NSF iBioFoundry Summer School 2026
Course Schedule
9:00 – 9:30
Welcome & Registration
Mary Hellmer
9:30 – 10:30
NSF iBioFoundry: History and Vision
Prof. Huimin Zhao, Director, NSF iBioFoundry
10:30 – 10:50
Course Overview
Dr. Nilmani Singh
10:50 – 11:30
Introduction to Lab Automation & Liquid Handling
Dr. Nilmani Singh
11:30 – 12:15
Fundamentals of Liquid Handling Technologies
Steven Jarsen
12:15 – 1:30
Lunch
1:30 – 4:00
Liquid Handling on Fluent & Echo
4 groups rotating through instrument stations
iBioFoundry Automation Team
4:00 – 5:00
Invited Lecture 1: From Automation to Design: Building a Common Infrastructure for Autonomous Biology Laboratories
Prof. Dionysios A. AntonopoulosArgonne National Laboratory
5:00 – 5:30
Discussion & Q&A
8:30 – 9:00
Coffee + Snacks + Welcome
9:00 – 9:30
Protein Engineering: Bench to AI/ML, A Historical Perspective
Prof. Huimin Zhao
9:30 – 10:30
Invited Lecture 2: AI for Protein Discovery and Engineering
Prof. Ge LiuUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
10:30 – 11:30
AI/ML for Synthetic Biology: High-Level Overview
Dr. Vikas Upadhyay
11:30 – 12:15
AI/ML Tools for Laboratory Automation: FluentAgent
Junyu Chen
12:15 – 1:30
Lunch
1:30 – 6:00
AI/ML for Synthetic Biology & Hands-on Training
2 groups rotating between parallel AI/ML sessions
AI/ML Team
9:00 – 9:30
Coffee + Snacks + Welcome
9:30 – 11:00
Advanced Liquid Handling & Method Development
Steven JarsenDr. Nilmani Singh
11:00 – 12:00
Case Studies for AI/ML Tools in Synthetic Biology
Dr. Vikas Upadhyay
12:00 – 1:30
Lunch
1:30 – 5:00
Hands-on: Advanced Exercises + Group Competition
iBioFoundry Automation Team
5:00 – 8:00
Social Outing: Illini Union Bowling + Pizza
8:30 – 9:00
Coffee + Snacks + Welcome
9:00 – 9:30
IBRL Tour
George Heintz, Managing Director, NIBA
9:30 – 10:30
Robotic Integration, Momentum & Closed-Loop DBTL
Steven JarsenDr. Nilmani Singh
10:30 – 11:00
Analytical Methods for Biofoundries: High-Throughput Mass-Spec
Dr. Jingxia Lu
11:00 – 12:00
An Introduction to Echo Acoustic Liquid Handling and Automation
Dr. John FullerBeckman Coulter
12:00 – 1:30
Lunch
1:30 – 4:00
AI/ML Tools & Momentum Integration
4 rotating teams
AI/ML Team
4:00 – 6:00
Project Brainstorming & Friday Prep
All Teams
9:00 – 9:30
Coffee + Snacks + Welcome
9:30 – 11:00
Group Presentations
15 min presentation + 5 min Q&A each
11:00 – 11:10
Break
11:10 – 11:30
Evaluations / Complete Feedback Forms
11:30 – 11:45
Pop Quiz
11:45 – 12:00
Concluding Remarks
Prof. Huimin ZhaoDr. Nilmani Singh
12:00 – 12:30
Group Photo + Certificates
12:30 – 2:00
Closing Lunch
Automation team: Dr. Nilmani Singh, Dr. Jingxia Lu, Steven Jarsen, Dr. Shih-I Tan, Zhixin Zhu, Aurosish Sharma
AI/ML team: Michael Volk, Dr. Vikas Upadhyay, Junyu Chen, Saman Shafei
Note: All classroom lectures are held in IGB Room 612.