BU Students Win Merck Competition with AI-Driven Chemical Discovery

Boston University's Anand Sahu and Pridhi Balhara took home the €10,000 prize in the 2026 Merck In Silico Innovation Cup for AI Agents.

The international competition drew 41 submissions from 18 countries, with Sahu's team selected as one of the winners. The project, 'An experiment-calibrated in-silico AI co-scientist discovers chemoselective SiN passivation,' aimed to develop an autonomous AI 'co-scientist' that could identify chemical approaches for controlling area-selective deposition.

The method has potential applications in advanced semiconductor manufacturing. The team, led by Sahu and including Jiaming Hu, Rabia Khurshid, Madeha Memon, and Jamsher Bhanbhro from the University of Miami, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, and the University of Calabria, respectively, built on their research in Professor Qiang Cui's group at BU.

Cui praised Sahu and Balhara for demonstrating how AI can automate heavy analytical lifting, allowing researchers to focus on high-level discovery. Both students conduct research in computational chemistry and biomolecular systems.