07/30/2026
NC State has been granted a $20 million award from the National Science Foundation to integrate AI, robotics and autonomous labs in order to advance scientific discovery in chemistry and materials science research.
The research initiative is called Self-driving Platforms for Expedited Experimental co-Design in solution phase chemistry and materials science, or SPEED. It builds on NC State's leadership in “self-driving labs” — an emerging research model that combines AI and robotic systems to design, conduct and analyze experiments.
These systems use experimental hardware, real-time data streams and decision-making algorithms to build experiments that will inform the next. SPEED’s shared infrastructure will allow researchers from NC State, alongside partners at UNC-Chapel Hill and MIT, to pioneer solutions for a wide range of scientific and technological challenges.
“Through remote access, researchers and students can engage directly with advanced experimental infrastructure from wherever they are, creating new opportunities for institutions and communities that have not historically had access to these capabilities,” said Principal Investigator (PI) and Dr. R.J. Polge Term Professor for Excellence in Engineering Milad Abolhasani.
For North Carolina, SPEED will bolster economic growth, workforce development and industry engagement. For the United States, it will enhance our ability to discover and validate new, critical materials and molecules, supporting competitiveness in manufacturing, supply chains and emerging technologies. For the world, SPEED offers expanded accessibility to researchers and students, changing not only what we discover, but who gets to participate in discovery. Once again, NC State is at the forefront of both innovation and collaboration.
