Collaborative Research: Conference: Joint U.S.-Japan Virtual Workshop on AI for Science

Scientific research is changing quickly because advanced automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can now run laboratory experiments on their own. This technology helps scientists make new discoveries much faster than before. Building these automated laboratories requires combining ideas from different fields, including robotics, and laboratory science. Currently, researchers in the United States and Japan do not have an easy way to work together and combine their unique strengths in these areas. This project addresses this problem by organizing an online conference series. The virtual event will bring together scientists and engineers from both nations to build an international network. These partnerships will push scientific progress forward and help the economy grow through faster technological innovation, serving the national interest. In addition, the conference supports training by involving early-career researchers. The goal of this project is to create a partnership between researchers from the United States and Japan focused on combining automated laboratory equipment and AI. Research topics include flexible soft robotics, human-robot interaction, and programmable cloud laboratories for automating scientific testing. To achieve these goals, the investigators will host a two-day online workshop in late May 2026. The event will feature presentations and panel discussions that pair international experts from both countries. To help participants build partnerships, attendees will share research profiles and capability summaries to match interests between researchers based in the United States and Japan. The team will coordinate follow-up breakout sessions throughout June to design concrete joint research plans. The core activities and findings will be written into a comprehensive report summarizing the new collaborative framework. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2626804 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Kostas Bekris | Institution: Rutgers University New Brunswick, NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ | Award Amount: $23,491 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2626804 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2626804.html