National Science Foundation backs a Texas A&M tool that screens whether an alloy can exist before anyone makes it
Texas A&M's College of Engineering published on September 4th, 2026 that the National Science Foundation is funding PhaseForge. The software comes from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and applies machine learning to the CALPHAD phase diagram method. The university states the tool is free and openly available. It states that making the tool free and openly available will help accelerate materials discovery across academia, national laboratories and industry. The announcement names no award number and no dollar figure.
How to take part
The college publishes its own account and states the tool is free and openly available. No public body is taking comment on it. A researcher who wants the code goes to the group that wrote it.
Where
1 county. In College Station-Bryan.
Timeline
- ordered
Date the college published the announcement
- Today
How this decision moved
One dated line per check, oldest first. A line that says nothing changed means somebody looked and it had not.
- 2026-09-05
Admitted on the college's own announcement, fetched today. The tool is stated to be free and openly available and the announcement names no award number, so none is carried here.
- 2026-09-08
The award for the alloy screening tool still stands and the university's account of it is unchanged. A quotation the record carried ran two separated passages together as one, and it now stops where the source stops.
- 2026-09-08
The college's announcement states that PhaseForge is distributed free and openly online and that anyone can contribute to it. It states that making the tool free and openly available will help accelerate materials discovery across academia, national laboratories and industry. It names no award number and no dollar figure.
- 2026-09-09
The Texas A and M alloy screening tool is still funded and still promised as free and openly available.
- 2026-09-12
Checked and unchanged. The decision still stands as decided.
- 2026-09-13
Checked and unchanged. The decision still stands as decided.
- 2026-09-16
The A&M tool that screens whether an alloy can exist before anyone makes it is still funded as described. No change has been posted.
- 2026-09-19
The screening tool is still funded, and it is still aimed at the question of whether an alloy can exist before anyone tries to make one.
- 2026-09-23
The screening tool still answers whether an alloy can exist before anybody tries to make it.
- 2026-09-26
The A&M screening tool still asks whether an alloy can exist before anyone tries to make it.
- 2026-09-29
The A&M tool still screens whether an alloy can exist before anyone makes it.
- 2026-10-02
The A&M screening tool is still funded to judge whether an alloy can exist before anyone makes it.
- 2026-10-05
The NSF award behind the Texas A&M tool that screens whether an alloy can exist still stands.
- 2026-10-08
The NSF award behind Texas A&M's tool for screening whether an alloy can exist is still active.
- 2026-10-11
Texas A&M's NSF award for screening whether an alloy can exist remains active.
- 2026-10-15
Texas A&M's award for screening whether an alloy can exist is still active.
- 2026-10-18
The Texas A&M award for screening whether an alloy can exist is still listed as active.
- 2026-10-21
Checked and unchanged. The decision still stands as decided.
The evidence
Every fact above rests on one of these. The words are the source's own.
PhaseForge is being distributed free and openly online, and anyone can contribute to it.Texas A&M College of Engineering, NSF backs Texas A&M tool that speeds materials discovery Primary source, official · news.engineering.tamu.edu
A new National Science Foundation award will fund free, open software that uses machine learning to answer a question every materials scientist asks.Texas A&M College of Engineering, NSF backs Texas A&M tool that speeds materials discovery Primary source, official · news.engineering.tamu.edu
It applies machine learning to a decades-old method called CALPHADTexas A&M College of Engineering, NSF backs Texas A&M tool that speeds materials discovery Primary source, official · news.engineering.tamu.edu
that tells researchers whether a material they want to build can exist at allTexas A&M College of Engineering, NSF backs Texas A&M tool that speeds materials discovery Primary source, official · news.engineering.tamu.edu
By making the tool free and openly available, Dr. Arróyave will help accelerate materials discovery across academia, national laboratories and industry.NSF backs Texas A&M tool that speeds materials discovery Primary source, official · news.engineering.tamu.edu
Questions about this decision
Answered from the record itself. Every answer is assembled from stored fields, so an answer the record has no basis for is left out rather than guessed.
What is this decision?
Texas A&M's College of Engineering published on September 4th, 2026 that the National Science Foundation is funding PhaseForge. The software comes from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and applies machine learning to the CALPHAD phase diagram method. The university states the tool is free and openly available. It states that making the tool free and openly available will help accelerate materials discovery across academia, national laboratories and industry. The announcement names no award number and no dollar figure.
Who decides it?
U.S. National Science Foundation decides. The record names the deciding body for every entry it carries.
Can the public take part?
The college publishes its own account and states the tool is free and openly available. No public body is taking comment on it. A researcher who wants the code goes to the group that wrote it. No dated public window is on the record. The deciding body is named and reachable.
Where in Texas does it apply?
It covers Brazos County in the College Station-Bryan, TX area.
Has it been decided?
It has been decided. The dates on the item page carry when.
What happens next?
No future date is on the record. The last dated step on it was ordered on September 4th.
When did it start?
The earliest date on its record is September 4th, 2026.
What kind of decision is it?
It is filed under research and science.
What sources back it?
One source backs it. It is primary.
Is it on the ERCOT grid?
Yes. It sits inside the ERCOT interconnection.
When was it last checked?
Every fact on it was last verified against its source on October 21st, 2026.
Cite this
Texas AI Docket, National Science Foundation backs a Texas A&M tool that screens whether an alloy can exist before anyone makes it. Tracked since September 4th, 2026. Last verified October 21st, 2026. https://texasaidocket.com/item/tx-2026-0122/. Reuse permitted under CC BY 4.0 with attribution. The same entry is in the docket JSON as item tx-2026-0122.
Beat
Filed under Research and science, with every other decision on that beat.