Project Info


Automation to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery

Eric Toberer | etoberer@mines.edu and Craig Brice | craigabrice@mines.edu

The goals of this project are to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery within materials science and physics through the development of automated hardware. Currently, there are many activities within these disciplines that rely on human labor and, as such, suffers from slow speeds, lack of reliability, and limited data sets. This project is exciting because success will allow for a revolution in the breadth and depth of scientific inquiry possible due to robotics/automation.

Elucidate the interdisciplinary nature of the project

The project is inherently multidisciplinary because it unites materials science, physics, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering to achieve these automation goals. Engineers are needed for successful execution of these instruments and scientists are needed to inform project design and utilize the resulting instruments.

More Information

An example of a publication utilizing any early version of this high throughput hardware is available here:

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2019/me/c8me00073e

Grand Engineering Challenge: Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

Student Preparation


Qualifications

Exposure to either:
– materials science topics such as phase diagrams, crystallography
– digital and analog engineering
– python programmming
or
– machining and SolidWorks

It is unlikely that students will be experts in all of these areas, and that is totally fine!

Time Commitment

40 hours/month

Skills/Techniques Gained

We expect to have students work collaboratively, and as such, gain exposure across the four categories above and repeated herein:
– materials science topics such as phase diagrams, crystallography
– digital and analog engineering
– python programmming
– machining and SolidWorks
Ultimately, this work addresses student training in the Grand Challenge of “Engineering the tools of scientific study”

Mentoring Plan

We expect the primary mentors will be graduate students and Brice/Toberer will meet bi-weekly with the students to oversee progress. This means a meeting every 40 hours of combined student effort, which appears to be appropriate.