Texas A&M University has been awarded a nearly $25 million grant to build a first-of-its-kind lab on the RELLIS Campus in Bryan, where robots and artificial intelligence will accelerate the discovery of new metals and alloys. Dr. Ibrahim Karaman, co-director of the project, said the goal is to transform materials science research by accelerating discovery for technologies such as space structures, nuclear fusion, and faster airplane engines. Karaman noted the bottleneck has been the sheer number of possibilities, with nearly 200 elements on the periodic table and combinations numbering in the billions, a process that could take centuries using traditional methods. The facility, known as the Autonomous Robotic Metallurgist Materials Innovation Platform, or ARM-MIP, will use AI and robotic systems to generate data around the clock, analyze results, and determine which experiments to run next. The lab will be open to researchers, universities, and small businesses across the country as a national user facility, with the ARM-MIP team running experiments and sending data back to submitters. Potential applications include medical implants, hip joints, jet engine components, and space structures. Workforce development is a major focus, with students gaining hands-on experience in robotics, AI, and materials science. The grant was awarded through the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Materials Innovation Platforms program, making ARM-MIP the fifth national user facility under the program and the first devoted to metals.