The accelerated insertion of materials (AIM) initiative provides the opportunity to reduce the materials development cycle time by up to 50% and thereby lessen the lead time required for new materials and processes. The program was founded to revolutionize the way designers and materials engineers interact, to achieve a leap forward in the application of computational materials science and integration with design engineering tools, and to create an environment where the design/materials team can learn from and build on previous developments. The centerpiece of the AIM system is the designer knowledge base, which provides a framework for managing experimental data, executing linked models describing processing, microstructure, properties, and producibility, and calculating confidence bounds for system predictions.