Millennium Café

What if experiments that normally take days could be done in much less time? Our transient reactor generates rich kinetic data on catalyst reactions in seconds to minutes, with AI-guided modeling used to uncover the underlying catalyst behavior. A new DOE Genesis Mission project brings together Penn State, Georgia Tech, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and ExxonMobil to advance this approach and explore how faster, data-rich experiments coupled with AI can accelerate experimental science.

Mike Janik | Chemical Engineering

A fundamental question in characterization is whether we have measured enough of a sample to trust the result. Using automated mineral mapping 9SEM-AM) as our test case, we are developing a Monte Carlo framework that relates sampling area, grain size, and abundance to uncertainty in measured quantities. The framework can also work backward to estimate how much material needs to be analyzed to reach a desired precision, potentially helping researchers design experiments more efficiently. I welcome feedback from the characterization community as we continue developing and validating the approach.

Jesse Reimink | Geosciences

This special edition of the Millennium Café will feature a moderated panel discussion exploring how artificial intelligence and automation are moving beyond data analysis and into the physical laboratory. Robotics can execute complex synthesis workflows, in situ characterization can provide real-time information as materials form, and increasingly sophisticated software can operate instruments, interpret results, and help determine what experiment should happen next.

The panel will explore what happens when AI and automation become active participants in experimentation. How can synthesis, characterization, data analysis, and decision-making be connected into closed-loop experimental workflows? What laboratory tasks are ready for automation today, and where does human expertise remain essential? As instruments become increasingly programmable and autonomous, how might the roles of scientists, laboratories, and scientific instrumentation itself change?

Joan Redwing | Materials Science & Engineering
Enrique Gomez | Chemical Engineering
Jim Kilcrease | Thermo-Fisher Scientific

Mentoring can shape how we learn, grow, and navigate our careers, but what makes a mentoring relationship work? This short presentation explores how effective mentoring accelerates learning, expands professional networks, and helps people navigate opportunities and challenges. We’ll also consider mentoring from both sides of the relationship: how to be a better mentor and how to make the most of being mentored.

Doug Orzolek | Associate Dean for Academic Affairs | J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School

Since 2012, I have measured the progression of measles control and elimination programs around the world on behalf of the World Health Organization. Despite dramatic successes on a global scale, Pennsylvania is now the center of largest measles outbreak in 30 years in the US. I’ll discuss measles, a virus many have been fortunate enough to forget, and answer questions about the local and global situation.

Matt Ferrari | Biology

Agricultural and living systems are rapidly becoming testbeds for technologies that sense, predict, and automate interventions to manage complex biological systems. This talk will introduce Penn State’s Technologies for Agriculture and Living Systems (TALiS) initiative and its mission to connect expertise across multiple disciplines and accelerated discovery and technology developments around sensing and monitoring, robotics and automation, biotechnology, data processing, and predictive modeling. We will highlight how TALiS is building partnerships, supporting students and faculty, and creating new opportunities for collaboration around real-world challenges in food, health, the environment, and Pennsylvania’s growing AgTech innovation ecosystem.

Armen Kemanian | Plant Science