Rutgers Scientists Are Building a Self-Driving Lab to Help Make Discoveries Faster

A major U.S. National Science Foundation award will help Rutgers advance a new model of scientific exploration that brings together artificial intelligence, robotics, scientific expertise, and hands-on learning for students.

August 6, 2026

Across Rutgers University–New Brunswick, we are creating more opportunities for students to learn through experience, helping researchers work across disciplines, and investing in ideas with the potential to improve lives.

A new U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) award advances each of those priorities. Rutgers will receive approximately $4.5 million as part of a four-year, $20 million award led by the University of California, Santa Barbara. The project, known as COAST PCL, is funded through the NSF Test Bed: Toward a Network of Programmable Cloud Laboratories program, led by the agency’s Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships.

The funding will support automated research facilities at Rutgers and UC Santa Barbara as part of a national network designed to help scientists conduct experiments more quickly and expand access to advanced research tools.

At Rutgers, the funding will help researchers build new tools, work more closely across engineering and science, and involve students in technologies now reshaping laboratory research.

A New Model for Scientific Exploration

Often called a self-driving lab, a programmable cloud laboratory uses robots and artificial intelligence to conduct experiments, analyze results, and allow researchers to guide parts of the process from another location.

A scientist can set up an experiment, have the robotic system run it, review what happened, and use AI to help decide the next step. Because the system handles many repetitive laboratory tasks, researchers can spend more time making sense of the results and deciding where the work should go next.

At Rutgers, the work is being led by Adam Gormley, associate professor of biomedical engineering, and Kostas Bekris, professor and chair of computer science. Gormley’s laboratory has spent years using robotics to search for new biomaterials. Bekris studies how autonomous systems plan and act safely in the physical world. The self-driving laboratory brings those areas together around two connected questions: What should researchers test next, and how can a machine carry out that work safely?

That collaboration reflects an important strength of Rutgers. Many of today’s most difficult scientific questions cannot be answered within one field. Progress often begins when people with diverse knowledge and perspectives work together on the same problem.

The project will initially focus on discovering new polymers and soft materials, with possible applications in drug delivery, medical devices, and more sustainable plastics. The Rutgers team will develop and test the software, robotic procedures, and experimental workflows before they are used at UC Santa Barbara to support soft materials research.

Scientists Remain at the Center

The laboratory may be self-driving, but scientists will continue to lead the work. They will decide what to study, design the experiments, interpret the results, and choose which questions to pursue. Automated systems can handle repetitive laboratory steps and help researchers process large amounts of data, but they do not determine why a question matters or where the research should lead.

Universities also have a responsibility to guide the use of these tools. At Rutgers, that means helping students and researchers understand what the technology can do, where it can fall short, and how to use it with care.

Creating Opportunities for Students

For students, this work offers a chance to see how modern research is actually conducted.

They will gain experience with laboratory equipment, robotics, computing, and artificial intelligence. Just as important, they will learn how to evaluate results, recognize limitations, and work with people from different fields.

The grant includes plans for hands-on learning opportunities, including summer workshops where students can help build robotics and artificial intelligence systems. These experiences will allow students to apply what they are learning while contributing to new research.

Expanding Access to Discovery

The award will also strengthen Rutgers’ broader research capacity through the Rutgers Scientific Hub for Orchestrated Research and Experimentation (SHORE). The initiative will bring researchers together around automation and artificial intelligence while supporting work in health, medicine, materials science, and other areas that affect people’s lives.

One of the most promising parts of this model is its potential to make advanced research tools available to more scientists. A researcher who does not have access to sophisticated equipment nearby could design an experiment and have it carried out in a self-driving laboratory elsewhere. That could allow promising ideas to move forward even when the necessary instruments are not available at the researcher’s own institution.

Public research universities bring people together to pursue important questions and turn what they learn into discoveries that improve lives. This award will help Rutgers do exactly that by giving students experience with emerging technologies, providing researchers with new ways to test their ideas, and making advanced tools more widely available.

I congratulate Adam Gormley, Kostas Bekris, and their colleagues at Rutgers and UC Santa Barbara on this important award. Their work reflects the collaboration, curiosity, and commitment to public impact that define research at Rutgers.

To see this work in action, watch this video from the Rutgers–New Brunswick biomedical engineering laboratory.