A Science Robotics article co-authored by MBZUAI explores the use of AI and robotics to accelerate scientific discovery in chemistry, biology, and materials science. The paper envisions closed-loop labs with AI-designed experiments, robotic execution, and machine learning analysis, potentially cutting discovery timelines. It proposes a framework emphasizing human-machine partnership, modular systems, and AI-driven planning while addressing challenges like data standardization. Why it matters: This research highlights the potential of AI and robotics to transform scientific research in the GCC region and beyond, enabling faster discoveries and democratizing access to advanced lab capabilities.
KAUST's VP for Research, Donal Bradley, discovered a new species of sea bream near Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, named *Acanthopagrus oconnorae* or Bev Bradley’s Bream. Bradley noticed unique features like a shallow forehead and black gill patch and collaborated with the Red Sea Research Center for genetic analysis. The discovery involved multiple researchers and even the KAUST Fishing Club to collect more specimens. Why it matters: This highlights the biodiversity research happening in the Red Sea and KAUST's role in advancing marine science in the region.
KAUST held a research conference on Computational and Statistical Interface to Big Data from March 19-21. The conference covered topics like data representation, visualization, parallel algorithms, and large-scale machine learning. Participants came from institutions including the American University of Sharjah, Aalborg University, and others to exchange ideas. Why it matters: The conference highlights KAUST's focus on promoting big data research and collaboration to address challenges and opportunities in various scientific fields within the Kingdom and globally.
Historian Mike Bruton spoke at KAUST about scientific disruptors from the House of Wisdom during the Islamic Golden Age. These scholars made contributions like introducing the concept of zero and debunking the Greek theory of sight. Ibn al-Haytham revolutionized knowledge of optics, demonstrating that light bounces off objects and enters our eyes. Why it matters: The lecture highlights the significant scientific advancements made during the Islamic Golden Age and their lasting impact on modern civilization.
This paper introduces Diffusion-BBO, a new online black-box optimization (BBO) framework that uses a conditional diffusion model as an inverse surrogate model. The framework employs an Uncertainty-aware Exploration (UaE) acquisition function to propose scores in the objective space for conditional sampling. The approach is shown theoretically to achieve a near-optimal solution and empirically outperforms existing online BBO baselines across 6 scientific discovery tasks.
KAUST Discovery highlighted Prof. Karl Leo's insights on translating science into business from an Entrepreneurship Center speaker series. Prof. Leo, with 440 publications and 8 co-founded companies, emphasized the importance of curiosity-driven basic research. He envisions organic semiconductors dominating electronics in 20-30 years, noting the success of Novaled, his OLED company in Dresden. Why it matters: This underscores KAUST's focus on fostering entrepreneurship and translating research into practical applications within the Kingdom.
MBZUAI researchers presented a new causal discovery method at NeurIPS that identifies relationships between deterministic and non-deterministic variables. The method builds directed graphs visualizing relationships between variables, incorporating both probabilistic and deterministic principles. The lead author, Longkang Li, aims to apply causal discovery to healthcare and biology for better understanding of diseases. Why it matters: This research advances the field of causal inference, potentially improving applications in areas like healthcare where understanding complex relationships is critical.