Perspectives in the new era of materials intelligent design

The launching integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) and materials genome engineering (MGE) has led the transformation of empirical and theoretical design paradigm into the rational computational one that further provides the basis for the data-driven design paradigm by integrating the high-throughput techniques in experiments and computations, the big data science with general principles, the informatics with knowledge discovery based on data mining and machine learning, and ultimately enabling the possibility of materials intelligence design (MID) via artificial intelligence. In this perspective article, we highlight the intelligent solution to acquire the property-structure-process-performance relationship of multilevel-structured materials by emphasizing modularization, automation, standardization, integration and intelligence, following the hierarchical relationship of data, information, knowledge and wisdom, which is essentially different from the past empirical, theoretical and computational paradigms. The new era of MID is expected to fundamentally reform the material innovation mode through an integrated infrastructure guided by novel concepts that is radically distinguished from the way of thinking and doing in the past, providing a perspective scientific vision and direction for future materials design.