Patent ID: 7181381

Claim:
A method for simulating new materials, the method comprising: receiving a user simulation scenario from a user, wherein: said user simulation scenario is in a-cyclic graph format and includes a plurality of material development modules represented as vertices including a starting module, wherein the material development modules comprise material design and testing modules configured to predict material characteristics resulting from one or more material design simulations; each said vertex includes material characteristic data information including at least one input file source and at least one output file destination; relationships between said modules are represented as edges; each said edge includes at least one of previous module and subsequent module; and each said edge includes data flow information between said previous module and said subsequent module; receiving a request to invoke said user simulation scenario, wherein said request includes said input file source for said starting module; traversing said vertices along said edge in response to receiving said request and to said data flow information, wherein said traversing includes executing said modules associated with each said vertex beginning with said starting module in an order specified by said edges, and said executing produces results including material characteristic data written to said output file destination for each said vertex; and outputting the results to a central workstation for collaborative material development via one or more remote user interfaces.