Bridging Minds and Disciplines: The IAIFI Summer School and the Future of Collaborative Science

Cambridge, MA — At the intersection of artificial intelligence and fundamental physics, the NSF Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI) is preparing scientists to learn, think and understand at the deepest levels. In its latest week-long Summer School program, students explored frontier challenges through lectures, tutorials, and collaborative hackathons, testing how AI can shape the future of physics, and how physics can push the boundaries of AI.

Last week, FirstPrinciples was proud to sponsor the annual PhD Summer School organized by the NSF Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI), a gathering at one of the most exciting frontiers in science: the fusion of AI and fundamental physics.

NSF IAIFI Logo (Credit: IAIFI)

It’s easy to talk about scale in research — more data, faster models, bigger telescopes — but scale without synthesis rarely changes science. At IAIFI, the focus is on something deeper: a collective experiment in how disciplines (and minds) merge to solve problems neither could approach alone.

This reflects our own ethos; that the most meaningful advances happen when ideas, methods, and communities are intentionally brought together. Not just AI for science or physics for AI, but the shared infrastructure of training, conversation, and community that makes interdisciplinary AI research possible.

Building a Shared Language Between AI and Physics Researchers at IAIFI

Designing a curriculum at the AI + Physics interface means creating a common vocabulary between researchers who often think in fundamentally different ways.

IAIFI approached this with layered intent: broad lectures, followed by tutorials, culminating with student-led hackathon projects. This structure gave participants room to learn at their own pace, absorb perspectives from other fields, and test ideas collaboratively. As one student put it, “I learned so much just by doing and solving the little issues I didn't anticipate. And then working with a team that brings different work and perspectives opened up new ideas I could have never reached on my own.”

It was knowledge-sharing in its most dynamic form — from conceptual to practical, and peer-driven — the kind of cross-pollination that defines successful research collaborations.

Applying AI in Physics (and Physics in AI)

The four core lectures explored frontier themes: Interactive Decision Making, Physics-Guided Optimization, Computing with Neural Manifolds, and Domain Shift. Each could have been its own seminar series, but instead, students were tasked with applying these ideas to their own work in real time.

Mayall 4-Meter Telescope, home to the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), at Kitt Peak National Observatory. (Credit: DESI)

The hackathons made this translation tangible. One project applied topological data analysis to cosmological data from the DESI survey, a clear use case of AI for physics. Another project focused on latent space dynamics, using physics-derived insights to improve domain adaptation in AI — physics for AI.

This two-way traffic of ideas moving freely between disciplines is what defines the emerging field of AI + Physics. It also mirrors the kind of exchange we foster through the FirstPrinciples AI Physicist Slack community, where scientists and AI researchers connect in a shared space for conversation and collaboration at the intersection of AI and physics.

Designing a Collaborative Culture for Global Science Teams

Much of the Summer School’s success came from the intentional architecture of collaboration. Students were encouraged to form teams based on shared interests, not shared institutions. Virtual and in-person attendees interacted on equal footing through shared Slack channels and digital workspaces.

Meals were shared, socials were hosted, and a fully remote hackathon team — many meeting for the first time online — won the Best Team Effort award, as voted by their peers.

This culture doesn’t just enable better projects; it seeds long-term collaborations. From previous cohorts, hackathon projects have grown into co-authored papers that turned into spotlight presentations at ICLR 2025. Some alumni are now IAIFI Postdoctoral Fellows, helping guide the very program that launched them.

NSF IAIFI Fusion Background. (Credit: IAIFI)

The Rise of the ‘Centaur Scientist’ in AI and Physics Research

As IAIFI Managing Director Marisa LaFleur put it, the next generation of scientists will be fluent in multiple intellectual languages. These aren’t just physicists who know Python or engineers who took a course in quantum mechanics — they are “centaur scientists” — hybrid thinkers whose research identities are forged at the intersection of AI and physics.

The IAIFI Summer School doesn’t just teach methods; it cultivates that hybrid identity, helping legitimize AI + Physics as a research domain in its own right, rather than a convenient marriage of techniques.

Why Interdisciplinary Science Needs Shared Spaces to Thrive

Initiatives like the IAIFI Summer School demonstrate a simple but profound truth: breakthroughs often begin with conversation. And conversation requires shared spaces — intellectual, institutional, and interpersonal.

Adaptation of the NSF IAIFI Logo

This is why FirstPrinciples invests so deeply in the community. Our goal is not just to document how AI is changing science, but to help shape how science is done in an AI-powered world — with transparency, curiosity, and collaborative intelligence.

As science becomes more complex, the response cannot be isolation. It must be synthesis.

And if the IAIFI Summer School is any indication, the future belongs to those who can build and sustain that synthesis together.