AI Research
Nov 3, 2026
NEMO User Meeting Focuses on Enhancing Research Facility Collaboration
Nov 3, 2026
AI Summary
The 2026 NEMO User Meeting at MIT.nano gathered representatives from various laboratories to discuss challenges in managing shared research facilities. The meeting emphasized the importance of the NEMO system and the new Hydra platform in improving access to specialized capabilities across institutions, aiming to streamline research operations and foster collaboration.
- The NEMO User Meeting took place on October 5-6, 2026, at MIT.nano, with 65 representatives from 25 laboratories and organizations participating.
- The meeting focused on lab management strategies and building connections among research facilities, highlighting the NEMO Equipment Management and Operations system.
- NEMO is an open-source platform that allows laboratories to manage shared facilities and adapt the system to their needs, originally released by NIST in 2018.
- The community edition of NEMO, launched in 2023, enables facilities to develop and share extensions to the platform.
- Presentations at the meeting showcased how different institutions, such as Stanford and Columbia, are customizing NEMO to address specific operational challenges.
- MIT.nano introduced Hydra, a new open-source platform designed to connect multiple NEMO installations and provide real-time updates on facility capabilities, enhancing discoverability for researchers.
- The meeting underscored the need for flexible research infrastructure that evolves with changing research demands, emphasizing community-oriented development.
- NEMO currently supports over 1,600 active researchers at MIT.nano, facilitating significant tool usage each year.
- Discussions included the future role of data integration, automation, and AI in lab operations, reflecting a growing sense of community among facility managers.
- The overarching goal is to improve the management of research facilities to enhance access to instruments and expertise, ultimately accelerating innovation in microelectronics.
research infrastructurecollaborationtechnologymicroelectronicsshared access