29 Jul 2025
As part of our efforts to establish a cutting-edge AI-Robotics Chemist Laboratory at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), a delegation from the School of Science, led by the Professor John Moraros Dean, Professor Yang Li Associate Dean Research and Impact Professor, Dr. Lifeng Ding Acting Head Chemistry and Materials Science, and Dr. Shuihua Wang Director Graduate Studies, recently made a productive visit to the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). The visit included a meeting on Friday, July 11th at the USTC campus, followed by a tour of their innovative State Key Laboratory of Precision and Intelligent Chemistry (PIC) Lab in the USTC high-Tech campus on Saturday morning, July 12th.
At USTC, we were warmly received by their PIC Lab team, who shared key insights into their highly advanced AI-driven chemical research platform. USTC is globally recognized for its pioneering work in AI-Robotics Chemistry in China and its state of the art PIC Lab is among the leading facilities in the field. Their system integrates robotic synthesis, automated analysis, and AI-guided decision-making to accelerate the discovery of new chemicals. This facility has become a national benchmark, playing a crucial role in shaping the broader AI-Robotic Chemist ecosystem. During our meeting both sides firstly provided the recent research progress made and then discussed opportunities for long-term collaboration, including joint funding applications, co-supervision of PhD students, and shared access to advanced platforms and resources.
Photo 1. Exploring Future Frontiers Together: XJTLU and USTC teams discuss collaboration opportunities in AI-driven chemical research,
a national benchmark in robotic chemistry innovation.
Following the USTC campus visit, the SCI, XJTLU team of scientists toured the PIC Lab to gain a first-hand understanding of their operations, system integration, and ongoing projects. This visit reinforced our collective confidence in developing a strong partnership with USTC, particularly as we finalized the setup of our own AI-Robotics Chemist Lab at XJTLU. To date the collaboration is already yielding tangible outcomes and through this platform, it is expected that our researchers will engage in adversarial reasoning tasks, human-machine collaborative workflows, and automated resource allocation, all supported by USTC's advanced technical expertise.
Photo 2. ?Photo taken during PIC lab visit
The establishment of the XJTLU AI-Robotics Chemist Lab is now in its final stage and it will provide an outstanding platform for numerous interdisciplinary research projects. With images of our incoming robot (photo 3) already generating significant excitement, the interdisciplinary team ?of research scientists from XJTLU is look forward to their full integration into the lab and pose ready to unlock significant discoveries. At XJTLU there is a dedicated team already in place, including two senior technicians and two postdoctoral researchers that provide the human resource ?support to build our technical and research capabilities. With strong institutional backing and collaborative agreements already in place, XJTLU is well positioned to become a significant contributor to the national and global AI-Robotics Chemistry ecosystem.
Photo 3. The newly renovated AI-Robotics Chemistry Lab lab and the first robot assembled
In summary, this recent visit marked a key milestone in the realization of XJTLU’s AI-Robotics Chemist Lab. It deepened our collaboration with USTC and accelerated the final preparations for launching our lab by September 2025. With a strong foundation in place, the team is excited about the opportunities that lie ahead and ready to explore the new frontiers in AI-driven Chemistry by training the next generation of researchers and contributing to transformative scientific discovery.
Content from：Mahider Tekalgne
Review：Professor John Moraros、
Professor Li Yang、Dr Lifeng Ding
Translation：Luyao
29 Jul 2025