11 Universities also Tapped to Enable New Modes of Data-Driven Discovery

News Highlights:

• Announcing Kebotix as industry partner of a $15-million institute funded by NSF and led by Colorado School of Mines, one of 11 member universities.

• Enabling design of complex materials and structures through the union of machine and human intelligence.

• Program includes outreach for young scientific minds to gain real-world lab experience.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 28, 2021 – Kebotix, a technology platform company for new chemicals and materials, has been selected as the industry partner of a new $15-million interdisciplinary research institute led by Colorado School of Mines and funded by the National Science Foundation.

The Institute for Data Driven Dynamical Design, or ID4 for short, is one of five under the “Harnessing Data Revolution Institutes” umbrella being funded by NSF through a $75-million investment announced today. The program’s main goal is to enable new modes of data-driven discovery that allow fundamental questions to be asked and answered at the frontiers of science and engineering. A key objective of the institute is to include a robust outreach program that supports young scientific minds ranging from high school students to recent college graduates who didn’t necessarily attend schools with undergraduate research programs.

As the industry partner of ID4, Kebotix will collaborate with 11 renowned and respected research universities to harness data for accelerated, cost-effective and sustainable materials discovery. By bridging fundamental research with technological challenges currently faced by the ever-demanding materials and chemical industry, institute members will strive to develop algorithms and mechanisms able to solve a wide variety of material challenges in complex time-evolving systems. 

“We are pleased to work with industry leaders on the launch of these new HDR Institutes,” said NSF Program Director Amy Walton. “Kebotix will bring its expertise in high-speed, new-age discovery of chemicals and materials using AI, robotics and a host of software solutions, which is critical to our interdisciplinary work.”

One of Kebotix’s more recent successes in bridging academia with big industrial companies is the establishment of an office and research footprint in Maine with The Roux Institute at Northeastern University, an innovation hub devoted to deepening the digital economy in Portland, the state of Maine and northern New England. Since the spring, the collaboration has enabled Cambridge, Mass.-based Kebotix to build a talent pipeline across the region that welcomes recent college graduates of diverse backgrounds. The May announcement marked the second collaboration between the university and Kebotix, as the tech company in 2019 partnered with Northeastern Professor Steven Lopez’s research group, the Lopez Lab, on a cancer research project supported by a major research grant from the Massachusetts Life Science Center.

“The research tapped into our proprietary R&D that combines data, AI and robotics to accelerate the discovery and development of new chemistries for a sustainable world,” said Dr. Semion Saikin, Kebotix’s chief science officer. “Having pioneered a successful model partnering with Northeastern and other universities, we at Kebotix are confident and excited to represent the private sector in NSF’s Institute for Data Driven Dynamical Design.”

Today’s announcement of Kebotix as ID4 industry partner comes on the heels of the company disclosing a succession of sustainability-related collaborations and developments with other public and private organizations that include Johnson Matthey, Bayer and Koura. In a separate announcement made today, Kebotix shared that the company’s AI has discovered new electrochromic material for smart window applications after analyzing 7 million molecules.

The interdisciplinary ID4 research team is made up of world-leading experts in machine learning, knowledge structures and visualization, as well as organic chemistry and catalysis, ion and gas transport, metamaterials and structural materials. Eric Toberer, director of the Materials Science Program at Colorado School of Mines, is serving as ID4’s lead investigator. Twelve institutions across eight states (based on their main campuses) are represented among the hand-picked group of data scientists, engineers, physicists, chemists and material scientists. In addition to Kebotix and aforementioned Northeastern and Colorado School of Mines, ID4 members hail from Drexel University (Pennsylvania); Harvard University (Massachusetts); Northwestern University (Illinois); Princeton University (New Jersey); Tufts University (Massachusetts); University of California, Los Angeles; University of Central Florida; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and Washington University in St. Louis (Missouri). 

About Kebotix

Kebotix transforms discovery and development of breakthrough chemicals and materials for the 21st century, adding certainty to science by using today’s most advanced artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics. By automating the scientific method using a proprietary closed-loop R&D process to predict and produce new chemistries in a self-driving lab, Kebotix’s digital platform empowers lab researchers. Myriad positive results include increased ROI and time-to-market being accelerated from years to mere months. From smarter windows and greener packaging to cleaner pigments and safer pesticides, Kebotix creates materials for a new age of innovation and a better, more sustainable place to live. For more information, visit www.kebotix.com.