Search for: All records

AbstractComputational methods and machine learning (ML) are reshaping materials science by accelerating their discovery, design, and optimization. Traditional approaches such as density functional theory and molecular dynamics have been instrumental in studying materials at the atomic level. However, their high computational cost and, in certain cases, limited accuracy can restrict the scope ofin silicoexploration. ML promises to accelerate material property prediction and design. However, in many areas, the volume and fidelity of the data are critical barriers. Active learning can reduce the reliance on large data sets, and simulation has emerged as a critical tool for generating data on the fly. Despite these advances, challenges remain, particularly in data quality, model interpretability, and bridging the gap between computational predictions and experimental validation. Future research should develop automated frameworks capable of designing and testing materials for specific applications, and integrating ML with traditional simulations and experiments can contribute to this goal. Graphic abstract 

Graph rationales are representative subgraph structures that best explain and support the graph neural network (GNN) predictions. Graph rationalization involves the joint identification of these subgraphs during GNN training, resulting in improved interpretability and generalization. GNN is widely used for node-level tasks such as paper classification and graph-level tasks such as molecular property prediction. However, on both levels, little attention has been given to GNN rationalization and the lack of training examples makes it difficult to identify the optimal graph rationales. In this work, we address the problem by proposing a unified data augmentation framework with two novel operations on environment subgraphs to rationalize GNN prediction. We define the environment subgraph as the remaining subgraph after rationale identification and separation. The framework efficiently performs rationale–environment separation in therepresentation spacefor a node’s neighborhood graph or a graph’s complete structure to avoid the high complexity of explicit graph decoding and encoding. We conduct experiments on 17 datasets spanning node classification, graph classification, and graph regression. Results demonstrate that our framework is effective and efficient in rationalizing and enhancing GNNs for different levels of tasks on graphs.