In the last couple of years many metrology institutions talk about Digital calibration certificates or DCC for short. Format standardization of calibration certificates issued by national metrology institutes and calibration laboratories will enable machine learning from the information they contain; most importantly from the calibration results, thus opening up a whole new range of progress opportunities – both in science and in industry. The process of standardization of documents such as calibration certificates, reference materials certificates or test reports is extremely complex. Due to this, it requires proactive involvement of all interested parties and lots of discussions that open up big and important questions.
Last month we had the opportunity to be at the focal point of experience exchange and to hear and share great ideas about the application of DCCs and the possibilities that digitalization of calibration certificates will provide us in the future. The first DCC Summer School was held in Braunscweig, organised by the German National Metrology Institute (PTB – Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt). Our colleague Mirna was in the first group of participants in the week of June 13 to 17 2022, and she learnt first-hand what is for now accepted as a future standard, and what questions are still open because they require the input of experts from the wider metrology community.
It was a special honor and pleasure working under the leadership of Prof. dr. Siegfried Hackel and other colleagues from the institute, together with participants from South America, Asia, Africa, the EU and the United Kingdom. We are happy and proud we were able to contribute to this important discussion, having had the opportunity to point out the importance of this digitalization process for the further development of products such as LorisQ. With technologies that are already available to us, DCC is the only missing link.