Name: Workshop for AI-Powered Materials Discovery at Great Plains
Start: 2025-06-22T18:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-25T21:35:00-05:00
Location: University of South Dakota

Monday, June 16, 2025
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Thursday, June 19, 2025
Friday, June 20, 2025
Saturday, June 21, 2025
Sunday, June 22, 2025

6:00 PM Welcome Reception and Networking Dinner
Welcome Reception and Networking Dinner
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Monday, June 23, 2025

7:00 AM

7:00 AM - 8:00 AM
8:00 AM
8:00 AM - 8:30 AM
Contributions

8:00 AM Open ceremony Speech – The president of USD

8:20 AM Logistics and announcements - Dongming Mei
8:30 AM
8:30 AM - 9:40 AM
Contributions

8:30 AM A Keynote Presentation: Enabling AI-powered Materials Discovery via Large-scale Quantum Accuracy Materials Simulation - Vladan Stevanovic (Colorado School of Mines)

9:05 AM AI-Powered Materials Discovery: Opportunities, Challenges, and a Vision for Collaboration - Dongming Mei (University of South Dakota)
9:40 AM Coffee Break
Coffee Break
9:40 AM - 10:00 AM
10:00 AM
10:00 AM - 11:10 AM
Contributions

10:00 AM Data-driven detection and assessment of nanoplastics in agricultural and biological systems - Chenxu Yu (Iowa State University)

10:35 AM Integrative Omics and Data-Driven Discovery of Biofilm and Metal Stress Response Mechanisms in Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria - RAJESH SANI (SD School of Mines and Technology)
11:10 AM
11:10 AM - 12:10 PM
Contributions

11:10 AM Questioning Intelligence: Building Things Better, or Building Better Things - Katherine Moore (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
12:10 PM Lunch Break
Lunch Break
12:10 PM - 1:30 PM
1:30 PM
1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Contributions

1:30 PM Accelerating Electrolyte Discovery with AI: High-Throughput Screening of Multi-Component Lithium and Sodium Ion Systems - (Invited Talk) - Sokseiha Muy (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

2:05 PM AI Data Centers Powered by Small Modular Reactors - Bai Cui

2:33 PM Automatic Differentiation in AI-Powered Thermal Transport - Jaesuk Park (The University of Texas at Austin)

3:01 PM Electrostatic Potential and Atomic Reconstruction in Twisted Bilayer hBN using Machine-Learned Interatomic Potential - Tyson Karl (Univeristy of Kansas)
1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Contributions

1:30 PM Everyday AI: Building Better Things Through AI Literacy for Everyone - Katherine Moore (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Contributions

1:30 PM Transforming Polymer R&D with AI (Invited Talk) - Chiho Kim (Georgia Institute of Technology)

2:05 PM Emerging AI tools for controlling grain structure, phases, and defects in 3D printed metallic parts - Tuhin Mukherjee (Iowa State University)

2:33 PM Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Phase Transformations in AgI with Machine-Learned Interatomic Potentials - Steven Baksa (Northwestern University)

3:01 PM Fine-Tuning DeepSeek-R1 for AI-Driven Materials Discovery Using Unsloth and Domain-Specific Supervised Instruction - David Zeng (Dakota State University)
3:30 PM Coffee Break
Coffee Break
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
4:00 PM
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Contributions

4:00 PM What Is AI and Why Should We Care? - Rodrigue Rizk

5:00 PM How AI Is Helping Us Discover New Materials - Rodrigue Rizk
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Contributions

4:00 PM The applications of generative adversarial networks (GANs) on the prediction of the material’s microstructure (Invited Talk) - Fei Peng (Clemson University)

4:35 PM AI-Driven Design of Methanotroph-Material Interfaces for Catalytic and Biomanufacturing Applications - Dipayan Samanta (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology)

5:03 PM Biofilm-Data-Driven-Development (BD3) of next-generation materials using AI models - Ram Singh (South Dakota Mines)

5:31 PM Decoding SRB Biofilm Transcriptomes for AI-Enabled Prediction and Design of Antifouling Material Surfaces - Priya Saxena (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology)
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Contributions

4:00 PM Growth and characterization of PMN-PT crystals by vertical gradient freeze (VGF) technology (Invited Talk) - Guojian Wang (Luxium solutions)

4:35 PM Surface-Functionalized Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXene for Enhanced Gas Sensing: Tailoring Selectivity and Sensitivity via Material Engineering - Xiaojun Xian (South Dakota State University)

5:03 PM Charge Carrier Modulation in Cr₂TiC₂Tx MXene: A Promising Material for Future Technology - Khimananda Acharya (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology)

5:31 PM Optimizing Detector-Grade Yield in HPGe Crystal Growth for Rare-Event Searches Using Machine Learning - Athul Prem (University of South Dakota)
6:00 PM

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
8:30 AM
8:30 AM - 10:15 AM
Contributions

8:30 AM Enabling AI Powered Materials Discovery via Large-scale Quantum Accuracy Materials Simulations - Vikram Gavini (University of Michigan)

9:05 AM The advantages and prospects of data-driven and AI-aided methodologies for simulations of non-equilibrium phenomena - Vojtech Vlcek (University of Santa Barbara)

9:40 AM LLM-powered deep graph learning for protein-nucleic acid binding site prediction - Debswapna Bhattacharya (Virginia Tech)
10:15 AM Coffee Break
Coffee Break
10:15 AM - 10:40 AM
10:40 AM
10:40 AM - 12:25 PM
Contributions

10:40 AM High-Throughput Computing, Cloud Cyberinfrastructure, and Machine Learning for Carrier Transport in Semiconductors - Feliciano Giustino (University of Texas at Austin)

11:15 AM Data-driven discovery of 2D materials systems for solar energy conversion - Arunima Singh (Arizona State University)

11:50 AM Machine learning approaches to optimize materials research - Patrick Johnson (Iowa State University)
12:25 PM Lunch Break
Lunch Break
12:25 PM - 1:30 PM
1:30 PM
1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Contributions

1:30 PM The Influence of Generative AI on Integrated STEM (I-STEM) Teacher Self-efficacy When Creating I-STEM Lessons (Research Proposal) - Julie Olson

2:00 PM Getting Grounded: Understanding and Exploring South Dakota’s Computer Science Education Landscape - Hannah Caffee (Center for the Advancement of Math and Science Education) Nicole Uhre-Balk
1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Contributions

1:30 PM Understanding Reaction Mechanisms of Ammonia Synthesis through the Combination of Deep Reinforcement Learning and Density Functional Theory (Invited Talk) - Qi An (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Iowa State University of Science and Technology)

2:05 PM Tuning Soft Magnetic Properties in Fe-Based Nanocrystalline Alloys via Ge Substitution - Paul White (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology)

2:33 PM Effects of Sn clustering on GeSn alloy stability and electronic properties - Alejandro Barraza Valdez (Arizona State University)

3:01 PM Exploring Second-Order Nonlinear Optics in Mono- and Few-Layer 2D Perovskites - Himal Oli (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology)
1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Contributions

1:30 PM Fundamental Insights into Charge TransferAcross 2D-Bulk Heterostructure Interfaces Using Machine Learning. - Mubin Md Al Furkan (Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA)

1:54 PM Gradient Boosting Regression Models for Predicting Fouling Release Performance Based on PDMS and SBMA Molecular Weights - Gerardo Casanola (North Dakota State University)

2:18 PM High-Throughput Calculations of Phase Change Materials for Energy-Efficient Computing - Gabriella Townsley (University of Kansas)

2:42 PM Machine-Learning-Driven Identification of Materials Dimension from Structural and Physical Features - Naina Maharjan (University of South Dakota)

3:06 PM First-principles study of penta-CN2 quantum dots for efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction - Rupali Jindal (university of arizona)
3:30 PM Coffee Break
Coffee Break
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
4:00 PM
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Contributions

4:00 PM Lecture 1: From Bits to Qubits: A Beginner’s Journey into Quantum Computing - KC Kong

5:00 PM Lecture 2: Quantum Computing for Machine Learners: A New Frontier - KC Kong
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Contributions

4:00 PM Sensing of Lung Cancer Biomarkers Using Ti₂C MXenes and Machine Learning for Future Diagnostic Applications. - Mukesh Kumar Choudhary (Michigan Technological University)

4:24 PM Laser-Induced Graphene-Based Electrochemical Sensors: Advancing Nutrient Sensing, Health Monitoring, and Environmental Diagnostics - Gustavo Leite Miliao (Iowa State University)

4:48 PM Advancing Fe-Ga Magnetic Alloys: Synthesis and Theory of Disordered and Ordered Phases - Connor McCollar (South Dakota Mines)

5:12 PM Machine Learning Tools for Prediction of Mechanical Properties for Multi-component Alloy Systems - Etienne Gnimpieba (University of South Dakota)

5:36 PM Correcting the modeling of OFETs - Siva Prasad Chimminiankuttichi Prabhakaran (Graduate student)
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Contributions

4:00 PM Machine learning applications at high-energy particle colliders to probe triple Higgs coupling - Balbeer Singh (University of South Dakota)

4:24 PM Enhancing quantum utility: Simulating large-scale quantum spin chains on superconducting quantum computers - Talal Ahmed Chowdhury (University of Kansas)

4:48 PM Artificial Intelligence-Enhanced Crystal Development: Utilizing Chatbots To Improve The Growth of High Purity Germanium Crystals" - Sanjay Bhattarai (University of South Dakota)

5:36 PM A DFT Study of Rare Earth-Benzene Complexes - Nayana Suresh Palaparambil (Michigan Technological University)
6:00 PM Banquet
Banquet
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Wednesday, June 25, 2025

8:30 AM

8:30 AM - 10:10 AM

10:10 AM Coffee Break
Coffee Break
10:10 AM - 10:30 AM
10:30 AM
10:30 AM - 12:15 PM
Contributions

10:30 AM Quantum Machine Learning Applications in High Energy Physics and Beyond - Konstantin Matchev (University of Alabama)

11:05 AM Advancing Astroparticle Physics with AI: Machine Learning Techniques and Recent Results from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory - Matthias Plum (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology)

11:40 AM Additive Manufacturing Guided with High-Speed Photography and Machine Learning - S. Choudhury (University of Mississippi)
12:15 PM

12:15 PM - 12:40 PM

12:40 PM Lunch Break
Lunch Break
12:40 PM - 1:30 PM