INSTAR Lab - Applied Research
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
Applied R&D at the frontier of scientific discovery
The INSTAR Method
Chart. Explore. Transmit.
We chart the scientific frontier, explore it through rigorous research, and transmit validated knowledge to the partners, agencies, journals, and technologies that carry it forward.
Chart
Define the scientific frontier, technical objectives, research risks, partner roles, and path of inquiry.
Explore
Conduct rigorous, PI-led research through experimentation, analysis, validation, modeling, field inquiry, and peer-informed scientific methods.
Transmit
Transfer the knowledge forward through reports, journals, datasets, prototypes, IP support, technical documentation, partner handoff, and commercialization pathways.
OUR RESEARCH
An independent 501(c)(3) research institute advancing science across AI, health, energy, quantum, HPC, space, and the broad sciences.
Explore our research areas and technical capabilities below.
Quantum Systems
Research into quantum computation and sensing — pushing toward practical advantage in problems classical systems struggle to solve.
Explore this research →Health AI
Applying AI to medicine and clinical science to improve patient safety, accelerate discovery, and support better outcomes — with rigorous, human-overseen evaluation.
Explore this research →NLP Analytics
Turning unstructured text and language into structured, actionable knowledge through advanced natural-language research.
Explore this research →Energy Research
Advancing the science of energy generation, storage, and efficiency to support a sustainable and resilient future.
Explore this research →Data Science
Extracting insight from complex, high-dimensional data — the analytical backbone connecting every INSTAR research domain.
Explore this research →HPC Simulation
High-performance computing and large-scale simulation that let researchers model, predict, and explore systems too complex for the lab alone.
Explore this research →AI Platforms
Building the machine-intelligence foundations — models, agents, and platforms — that power applied research across the institute.
Explore this research →Lab Systems
The infrastructure, instruments, and computing facilities that turn ambitious research questions into reproducible results.
Explore this research →Stay Connected
INSTAR LAB CONSORTIUM
INSTAR Lab advances applied research across the natural sciences, technology, and social sciences. Subscribe to our newsletter or contact us to learn how to partner with or support the institute.
OUR LEADERSHIP
INSTAR Lab is led by experienced scientists, engineers, and researchers whose work spans applied AI, physics, and technology transfer. Our leadership team brings decades of production research, federal R&D, and scientific governance to every program we run.
Suzanne Conejos, M.Sc.
AI Lead Scientist · Board Member
Sean Hackney
Board Member · AI Researcher
Dr. Spoogmay Khan
Applied Scientist · Materials Physics
Maha Khan
Research Scientist
OUR FELLOWS
In their own words — reflections from past INSTAR Fellowship cohorts.
My INSTAR Fellowship gave me the time, mentorship, and compute to chase a hard quantum sensing problem I never could have tackled alone. I left with a published result and a research network I still lean on.
Maya R.
Quantum Information — 2024 Cohort
As a fellow I worked shoulder-to-shoulder with researchers across disciplines. The lab pushed me to make my computational health models rigorous and reproducible — that habit reshaped how I do science.
Daniel O.
Computational Health — 2023 Cohort
The fellowship treated me like an early-career scientist, not a student. The mentorship and freedom to explore energy-systems research opened doors I am still walking through today.
Priya N.
Energy Systems — 2024 Cohort
LATEST FROM LABS
Technical briefs, STTR highlights, and research updates from INSTAR Lab
and the INSTAR Consortium — published as work matures.
Quantum sensing breakthroughs
New approaches to qubit coherence and quantum error correction are enabling practical advances in sensing and computation.
Read More...
HPC infrastructure for AI
GPU-accelerated clusters and distributed compute architectures are reshaping how researchers train models and run simulations.
Read More...
Clinical AI safety research
Examining how artificial intelligence can improve patient safety, clinical workflows, and healthcare outcomes at national scale.
Read More...OUR PARTNERS
For Researchers
Join the INSTAR Fellowship
The INSTAR Fellowship is an open citizen-scientist program — no minimum degree required, selection based on fit with our research culture. Structured mentorship, interdisciplinary scope, and the freedom to pursue hard problems.