ATHENA (Advanced Testbed for High-throughput Experimentation in Nano- and Atomic Science) is a four-year, $20 million project funded through the NSF’s Programmable Cloud Labs program. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville leads the effort under principal investigator Sergei Kalinin, Weston Fulton Professor in the Tickle College of Engineering, with co-principal investigators Hairong Qi and Mahshid Ahmadi of UT, Christopher Wolverton, and Kamal Choudhary, and partner institutions Northwestern University and Johns Hopkins University.

Computational models can now predict promising materials far faster than laboratories can make and test them. ATHENA addresses that bottleneck with a remotely accessible, AI-enabled laboratory in which autonomous electron and scanning probe microscopes, guided by machine-learning decision systems, design, synthesize, characterize, and optimize new materials. Work will center on solution-processable materials, refractory materials, and atomically precise fabrication. ATHENA is one of 20 hubs in a national network of AI-powered cloud laboratories being established by the NSF.

For more on the project, see the UT news release, UT Secures $20M NSF Grant to Pioneer Breakthroughs in Automated Materials Discovery.

ATHENA is supported by NSF award 2607469.