This July, Brenden Pelkie traveled to Guadalajara, Mexico to teach a weeklong course with Clubes de Ciencia MX. Clubes de Ciencia is a non-profit that hosts weeklong STEM courses for high school and undergraduate students in Ibero-American countries. Graduate students and post-doctoral researchers are paired up to develop and teach these courses, focused on topics related to their research.
Brenden worked with Joaquin Navarro Perales of Universidad Autónoma de México to teach a course titled "Adventures in AI: Exploring uses for machine learning in everyday life and self-driving laboratories." Students first learned the basics of machine learning and python, then explored how these technologies can be applied by running an experiment on a self-driving lab platform and working with large language models (i.e. Chat GPT).
Brenden brought a Jubilee motion platform to Mexico to teach students about lab automation and self-driving labs. Students learned how self-driving labs can accelerate the design and optimization of new chemicals and materials, then put these ideas into practice by designing and running their own campaigns for a color matching experiment using the Jubilee platform.
Thank you to Dr. Xiaosong Li for providing travel support that made this course possible.
