Labs

Seven disciplines. One practice of careful work.

A lab is a question patient enough to be pursued for years, and the fellows willing to pursue it. Each lab maintains a list of open problems — where we think a well-posed attempt could move the frontier.

Lab 01

AI & Machine Learning

What if the data built the network?

A new paradigm for neural architecture — Reverse Synthetic Neural Networks that construct models directly from data patterns, without gradient descent, backpropagation, or GPU training. From zero-training synthesis to interpretable, efficient intelligence.

Open problems
  • 01Zero-training synthesis of transformer architectures from observed data
  • 02Reverse Synthetic Neural Networks for resource-constrained and edge deployment
  • 03Closed-form alternatives to iterative optimization in deep learning
Lab 02

Defense Systems

AI that holds when the link doesn't.

Edge-resident, link-survivable, auditable AI for the sovereign defence of the realm — recognition, anomaly and network-structure analysis that run on the device itself, offline, and explain why. Built on the RSN line so a model can be re-tuned in the field with no GPU and no cloud, and every call is one a human can audit. It is the research substrate beneath अभेद्य (Abhedya).

Open problems
  • 01Field-adaptive recognition that re-tunes to a new theatre in seconds, training-free, on edge hardware
  • 02On-device CDR / tower-dump network-structure typing — honest about the limit that structure is not intent
  • 03Cadence-biometric access control with no cloud and no enrolled secret to steal
  • 04GPS-denied and link-denied operation: intelligence that survives a contested electromagnetic environment
Lab 03

Stochastic Computing

Computing with probability as the primitive.

Hardware and algorithms in which randomness is not noise to suppress but the substrate itself — for ultra-low-power inference and neuromorphic systems.

Open problems
  • 01Noise-native inference on edge hardware
  • 02Stochastic primitives for probabilistic programming
  • 03Energy-proportional computing for always-on sensing
Lab 04

Market Computation

Markets as computational substrates.

Market microstructure, microdynamics, and the theory of financial markets as programmable computational systems — for asset management, risk inference, and the science of economic computation.

Open problems
  • 01Universal computation via orderbook microstructure dynamics
  • 02Adversarial amplification and the benefit of selfish agents
  • 03Non-custodial portfolio construction through market-native algorithms
Lab 05

Blockchain Technology

Proof of origin that survives transformation.

Cryptographic provenance for intellectual property of any kind. On-chain timestamping today only proves that one exact file existed at a moment in time — it breaks the instant a work is paraphrased, reformatted, translated, or remixed by a model, and it forces you to reveal the work in order to register it. We work on the unsolved version: provenance that is invariant to semantic-preserving transformation, and that can be proven in zero knowledge — letting a creator register a work and later establish priority or trace derivation without ever revealing the work itself. It is the research substrate beneath ठप्पा (Ṭhappā).

Open problems
  • 01Transformation-invariant fingerprints — provenance that survives paraphrase, re-encoding, translation, and AI remixing
  • 02Zero-knowledge proofs of priority and derivation that never disclose the protected work
  • 03On-chain verifiable similarity — proving a later work is, or is not, derived from a registered original
Lab 06

Astronomy

A uniform standard of evidence for other worlds.

Statistical inference over sparse, noisy, high-dimensional observations of the universe — and, at the lab's leading edge, a single standard of evidence for exoplanet atmospheres. We build machine-accelerated Bayesian retrieval that turns the public JWST archive into reproducible, preregistered verdicts on contested biosignature claims. It is the research substrate beneath व्योम (Vyom).

Open problems
  • 01Amortized neural posterior estimation for atmospheric retrieval at archive scale
  • 02Calibrated abiotic-null tests for contested biosignature claims (DMS, CH₄/CO₂ disequilibrium)
  • 03Stellar-contamination and reduction-systematics modeling for M-dwarf transmission spectra
Lab 07

Intelligent Machines

The brain for the next robot.

The control intelligence for new-age robotics — built, not trained. We use Reverse Synthetic Neural Networks to compile a model for each robotic capability directly from human motion, with no GPU training: a library of drop-in skills — grasp and hand articulation, bipedal gait and balance, gaze and facial/mouth actuation — that run on the robot itself, in real time, at the edge. A small team can own a capability end-to-end, and each capability is independently and commercially valuable.

Open problems
  • 01Pre-synthesized RSN neuron libraries that compile a control model for each robotic capability — hand/grasp articulation, bipedal gait and balance, gaze and mouth/facial actuation — directly from human motion capture, without gradient training
  • 02Closed-form motor-primitive synthesis: human-like movement learned from a handful of demonstrations, with no reinforcement-learning rollouts
  • 03Real-time, on-device inference for actuator control on low-power robot hardware — no datacentre in the loop
  • 04A portable capability marketplace: drop-in skill models (walk, grasp, speak) that transfer across robot chassis
Lab 08

Computational Biology

From sequence to therapy.

Modeling the machinery of living systems at scale — protein dynamics, regulatory networks, and the interpretable biology of disease.

Open problems
  • 01Generalizable models of cellular perturbation response
  • 02Interpretable structure prediction for intrinsically disordered proteins
  • 03Low-data regimes in rare-disease therapeutics
Lab 09

Quantum Computation

Useful computation before fault tolerance.

Algorithms and error-mitigation techniques for the NISQ era, and the theoretical frontier of what quantum advantage actually means outside cryptography.

Open problems
  • 01Practical benchmarks for near-term quantum advantage
  • 02Hybrid classical-quantum optimization at scale
  • 03Error mitigation without full error correction
A new lab

Bring a question we don't yet have a home for.

The shape of the commons is not fixed. A fellow with a sharply posed discipline-defining question can propose a new lab. Tell us what it is.

Propose a lab