Motevalli B1, Taherifar N1, Klump1 J1, Golodoniu P1, Hunt A1, Kay B2, Ware B3
1CSIRO Mineral Resources, 26 Dick Perry Ave, Kensington WA 6151, Australia, Kensington, Australia, 2AuScope Ltd, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, Melbourne, Australia, 3John de Laeter Centre, Curtin University, Perth, Australia, Perth, Australia
Biography:
Dr Ben Motevalli is a Senior Software Engineer at CSIRO, specialising in computational modelling, machine learning, cloud solution architecture, and application development. He is passionate about transforming scientific and engineering ideas into modern, interactive, and scalable applications.
After completing his PhD, Ben joined the Applied Machine Learning team at Data61, where he worked on machine learning solutions for materials science. He later moved into the oil, gas, and energy sector, focusing on developing computational engines, predictive models, automated engineering workflows, and user-friendly technical applications.
At CSIRO, Ben supports researchers in translating their ideas, data workflows, and computational models into robust digital tools and platforms. He is mainly involved in the AuScope Virtual Research Environment (AVRE) Build and Exploration Toolkit (XT) programs.
Abstract:
Scientific instruments are essential research infrastructure, but information about them is often fragmented across local systems, project documentation, spreadsheets, and institutional knowledge. This makes it difficult to consistently identify instruments, understand their provenance, link them to datasets and publications, or cite them as part of the research record.
This presentation describes the development of the AuScope Instrument Registry, a web application for registering, managing, and publishing metadata for AuScope-funded and AuScope-owned scientific instruments. The registry is based on the PIDINST metadata standard and supports the creation of persistent identifiers for instruments through DOI publication. Instrument metadata is mapped to the DataCite Metadata Schema, enabling instrument records to be published in a form that supports discovery, citation, and long-term reuse.
The system extends the PIDINST schema to meet AuScope requirements, including support for location, funding references, and high-level instrument classification. It also strengthens metadata consistency through controlled vocabularies, custom hierarchical taxonomies, and party records for owners, manufacturers, and funders.
The registry provides public discovery of instrument records, while authorised data managers can create and maintain metadata. Versioning is supported so that changes to published records can be tracked, with each version receiving a separate DOI and remaining linked through version history.
In addition to recording individual instruments, the platform can also register complex instruments, sensor platforms, and sensor networks, including temporary networks comprising multiple components.
The work demonstrates how PIDINST can be applied in a national research infrastructure context to improve instrument discoverability, traceability, citation, and connection to related research outputs.
