Texas A&M University's materials science and engineering department plans to build a campus lab where artificial intelligence proposes new metal alloys and robots carry out the experiments, the College of Engineering announced.
The project, called the Aggie AI Foundry, is funded with $2 million from the WoodNext Foundation. The foundation handles the charitable giving of Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood, a 1987 Texas A&M graduate, and his wife Susan, a 1989 graduate. The university said the money comes through a donor-advised fund, the WoodNext TAMU Fund.
How it would work
According to the university, the system would handle alloy development from the first idea through testing. Researchers plan to train the AI on physical models, algorithms and knowledge gathered over years of lab work, then let it suggest promising combinations. Robotic arms working along a sample line would combine, melt and test the samples.
The university said the goal is to cut development time from several months to seven days or fewer.
Texas A&M describes the foundry as the first such lab in academia. It said existing automated labs work with materials that are simpler to make and process, and cannot handle alloys that must be produced and tested at temperatures as high as 3,000 degrees Celsius.
