Science x AI Summit 2026 (UCLA)
October 16, 2026 · UCLA
Co-organized by SAIR Foundation, UCLA, UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, UCLA Samueli Computer Science, and UCLA Division of Physical Sciences.
The Science x AI Summit at UCLA is SAIR's Los Angeles convening, hosted in partnership with UCLA, where university research meets the builders, industry partners, and investors who turn it
into companies. It brings students, faculty, and the wider campus ecosystem together with capital, compute, and mentorship, and gathers UCLA, its neighboring institutions, and the LA
technology community in one place.
On October 16, the Summit brings scientists, builders, industry, and investors to campus for a day of keynotes, fireside chats, and panels on how frontier research becomes companies,
closing with a networking reception from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM. All times are Pacific Time (PDT). The same day as the Summit, the Center hosts the inaugural
AI Agent Gaming Competition, organized by the UCLA Trustworthy AI Lab, launching the
Center’s hands-on program with a live competition of autonomous agents across a range of gaming environments.
Agenda
Main Event
- 8:00 AM — Check-in & Networking
- 9:00 AM - 9:20 AM — Welcome Remarks — Chuck Ng (Co-Founder of SAIR Foundation) — Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park (UCLA) — Wei Wang (UCLA) — Guang Cheng (UCLA)
- 9:20 AM - 9:45 AM — Keynote — Yu Deng (Fields Medalist)
- 9:45 AM - 10:05 AM — Keynote — Prabhakar Raghavan (Chief Technologist at Google)
- 10:05 AM - 10:15 AM — Keynote: Introduction to the SAIR Prize — Barry Barish
- 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM — Keynote — Peter L. (Secretary General of SAIR Foundation)
- 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM — Keynote — Terence Tao (UCLA)
- 11:00 AM - 11:20 AM — Keynote — Mohammed Abouzaid (Professor of Mathematics, Stanford University)
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11:20 AM - 11:40 AM — Keynote: MIT, Nebius, UCLA: Lessons from a Founder's Full Circle — Presented by Nebius — Moderator: Jeffrey Chernick — Ryan Wang (Incoming Assistant Professor,
UCLA, Founder, Eigen AI (acquired by Nebius))
- 11:40 AM - 11:50 AM — Short Break
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11:50 AM - 12:20 PM — Panel Discussion: The Founder Playbook: What It Takes to Build an AI Company Today — Presented by DLA Piper — Moderator: Noah Crousore (Associate at DLA Piper,
Emerging Growth and Venture Capital) — Scott Clark (Founder & CEO of Talaria Scientific; former CEO of SigOpt (acquired by Intel)) — Deniz Kent (Prolific) — Enass Abo-Hamed MBE
(CertusAI) — Raj Singh (Purpose)
- 12:20 PM - 1:00 PM — Lunch
- 1:00 PM - 1:20 PM — Keynote — Patrick Soon-Shiong
- 1:20 PM - 1:40 PM — Keynote — Po-Shen Loh
- 1:40 PM - 2:00 PM — Keynote — Ben Fok
- 2:00 PM - 2:20 PM — Fireside Chat: Science at Google Scale — Host: Scott Clark — Yossi Matias (VP and Head of Google Research)
- 2:20 PM - 2:30 PM — Short Break
- 2:30 PM - 2:50 PM — Keynote — Andrea Bertozzi (Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, UCLA)
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2:50 PM - 3:30 PM — Panel: From Frontier Labs to the Research Bench: How Industry Is Building for Science — Moderator: Amit Gupta (Partner at SNR, Co-Founder of Frontier/1) — Fred Sala
(Chief Scientist at Snorkel AI, Assistant Professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison) — Ali Khademhosseini — Maxime Labonne (Liquid AI) — Bolei Zhou (UCLA,
Coco Robotics)
- 3:30 PM - 3:50 PM — Short Break
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3:50 PM - 4:10 PM — Fireside Chat: How a Trillion-Dollar Company Backs Research-Led Founders — Presented by Samsung Next — Chuck Ng (Co-Founder of SAIR Foundation) — David Lee (Samsung
Next)
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4:10 PM - 4:50 PM — Southern California's Moment: Universities, Capital, and the Region's AI Future — Presented by UBS — Moderator: Chuck Ng — Wei Wang (UCLA) — Gaurav Sukhatme (USC) —
Peter Atkinson (Dean of the College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences and Professor of Genetics, UC Riverside) — Tony Chou (International Private Wealth, UBS; Mayor of San Marino)
- 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM — Networking Reception — Sponsored by Talaria Scientific
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