Dr. Po-Yen Chen
 

Dr. Po-Yen Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD), with an affiliate appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is also a core member of the Maryland Robotics Center (MRC) and the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM). Dr. Chen earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University (NTU) and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to joining UMD, he served as an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and conducted independent research as a Hibbitt Early Career Fellow at Brown University.

Dr. Chen’s research operates at the convergence of machine learning (ML), robotic automation, and materials science. His group integrates predictive and generative modeling with automated experimentation to accelerate the discovery of high-performance, sustainable, and functional materials. By bypassing the bottlenecks of traditional trial-and-error methods, his work addresses complex challenges in multi-component formulation and multi-property optimization. This integrated workflow significantly accelerates the development of materials with programmable properties, targeting urgent global issues such as plastic pollution and resource depletion. The AI-discovered materials emerging from his lab have broad applications, ranging from biodegradable packaging and conductive aerogels to smart soft robotics and sustainable technologies.