Machine Discovery’s AI-powered discovery platform provides acceleration for compute-intensive optimization and prediction tasks and is inherited from First Light Fusion. The result of several years of close collaboration between the two companies, the Discovery platform is now proven to accelerate the development of the key technologies required to deliver clean fusion power at record speeds.
Find the optimal fusion solution in record time
First Light Fusion is a UK-based leading fusion pioneer attempting to deliver fusion energy with its unique “projectile” approach – a branch of inertial fusion that uses high-velocity projectiles instead of lasers. Using the Discovery platform, First Light Fusion achieved the ability to explore the design space in record time to find an optimal fusion solution. The Discovery Platform delivers ease of use, performance, and scalability to accelerate compute-intensive optimization and prediction tasks.
Large-scale simulation studies for the end-to-end design of fusion systems using multi-physics software are at the heart of First Light Fusion’s approach. A key challenge for First Light Fusion is to quickly find design space optimum for the models used in these studies. Machine Discovery’s recent collaboration with First Light Fusion resulted in a solution that significantly speeds up optimization tasks and delivers high-quality results. As a result, First Light Fusion can now quickly assess the full potential of new designs. This has accelerated the path to commercial fusion power.
Machine Discovery’s unique AI platform gives First Light Fusion the ability to manage complex collaborative projects in large teams with large numbers of simulation runs. The platform’s novel emulation technology builds fast neural network-based models for prediction from the simulation results, delivering many orders of magnitude faster prediction with accuracy. The platform’s optimization engine uses AI algorithms for optimization and sampling, and combines simulation and neural network model outputs to enable exploration of a significantly larger design space at record speed.
“Our goal is to make fusion power available as quickly as possible. As a result of our multi-year collaboration, Machine Discovery has enabled us to achieve significant levels of productivity to automate and streamline complex tasks,” said Nicholas Hawker, Founder and Chief Executive of First Light Fusion. “By doing so, we improve the design performance and gain insights for optimal results in the delivery of the fusion energy.”
“Today’s large, complex engineering challenges require fast and predictably accurate results with scalability,” said Bijan Kiani, chief executive officer at Machine Discovery. “We are excited about the progress of our multi-year collaboration with First Light Fusion, which has enabled Machine Discovery to deliver a solution that addresses today’s complex engineering challenges at record speed. This work fits well with our strategy to contribute to the development of low-cost clean energy to enable First Light Fusion to develop complex fusion reactors on a significantly reduced schedule.”
