"Fewer iterations for materials science discovery" is a good spin. Closing the computational>experimental loop is the main challenge. This is the focus of my past research group, there is definitely potential, best of luck!! I have a crap write-up on this in case it's of interest https://alanyahya.com/writing/automated-materials-design
how do you measure the success/potential of a novel material/direction suggested by the agents? given you have limited time & resources - shortlisting the approaches for the synthesis stage becomes equally important as the approach itself.
There’s a variety of computational techniques that help us establish some confidence on the materials. Atomistic simulations can estimate stability and bulk properties of a new material, and we have synthesis experts (min qualification: PhD in thin film deposition) come up with rubrics on how to judge if a material/synthesis recipe is worth trying. All these approaches have known limitations, and improving them is the bulk of our work as a company!
There’s also a lot of work to be done in figuring out the minimal set of experiments required to know if a research direction/material set is worth pursuing
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