Inside the DOE's Autonomous Lab for Materials Discovery - David Milsted, Lab Systems Engineer

David Milsted is a postdoctoral researcher at the “A-Lab” for autonomous materials discovery, located at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Please note: The views expressed in this video by David are his own and not those of his colleagues.

See below for episode links, chapters, and our socials. Hosted by Nabil Laoudji.

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Episode Links:

• David's LinkedIn
• Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
• A-Lab
• Ceder Group
• UC Berkeley
• Mississippi State University
• Wood Science

Chapters:

• (00:00) - Preview & Introduction
• (04:37) - LBNL Fun Facts
• (05:40) - David’s Journey Into Lab Automation (Wood Science, Automation Engineering)
• (10:26) - Why Wood Science
• (14:54) - Journey From Brazil To LBNL
• (25:50) - Material Discovery Process Steps
• (29:37) - Predicting Materials Properties
• (35:07) - Synthesizing Materials With Automation
• (43:21) - Testing Novel Materials
• (44:58) - Orchestrating Automated Labs (A-Lab OS)
• (49:14) - Shifting From Independent to Team-Based Projects
• (53:28) - University-Government Lab Structure
• (57:41) - What Inspired A Lab’s Vision
• (01:02:40) - Growth in Autonomous Lab Investment
• (01:05:34) - Future of Characterization Via Microscopy
• (01:10:22) - A Lab Tour (Core Components)
• (01:15:44) - Vendor Support: Mitsubishi, Labman, MTI, etc
• (01:18:58) - Managing Input Inventory For Runs
• (01:20:12) - Furnace Deep Dive
• (01:24:06) - Parallel Processing
• (01:25:43) - Vendor Automation Out of the Box; Importance of Societal Awareness

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