It’s no wonder that a team of scientists at General Atomics won the “Team of the Year” R&D 100 Professional Award for their development of the 4Pi System. This metrology tool played a pivotal role in the historic achievement of fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in December 2022. Scientists demonstrated for the…

At its Honeywell Users Group event in Dallas, Honeywell and Chevron revealed a strategic alliance that would use AI to streamline operator decision-making in refining processes, aiming to enhance both efficiency and safety. “The focus of the partnership is to use AI to build real, impactful solutions that will set new standards for operational efficiency,”…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending September 20, 2024, closed at 4,006.95 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 2.11% (or 82.94 basis points). Twenty-one RDWI members gained value last week from 0.14% (Astra Zeneca PLC) to 11.09% (Intel). Four RDWI members lost value the previous week from…

In this week in AI research, OpenAI’s latest models impress in some STEM related tasks, especially in coding. Math is another strong point. In addition, Salesforce is making good on its promise to base its company on AI “agents” – autonomous entities handling customer service and scheduling. CEO Marc Benioff posits them as a scalable alternative…

It’s long been a fact of life: Procurement tasks are a persistent burden for researchers, often demanding hours of manual effort each week and prone to errors. To counter that, the research-oriented procurement software company Labviva is launching an AI-enabled Inventory Management System (IMS) designed to automate tasks such as reordering and real-time stock monitoring.…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending September 13, 2024, closed at 3,924.01 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 2.95% (or 112.59 basis points). Seventeen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.30% (Volkswagen AG) to 14.26% (Oracle). Eight RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.85%…

The web is facing a deluge of AI-generated content, with an explosive 8,362% surge from November 2022 to March 2024, according to a study by Copyleaks. From Q1 2023 to Q1 2024, the volume of AI-detected content jumped 2,848% based on an analysis of more than a million web pages per period using data from…

After nearly a year of rumors surrounding OpenAI’s “Q*” (later “Strawberry“) project and its potential for advanced reasoning, the company has finally unveiled its new “o1” AI models that mirror humans’ ability to think before speaking. These models allocate more processing power to reasoning before generating output, significantly improving accuracy on complex tasks across science,…

Reviews are in for a beta version of Apple’s AI, following its iPhone 16 announcement. And experts are less than impressed. Vox called the tech “magically mediocre” after testing a developer beta. While AI Supremacy described Apple Intelligence as “late, unfinished & clumsy.” Critics point out that many of the touted AI features are not…

After a wave of media attention about rumored OpenAI models codenamed Strawberry and Orion, OpenAI has announced the launch of OpenAI o1, a new series of AI models designed to handle complex problems requiring advanced reasoning. According to an announcement from the company, the model family represents a significant leap forward from previous models in…

The University of California (UC) has selected Labviva, an AI-powered procurement platform, to enhance its life science research and procurement operations across all ten campuses. Initially deployed at UC San Diego in 2022, the platform went live at UC Merced in September 2024. This collaboration aims to streamline procurement processes for faculty, researchers, and staff,…

OpenAI is gearing up to launch its potentially reasoning-based and math-capable AI model codenamed “Strawberry,” according to a report from The Information. The release, which could come within the next two weeks, marks a significant step in OpenAI’s quest to develop more advanced AI systems. The initial release may be limited to a small group…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending September 6, 2024, closed at 3,811.42 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was down -3.99% (or -158.42 basis points). Two RDWI members gained value last week from 0.37% (Oracle) to 2.61% (Sanofi SA). Twenty-three RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.52%…

At Lubrizol, the quest for better skincare has taken a decidedly high-tech turn, culminating in the recent opening of a new Beauty Research Institute in Shanghai. This facility will serve as a global hub for in-vivo beauty testing. It will also aid the company in developing next-generation ingredients designed to cater to the specific needs…

What if the combination of stem cell research, bioengineering and biocomputing could help patients with neurological damage? Researchers at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and the University of Southern California (USC) are embarking on a research initiative to explore that very possibility. With a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Emerging Frontiers…

[Adobe Stock] Updated on October 20, 2024 with new details The current Biden-Harris administration and potential Republican approaches offer different visions for the future of American science. While the Biden-Harris team emphasizes investments in climate change mitigation and clean energy, conservative approaches have historically focused on deregulation and achieving energy independence through traditional energy sources.…

Quantum Brilliance (QB), a company specializing in diamond-based quantum technology, has announced a collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to develop a platform that integrates quantum computing with high-performance computing (HPC). The project aims to explore the integration of QB’s quantum computing cluster into ORNL’s HPC systems. The collaboration seeks to improve the interaction…

From accelerating drug discovery to automating patent searches, AI is popping up in a growing number of R&D contexts. Two of the top stories this week had a direct NVIDIA connection — first, Elon Musk’s announced what he terms the world’s largest GPU cluster, featuring 100,000 of its H100 GPUs, designed to power his new…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending August 30, 2024 closed at 3,969.84 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 0.57% (or 22.41 basis points). Seventeen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.08% (Microsoft) to 7.30% (Intel). Eight RDWI members lost value last week from -0.12% (Stellantis NV)…

Sandia National Laboratories and Brown University researchers have developed a new method to accelerate computer simulations, significantly speeding up research across various scientific fields. It was recently published in the journal npj Computational Materials and presents a universal approach to enhancing the performance of virtually any type of simulation —  from researching drugs to sending…

Parallel Bio’s head of technology shares a vision for faster, cheaper, and better biological research with human organoids. Ari Gesher, Parallel Bio’s new head of technology, may be new to biotech, but that’s not stopping him from thinking big about disrupting the status quo in biological research. The biotech startup is betting on automation and…

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has often highlighted the transformative impact of AI, stating that it’s a “more profound” tool than the human discoveries of fire or electricity. Shweta Maniar, Global Director of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Google, echoed this sentiment in a recent interview. AI’s applications in the life sciences are broad, and the…

Apple, Dell, Intel… the tech layoff headlines keep coming. But don’t think for a second it’s just Silicon Valley feeling the pinch. A closer look reveals a surge in job cuts across multiple R&D-heavy industries. Tesla cut 14,000 workers in April 2024 (10% of its workforce). Other transportation companies making cuts include electric vehicle (EV)…

While the mathematical capabilities of large language models such as ChatGPT are steadily improving, math is clearly not their forté. Not only is it extremely computationally efficient to ask such a model a math question, it isn’t all that hard to find word problems that trip up even the latest LLMs — like ‘how many…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending August 23, 2024, closed at 3,947.43 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 1.78% (or 68.94 basis points). Twenty-two RDWI members gained value last week from 0.11% (Meta Platforms) to 7.23% (Ford Motor). Three RDWI members lost value the previous week from…