Texas A&M to build AI- and robot-run Aggie AI Foundry for alloy discovery

Texas A&M University's Department of Materials Science and Engineering received a $2 million grant from the WoodNext Foundation to build the Aggie AI Foundry, a fully automated lab. An AI brain will propose alloy compositions while robotic arms mix, melt and test samples, cutting development time from months to a week or less.

• The $2 million grant came from WoodNext Foundation, founded by Roku CEO Anthony Wood
• Robotic arms pull elements from a periodic-table cabinet and test alloys
• AI can explore trillions of combinations of dozens of elements
• Alloy development could shrink from months to a week or less