The University of Tennessee has been awarded $20 million from the National Science Foundation to establish ATHENA (Advanced Testbed for High-throughput Experimentation in Nano- and Atomic Science), one of 20 research hubs in the United States that will form a national network of AI-powered laboratories to accelerate scientific discovery.
Led by Sergei Kalinin, Weston Fulton Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering; MSE Professor Gerd Duscher; MSE Associate Professor Mahshid Ahmadi; and Hairong Qi, Gonzalez Family Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, ATHENA brings together a multidisciplinary team of 12 UT faculty members along with key collaborators at Northwestern University and Johns Hopkins University.
The ATHENA initiative aims to revolutionize materials discovery by dramatically accelerating the design, synthesis, characterization, and autonomous optimization of advanced materials, enabling the rapid identification of materials with the greatest potential for real-world applications.
While artificial intelligence has dramatically improved the ability to predict promising new materials, testing those predictions takes time and remains labor intensive.
“Predictions alone don’t create new technologies,” Kalinin said. “At some point, those materials have to be synthesized, measured and understood in the real world. ATHENA is about dramatically accelerating that process.”
ATHENA is part of NSF’s Platform for Cloud Laboratories initiative, a nationwide effort to transform scientific research by connecting remotely accessible AI-enabled laboratories that can autonomously plan, conductand refine experiments. The initiative is designed to accelerate discoveries in materials science and biotechnology while expanding researchers’ access to advanced scientific instrumentation across the country.
Michela Taufer, the MathWorks Professor in the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, is involved in a $5 million award through the initiative that is being led by Johns Hopkins University. The AI for Materials Design Network (AIMD-NET) will address the challenges of scaling autonomy from individual instruments and labs to achieve real-time information flow and coordinated AI-driven decisions spanning a national test bed network of programmable cloud laboratories.
Building the next generation of scientific discovery
Today’s materials research often requires scientists to manually prepare samples, operate sophisticated microscopes and analyze data—a process that can take hours or days for a single experiment.
ATHENA seeks to dramatically improve that workflow with AI-enabled “self-driving laboratories” that can perform experiments, interpret results, and determine next steps with minimal human intervention.
The UT-led team expects the platform to increase the speed of some materials characterization experiments by as much as 10-to-30 times, dramatically reducing one of the biggest bottlenecks in materials discovery. By studying materials at the atomic scale and nanoscale, researchers can rapidly evaluate thousands of material combinations before determining the most promising candidates for real-world applications.
“Our vision is to transform how research is conducted by making discovery faster, more intelligent, and more collaborative,” Ahmadi said. “ATHENA brings us one step closer to a future where AI serves as a trusted scientific partner, empowering researchers to tackle increasingly complex materials challenges and accelerating innovation at an unprecedented pace.”
A national resource built at UT
ATHENA builds on decades of work by UT researchers in autonomous microscopy, automated materials synthesis, and artificial intelligence.
Long before AI became a major focus in scientific research, MSE faculty were developing machine learning tools that allow microscopes and other scientific instruments to communicate directly with intelligent software. Those foundational technologies now position UT to define how autonomous laboratories operate nationwide.
“This proposal reflects years of investment by the university and an exceptional team of researchers,” Kalinin said. “Many of the technologies that make self-driving laboratories possible were developed here at UT long before this became a national priority.”
The ATHENA project will also create open software standards, cloud-accessible laboratory workflows, and digital tools that allow researchers across the country to remotely access advanced scientific instruments. As one of the NSF’s PCL nodes, ATHENA will work with other national laboratories to develop common standards, increase access to cutting-edge research infrastructure, and train the next generation of scientists working at the intersection of AI and experimental science.
Since he joined UT in 2008, Duscher has been a pioneer in modern electron microscopy. His lab established an electron microscope that can be controlled by a supercomputer and began using machine learning tools to analyze data.
“Based on the lessons learned, our team at UT started to transfer the same remote access framework to other scientific instruments with the support of the AI Tennessee program. This ultimately led to the ATHENA core proposition in the proposal that a remote operation of research instruments can be made available to the nation,” Duscher said. “The team at UT has diverse backgrounds that uniquely match to conceive and launch such a center. AI assistance will make it possible for scientists in academia and industry to focus on solving their problems without worrying much about the operation of specific instruments.”
Through ATHENA, the core goal of UT’s team is to dramatically shorten the time between an idea and a new material to help accelerate innovation across nearly every industry.
“Since establishing our autonomous materials discovery program in 2019, we have believed that the future of discovery lies in the seamless integration of artificial intelligence with autonomous experimentation,” Ahmadi said. “Seeing ATHENA become a reality is incredibly rewarding and reflects years of dedication, perseverance, and investment in building this foundation.”
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey ([email protected])