Building Autonomous Materials Labs #6. Closing the Loop: Machine Learning Workflows for Your Autonomous Lab

Machine learning can add real value to autonomous labs, but only in the right places. This session looks at where ML fits into the experimental loop, what it needs to work well, and its current limitations.

Biography

Daniela Blanco is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sunthetics, an AI-powered chemical R&D platform that accelerates experitmental optimization and provides best in class visualizations using machine learning models built from your own data. Originally from Caracas, Venezuela, she earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Simón Bolívar and her Ph.D. from NYU Tandon. Her doctoral research focused on powering nylon production with renewable energy, laying the foundation for "solar-powered synthesis" (Sunthetics). She incorporated the company in 2018 alongside co-founder Myriam Sbeiti following an NYU startup competition win. Today, Sunthetics serves major clients like Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Boehringer Ingelheim. Daniela holds 3 patents, has authored 18 peer-reviewed papers, and was featured in the 2021 Netflix documentary Own the Room. Her achievements have earned her honors including Forbes 30 Under 30, MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35, and the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize.