2026 MaRDA Virtual Annual Meeting FEBRUARY 17-19

    MaRDA2026: Living in the Material World

    Winning Posters

    Viktoriia Baibakova, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Oak Ridge National Laboratory | Agentic Retrieval for Bio-Based Recovery of Critical and Near-Critical Minerals

    Laibah Ahmed, Student Researcher, University of Texas at El Paso  | FAIR Train: Annotating Tensile Testing Data Using Ontology

    Agenda

    Tuesday, February 17, 2026

    1:00 EST | Introduction to MaRDA2026 and Keynote 

    1:10 | Session 1: Materials Data and AI National Priorities Panel

    Moderators:

    David Elbert – Johns Hopkins University

    Juan Carlos Verduzco – Perdue University

    Panelists:

    Jim Warren – National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST)

    John Schlueter – National Science Foundation (NSF)

    Sean Donegan – Air Force Research Laboratory.(AFRL)

    Andrew Schwartz – Department of Energy (DOE)

    2:20 | Poster Session 1 Four Waves

    3:30 | Session 2: Materials Industry Panel: The Emergence of Data-Driven AI

    Moderators:

    Ben Blaiszik – University of Chicago

    Jake Yeston – American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

    Cate Brinson – Duke University

    Panelists:

    Santiago Miret – Lila Science

    Tim Erdmann – IBM Research

    Lily Kim – Microsoft Discovery

    Abhijeet Gangan – PeriodicAI

    4:35 | Closing Remarks

    4:45 | Adourn 

    Wednesday, February 18, 2026

    1:00 EST | Welcome

    1:10 | Session 3: AI for Materials Manufacturing

    1:40 | Panel Discussion: Industry goals and gaps for AI

    Moderators:

    Alejandro Strachan – nanoHUB, Purdue University

    Corinne Lipscomb – Solventum

    Panelists:

    Corinne Lipscomb – Solventum

    Jennifer Schumacher – 3M

    Alix Schmidt – Dow

    Joseph Montoya –Toyota Research Institute (TRI)

    2:20 | Poster Session 2: Four Waves

    3:30 | Session 4: Panel Discussion:  Academic Perspectives on Labs of the Future 

    Moderators:

    Katelyn Jones – National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST)

    Kyle Saleeby – Georgia Institute of Technology

    Panelists:

    Peter Beaucage – Lila Science

    David Elbert – Johns Hopkins University

    Taro Hitosugi – University of Tokyo

    Jie Xu – Argonne National Laboratory

    4:45 | Closing Remarks 

    5:00 | Adjourn

    Thursday, February 19, 2026

    1:00 EST | Welcome 

    1:10 | Session 5:  Workforce Development at AI Speed Panel

    Moderator:

    Olga Wodo – University at Buffalo

    Panelists:

    Joshua Schrier – Fordham University

    Gilad Kusne – National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST)

    Arun Mannodi Kanakkithodi – Purdue University

    Sterling Baird – Brigham Young University (BYU)

    2:15 | Call to Working Groups

    2:25 | Session 6: AI-Ready Data and Materials Data Repositories

    Moderators:

    Jane Greenberg – Drexel University

    Matthew Evans – University of Cambridge

    Panelists:

    Owen Price-Skelly – Materials Data Facility and Garden, Accelerate team

    Alejandro Strachan – nanoHUB, Purdue University

    Jacob Pietryga – OQMD, Northwestern University

    Joseph Rudzinski – NOMAD/FAIRmat/Glaide, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin

    3:40 | Outstanding Poster Awards and Presentations 

    4:05 | Closing Comments 

    4:20 | Adjourn