U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal, on Aug. 21, highlighted a $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that will go toward UC Santa Barbara’s COAST PCL, one of 20 facilities in a new national network of programmable cloud laboratories.
Carbajal spoke at a press conference at UCSB’s OASIS Facility. He was joined by Rachel Segalman, vice chancellor for research at UCSB; Ram Seshadri, associate dean for research in The Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering; Javier Read de Alaniz, co-director of COAST PCL; and Chris Bates, co-director of COAST PCL.
The $20 million grant will be used to create a remotely accessible, AI- and robotics-enabled laboratory for discovering new polymers and soft materials, Carbajal said.
Researchers anywhere in the country will be able to design experiments online, have robots conduct the experiments at UCSB, and receive and analyze the results without having to travel to the university.
The initial research focus will be sequence-defined polymers and biomolecular materials, with potential applications in medicine, energy, electronics, aerospace, and other advanced technologies. Additional background is available here.
“As a proud Gaucho, I am thrilled to highlight this $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation to support UC Santa Barbara’s COAST PCL project,” said Carbajal.
“With this federal investment, UC Santa Barbara will host state-of-the-art programmable cloud laboratories, allowing researchers from across the country to perform experiments completely remotely,” he said.
“The work conducted right here on the Central Coast will revolutionize materials research and lay the foundation for breakthroughs across many industries, from medicine and construction to advanced aerospace and energy technology,” he said.
”We are grateful to Congressman Salud Carbajal for his unwavering support of UC Santa Barbara and the pioneering research made possible through federal investment,” said Segalman, a professor of materials and chemical engineering.
“AI is changing how we approach scientific discovery, but it cannot discover new materials on its own,” she said. “AI needs high-quality experimental data to learn from and validate its predictions.
“COAST creates a powerful connection between AI, computation and experimentation, allowing researchers to generate new data, learn from it, and move more quickly toward materials that could have applications ranging from medicine and water purification to microelectronics.”
“COAST PCL is a testament to The Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering’s proud tradition of materials discovery,” said Seshadri, a distinguished professor of materials, and chemistry and biochemistry.
“For decades, our faculty have advanced the fundamental understanding of materials while building a culture of collaboration and shared infrastructure that allows ambitious ideas to flourish,” Seshadri said. “This new investment builds on that legacy and on Dean Umesh Mishra’s vision for OASIS as a bridge between laboratory discovery and real-world impact.”
“COAST PCL is about changing what is possible in materials research. A researcher anywhere in the country will be able to design an experiment remotely, have our automated systems carry it out here at OASIS, and use the resulting data to decide what to test next,” said Read de Alaniz, co-director of COAST PCL and a professor of chemistry & biochemistry.
“By combining remote access, robotics, and standardized data, we can accelerate discovery while giving a much broader community of researchers access to capabilities they otherwise might never have.”