India, Nov. 8 -- Two IIT Madras alumni have launched a $1 million prize challenge to solve five longstanding problems in materials science, with the aim of accelerating scientific discoveries using artificial intelligence.

(Also read: IIT Madras director walks into student mess during dinner in viral video, announces key achievement)

Advaith Sridhar and Akash Ramdas, who met more than a decade ago at IIT Madras, co-founded Discovered Materials, a San Francisco-based startup developing AI-powered methods to discover new materials for semiconductor chips, according to the company's official website.

As reported by TechCrunch on November 5, the startup, which participated in Y Combinator's spring 2026 batch, has enlisted academics from le...