Prof Ong Awarded Returning Singaporean Scientists Award to Build an AI Foundry to Transform Materials Discovery

Prof. Shyue Ping Ong has been awarded the National Research Foundation's Returning Singaporean Scientists (RSS) award. The award supports the AI Foundry project, which aims to develop an integrated discovery system that closes the loop between AI prediction, automated experimentation, and continuous learning. Initial programs target high-entropy alloys and ceramics for fusion energy and aerospace applications, with a modular design that supports expansion into semiconductors and clean energy in line with Singapore's RIE2030 priorities.

The project builds on two decades of open infrastructure from Prof. Ong's group: founding development of the Materials Project, creation of pymatgen, development of the Materials Graph Library (MatGL), and the 2022 work on foundation potentials that demonstrated screening across millions of crystal structures.

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