Catie Cuan // Physical AI: Giving AI a Robot Body

Solve a real biology problem using the latest advances in AI! On November 14th in Berkeley, we’re bringing biologists, AI engineers and software builders together for DNAForge’s AI × Biology Hackathon, co-hosted with MTC Berkeley. Saturday, November 14th, 2026 9:00 AM–9:00 PM Pacific · Berkeley, CA About 100 participants Applications take under 5 minutes. Apply by October 25th for priority consideration. What you’ll get Tackle challenges in therapeutics, biosecurity or agricultural resilience with compute and scientific tools supported by our sponsors. Meet companies that are hiring and get in-person feedback from scientists, engineers and founders. Compete for $1,500+ in cash prizes, with sponsor credits and opportunities to commercialize selected projects. Challenges Therapeutics. Help researchers design, evaluate or deliver new treatments. Biosecurity. Build practical defenses for biological risks, laboratory safety and preparedness. Agricultural resilience. Work on healthier crops, stronger food systems and biological climate adaptation. Raycaster. Build AI research tools and evaluation environments using real, lightly redacted investigational new drug (IND) filings. Biobase — Find the Right Patients. A featured challenge within therapeutics focused on finding suitable patients and samples for clinical trials and biomarker research. Indicate your interest in the optional three-sentence application question. Who should apply Biology students, early-career scientists, wet-lab researchers, computational biologists, clinicians, agricultural scientists, AI researchers, software engineers and designers. Bring your biology expertise, engineering skills or both. Judges and mentors Ali Mottaghi — clinical AI Alex Telford — Convoke Sam Seymour — Biobase Roya Amini-Naieni — Trilobio Aqib Hasnain — Mithrl Ben Shababo — Modal Akira Nishii — GXL Bryan Tegomoh — physician-epidemiologist Sanat Mishra — BioStack Mariëlle van Kooten — Powerhouse Biology Colin Cook — XDemics Max K

Join us Tuesday, November 17 at 5:30 PM for a talk with Dawn Danby and David McConville, co-founders of Spherical, an integrative research and design studio working to regenerate the health and integrity of Earth’s living systems. Through design, research, and technology, Spherical explores how human systems are embedded within larger ecological, cultural, and planetary webs of relation, and how new forms of infrastructure might support reciprocal relationships with the living Earth. In this talk, Dawn and David will examine how climate action is often made politically viable through the language of infrastructure, and why that framing is both necessary and incomplete. Rather than treating infrastructure as a purely technical system, they will argue for a broader understanding that includes the nested scales, living relations, and more-than-human worlds that sustain life. Drawing on their work across ecological design, planetary systems, and media arts, they will explore how climate solutions demand new ways of seeing, mapping, and designing in relation to the Earth. Attendees will be invited to rethink infrastructure not simply as built form, but as a living scaffold for reciprocal care, repair, and transformation. This talk is open to the public and is for designers, researchers, students, and anyone interested in climate, systems thinking, and the role of design in shaping more livable futures. .................... Design Field Notes is a lecture series where we invite the public to the UC Berkeley campus for conversations with designers, makers and artists who are contributing to shaping the future through design. If you require accommodation for a disability for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about campus mobility access features in order to fully participate in this event, please contact Jacobs Institute staff at jacobsinstitute@berkeley.edu with as much advance notice as possible an