Scientific breakthroughs are often made in isolation. Where discoveries in materials, manufacturing and device fabrication are made, their advancement is often slowed down due to the complexity involved in actually incorporating them in engineering systems. However, the Intelligent Codesign Cloud Lab for Non-Equilibrium and Low-Dimensional Materials (ICoN-PCL), developed by a Purdue research team, has sought out to bridge the gap between innovation and implementation.

 

Having received $19 million in funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP), the ICoN-PCL leads efforts in building a cloud-based lab, accessible to remote users, to be used in designing advanced materials and manufacturing processes for semiconductor, aerospace, defense and energy systems. 

“With a set of discoverable and programmable physical and digital assets and with interoperability across the NSF PCL Network, the scalable ICoN PCL will remove barriers for collaboration and workforce development across institutions and strengthen the nation's research, development, and prototyping ecosystem,” reads the NSF statement. “This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.”

 

This initiative is led by Principle Investigator (PI) Alejandro Strachan, along with CO-PIs Babak Anasori, Joerg Appenzeller, Jane Greenberd, and Juan Wachs. Their mission aims to redefine how knowledge and data are exchanged in the technology community, by providing users with the ability to harness simulations, AI tools, and physical labs. Innovation has always been stifled by a mismatch between the materials and manufacturing pipeline. Thanks to the efforts by this research team, along with the funding provided from NSF, this flaw will very likely change.

 

"ICoN-PCL will allow access to physical experimentation through robotic systems that will autonomously operate machines, devices and instruments to complete physical experimentation in nanotechnologies and materials discovery from afar. Such a platform will enable the broad community to run experiments remotely and at scale,” says Wachs. By enabling access to a vast amount of research materials, tools, and datasets, ICoN-PCL will accelerate what researchers are capable of discovering, not only by using AI to guide decision-making, but to automate experimentation and reducing duplicate research.

 

Beyond closing gaps between discovery and implementation, ICoN-PCL will also be used in training AI systems, expanding educational access around the country. Users from academia, industry and government can collaborate and access the same data and equipment no matter their location. This Purdue initiative, in coordination with Drexel University, is undoubtedly the next giant leap in growing the national talent pool capable of discovering trustworthy results in key technological areas.