Joint Polymerization by COIN Researchers from Chemistry and Data Science

As part of an interdisciplinary hands-on session, a polymerization of butyl methacrylate was carried out in Jena involving chemists Lars Flüggen as well as data scientists Sarah Bachinger and Vishvapalsinhji Parmar from various COIN subprojects ( A2 and C1). In addition, Oliver Zahn from the COIN project A1, who is working on the development of safe and efficient human–robot interaction in chemical laboratories, joined the session online from Bayreuth. The aim of the joint experiment was to provide the participants with a practice-oriented insight into the individual steps involved in carrying out polymerization reactions in the laboratory and to illustrate how the experimental data are generated that are subsequently used in the data science– and robotics-oriented subprojects.

The entire experiment as well as the results obtained were fully documented in the electronic laboratory notebook elabFTW. Furthermore, the data scientists explained the specific requirements for the experimental data, particularly with regard to their further processing and use by means of data-driven methods.

The Graduate School 3040 COIN pursues the goal of providing comprehensive interdisciplinary training for doctoral researchers at the interface of (polymer) chemistry, data science, and computer science/robotics. Accordingly, the current cohort consists of doctoral researchers from these different disciplines. Continuous and close exchange between the disciplines is therefore essential in order to develop a mutual understanding of methods, data, and research questions. For this reason, further interdisciplinary exchange formats, such as the practical polymerization carried out here, are also planned for the future.