PICS Colloquium with Boran Ma: AI for Sustainability & Sustainability in AI: a Closed-Loop Design Approach for Polymer Innovation

Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have contributed tremendously to the advances of materials science in recent years, from property prediction to structure design. High-throughput experimentation, enabled by AI/ML, further offers a reliable route to curating high-quality data for ML model training. Combining AI/ML with high-throughput experimentation, this talk will present a closed-loop design approach for polymeric materials for sustainability applications. Two main material systems will be showcased: block copolymer (BCP) and salogels. Training of ML models allowed for high-throughput scattering and microscopy data analysis, as well as processing–structure–property relationship prediction and inverse design. Interpretable ML was used to further understand the influences of various processing and composition parameters on properties. Although existing ML model architectures suit well for these prediction tasks, a major concern stems from the resource consumption in training these models. To address the sustainability challenges in developing and using AI for materials research, our group has been working on strategic feature engineering and model architecture design. A chemical structural similarity-informed featurization approach was designed to develop lightweight ML models with efficient and generalizable performances and applications. This ML-enabled high-throughput framework allows for rapid data analysis and explainable processing–structure–property relationship prediction and interpretation, establishing the foundation for exploring the vast design space of polymeric materials for various applications.

Bio: 

Dr. Boran “Bo” Ma is an Assistant Professor in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy and Biodesign Center for Sustainable Macromolecular Materials and Manufacturing at Arizona State University. Prior to joining ASU in 2026, Bo was an Assistant Professor in the School of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi since 2023 and selected for the Nina Bell Suggs Endowed Professorship in 2026. Bo received her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University in 2019 and did her postdoctoral training at Duke University. The Ma Research Lab focuses on computation-driven, AI-enabled research and design of functional polymers for sustainability and health applications. Bo has been recognized as an Early Career Distinguished Presenter at 2025 MRS Fall Meeting and an Early Investigator in the Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering Division of the American Chemical Society in 2026. Bo performs stand-up comedy in her free time, and enjoys hiking, running, and paddle boarding.