS, as CO-LaN Chief Technology Officer, was also present in the call.

Inprodat e.V. (Innovation Centre for Process Data Technology) promotes and develops solutions in process data technology, i.e., modelling and simulation based knowledge engineering and data management applied to problems from chemical and mechanical process technology.

Ontology-based semantic interoperability is a topic of interest for Inprodat e.V.. Dr Martin HORSCH especially referred to OntoCAPE, developed in the early 2000s, mostly at RWTH Aachen with Professor Wolfgang MARQUARDT leading the work. OntoCAPE is a large-scale ontology for chemical process engineering. On the page dedicated to OntoCAPE at RWTH Aachen, reference is made to work in COGENTS (AGENT-based arChitecture fOr numerical Simulation), a European-funded project that took place just after the CAPE-OPEN project. COGENTS mixed CAPE-OPEN and ontologies as described in a paper presented at ESCAPE-14 (European Symposium on Computer-Aided Process Engineering-14): “The COGents approach to dynamic CAPE service composition uses the paradigm of multi-agent systems, where a number of software agents collaborate to configure a process model, according to a user’s requirements defines using the OntoCAPE ontology. Our agents are “CAPE web service choreographers”, building and running suites of CAPE-OPEN compliant process modelling components.”.

Dr Martin HORSCH mentions the possible need to rework OntoCAPE, that is to develop further or revise OntoCAPE. This is an area that could be of interest to CO-LaN also in respect to other collaborations with DEXPI and CFIHOS and where its Associate Members RWTH-Aachen and AixCAPE e.V. could bring their input.

Regarding VIMMP (Virtual Materials Market Place) that was presented to CO-LaN by Dr Martin HORSCH at the CAPE-OPEN 2019 Annual Meeting, Inprodat e.V. is not a partner in VIMMP, but Inprodat e.V. is still in close contact through its members working at UK Research & Innovation. VIMMP relies on ontologies for searching and organizing metadata. Tthese ontologies are not in the field of CAPE. Dr Martin HORSCH will look into developing contacts between CO-LaN and organizations partnering in VIMMP.

Another point discussed was the National Research Data Infrastructure for Engineering Sciences. Its goals center on data: “Sharing and integration of possibly large amounts of data is facilitated and employed by engineers across single studies, projects, institutions, or disciplines via networked technical infrastructure (repositories), open metadata standards, and cultural change.” rather than software and software interoperability. Dr Martin HORSCH mentioned to CO-LaN that some people in this community of institutions know about CAPE-OPEN and he would be willing to organize suitable contacts.

Inprodat e.V. will get back to CO-LaN in February 2021 once Inprodat’s members have shared the above information and analyzed the topics on which collaborations with CO-LaN may occur.