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Western Engineering PhD student stands out in Google GenAI challenge

Souvik Ta, a PhD student in the department of chemical and biochemical engineering. (Jacob Arts/Western Engineering)

A PhD student in the department of chemical and biochemical engineering, achieved notable recognition in the Google GenAI Capstone Challenge for developing a tool to streamline and simplify the setup process of engineering simulations.

Souvik Ta, who is supervised by professor Taylor Liu, Principal Investigator (PI) of the Sustain AI Group at Western, placed in the Top 20 of more than 6,000 entries around the world thanks to his creation of ChemSimGuide, which he calls a “conversational simulation assistant”.

The tool allows users to simply describe their problem in plain language, while the AI assistant will guide them through the setup, refer them to relevant documentation and even generate the final code.

Participants in the Capstone Challenge were asked to demonstrate at least three GenAI capabilities in a creative, novel and impactful project.

Souvik's ChemSimGuide will allow users to take advantage of powerful chemical simulators without the need for extensive programming experience and will eliminate a lot of the trial and error currently needed to set up chemical simulations.

"Being recognized among the top 20 in such a competitive global challenge is incredibly motivating and humbling," says Souvik.

"My goal with ChemSimGuide is to democratize access to advanced chemical simulations, empowering more engineers and researchers to rapidly explore ideas, enhance productivity, and accelerate innovation without being hindered by steep learning curves."

Souvik looks forward to further developing ChemSimGuide, with plans to expand its capabilities to integrate additional simulation platforms widely used across the chemical engineering industry.