Alán Aspuru-Guzik, Professor, Depts. of Chemistry and Computer Science, University of Toronto
In this colloquium level talk, I will overview my research group’s activities in the area of self-driving laboratories. These labs combine artificial intelligence, automation, and chemical experiments with the aim of reducing time-to-discovery. The applications that I will overview briefly will be in the area of generative AI models for drug discovery, self-driving laboratories for organic light-emitting and lasing materials, as well as the process optimization and scaleup processes for pharmaceuticals as concrete examples of what self-driving labs are all about. I will also discuss more futuristic areas of research which involve the development of computer vision systems for automated laboratories and robotic arms for carrying out complex chemical experiments in a more autonomous fashion.
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Alán Aspuru-Guzik is a professor of Chemistry and Computer Science at the University of Toronto and is also the Canada 150 Research Chair in Theoretical Chemistry and a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute. He is a CIFAR Lebovic Fellow in the Biologically Inspired Solar Energy program. Alán also holds an Google Industrial Research Chair in Quantum Computing. Alán is the director of the Acceleration Consortium, a University of Toronto-based strategic initiative that aims to gather researchers from industry, government and academia around pre-competitive research topics related to the lab of the future.