The Future of Chemistry Is Self-Driving
In this talk, I will overview the growing self-driving laboratories (SDLs) field. Self-driving laboratories are systems that help accelerate the process of scientific discovery or scale-up by employing artificial intelligence and automation for experiment planning and execution. Several SDLs have been already demonstrated globally, and the field is racing toward more robust and complex applications. I will go over essential elements of SDLs and will use examples from research from my group and collaborators. In particular, I will talk about my group's work on organic lasers and organic battery development. I will also cover recent work on artificial intelligence for materials design. I will end with a timely discussion on AI for science. What would be the criteria for advanced AI that carry out chemical experiments? At the University of Toronto, we have launched the Acceleration Consortium (AC). This new significant initiative recently received CAD$200 million in funding to accelerate self-driving laboratories for chemistry, materials science and biotechnology. I will briefly discuss what the AC is doing and how to collaborate or get involved with our efforts.