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Autonomous and automated experimentation have demonstrated the possibility of accelerating materials research and development by orders of magnitude. However, the investment, in both time and money, to design and build these platforms has proven to be a major roadblock in their adoption. This cost is driven by the bespoke nature of these platforms, requiring redundant engineering and the complexity of handling multiple interfaces from multiple vendors. To mitigate these challenges, we propose the development of an autonomous materials research ecosystem. This ecosystem, defined by a set of community-driven standards, allows for these platforms to be rapidly constructed from off-the-shelf modular components designed and built by multiple vendors. Such standards may address sample management, instrument control and communication, data management, and algorithm and model integration. This workshop is intended to be the first step in achieving this vision for an autonomous materials research ecosystem. The goal of this workshop is to bring together stakeholders, both platform end-users and vendors, to determine the feasibility of such an ecosystem and identify concrete steps towards realizing this goal. Tasks include but are not limited to: (1) Creating a shared vision for the ecosystem, (2) Defining the scope of an initial set of standards, (3) Determining next steps including establishing working groups and/or consortia to move these ideas forward.
Day 1 - AM (9 AM to Noon): Setting the table
We will begin with a few keynote presentations on the current state of the art and possible paths forward to frame the workshop. We will follow this with a panel discussion from system end-users to identify and highlight the needs of the R&D community.
Day 1 - PM (1 PM to 5 PM): Envisioning an ecosystem
What might this ecosystem look like? We will begin by having a set of lightning talks from any participants who would like to describe their thoughts on a future ecosystem and any current efforts. We will end the afternoon with a breakout session for small, cross-cutting group discussion on scope, vocabulary, and architecture.
Day 2 - AM (9 AM to 12:30 PM): Defining standards
What types of standards are needed to support a robust and innovative ecosystem? Based on Day 1 discussions we will break the architecture into a couple pieces and self-organize into small breakout groups to identify priorities for standards, including scope and content.
Day 2 - PM (1:30 PM to 5 PM): Next steps
We will have a readout of the morning session and work collectively and in small groups to identify concrete steps forward, including nucleating working groups and consortia.
More information to come...