EAGER: Synthetic Chemical-Based Information Processing

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Computing systems have been mostly realized using semiconductor-based devices and, more recently, DNA-based biomolecules. This proposal seeks to investigate computing methods using small non-biological molecules. The key advantages of small molecules are that they are ubiquitous, abundant, highly compact, and inexpensive, and have many degrees of freedom that can be manipulated in parallel. In this proposal a new paradigm is investigated, wherein a very large and diverse library of small synthetic molecules is produced from multi-component reactions to encode information. The paradigm can lead to high-information-density and parallel-processing capabilities. The broader impacts for this proposal include broadening participation and outreach; professional development for graduate and undergraduate students; and curriculum development for interdisciplinary courses in computing and chemistry.The goal of this proposal is to devise novel chemical-based data-encoding, -processing and -readout techniques with parallel-processing capabilities. To achieve the proposal's goal, two main objectives will be investigated. First, a theoretical foundation will be defined to establish ultimate limits on data encoding and processing as a function of molecular library sizes and instrument-detection capabilities. Second, a number of chemical-based processing techniques will be devised to perform basic logical and arithmetic operations on target chemical libraries. The use of mixture of synthetic small molecules to encode and process information is a transformative research direction that has been largely unexplored. This EAGER proposal will explore the fundamental techniques that can establish this nascent interdisciplinary field and identify the main research methods for synthesis, information processing and readout.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.