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.

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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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