The following article was originally published by the The Acceleration Consortium on March 13, 2026 and is presented here in full.
Please click on this link to read the full story on the Acceleration Consortium’s website.
Self-driving labs can help democratize science education by automating complex experiments and expanding access to tools that were once confined to research labs. As this technology advances, autonomous labs create a new opportunity for students from different regions to learn, experiment, and collaborate.
A recent workshop, Ciencia sin Fronteras (Science without Borders), run in partnership with the University of Toronto (U of T) and non-profit Clubes de Ciencia México (CdeCMx), and supported by the Acceleration Consortium (AC), put this concept to the test through a week-long program that engaged 25 students in Xalapa, Mexico. The workshop’s goal was to make artificial intelligence (AI) and experimentation more accessible and intuitive to inspire students to pursue further education and careers in STEM.
Based on learnings from U of T’s Materials Science and Engineering course, MSE1003H: A.I. for Accelerated Materials Discovery, the program allowed high school and undergraduate students in Xalapa to conduct real-life scientific experiments in collaboration with the AC in Toronto, directly from their classrooms in Mexico.
Using a YouTube livestream for real-time observation and an API to send commands, participants designed experiments and operated a robot, gaining hands-on experience in AI, robotics, and experimental design. Working in Python, their goal was simple and visual: mix simple colour dyes to reach a specific target colour as efficiently as possible. After each mix, the robot measured the resulting colour and sent the data back to the students’ program, which then suggested the next combination to test. Through this step-by-step process, students saw firsthand how computers learn from experience.
“It was incredible to watch high schoolers take over the lab and see firsthand how AI and Robotics is shifting the way we do science,” says Benjamin Sanchez-Lengeling, assistant professor at the University of Toronto and Acceleration Consortium member. “Giving them this kind of access is empowering because it makes the frontier feel reachable. The workshop also helps our PhD students think about their research in a more practical, grounded way. There is a specific kind of energy you get from testing your ideas with a receptive audience like this. It keeps our work focused on the real world and the people who will eventually lead it.
From this activity, participants learned two key lessons: how to collaborate effectively with a robot and how to conduct experiments across global regions. This approach made advanced concepts in AI and scientific experimentation approachable and intuitive, even for beginners. To facilitate the workshop, two U of T graduate students, José Manuel Barraza Chávez (Chemical Engineering) and Rafael Espinosa Castañeda (Materials Science and Engineering), traveled to Mexico to support the program on site.
The curriculum was developed by instructors José Manuel Barraza Chávez (Chemical Engineering, Uof T) and Rafael Espinosa Castañeda (Materials Science and Engineering, U of T), in collaboration with AC scientific leadership team member Jason Hattrick-Simpers (Materials Science and Engineering, Uof T); AC member Benjamin Sanchez-Lengeling (Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, U of T); and former AC staff scientist Sterling Baird.
The initiative aligns with the mission of Clubes de Ciencia México, an organization dedicated to expanding access to high-quality science education. To date, CdeCMx has delivered more than 450 clubs to over 7,600 students across Mexico and has been recognized by the United Nations Foundation for its contributions to advancing the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
To learn more about opportunities for building practical skills in AI for materials discovery, take a look at the AC’s micro-credentials program via U of T continuing studies: https://learn.utoronto.ca/programs-courses/certificates/autonomous-systems-discovery