Materials & AI · glossary

Materials and AI glossary

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The examples explain the concept. For actual research results, see AI in materials에서 원문과 함께 확인하세요. 엄선한 용어 86개에는 Colab에서 바로 돌려볼 수 있는 실습 노트북이 있습니다. “AI 자동 추가” 표시가 붙은 용어는 새 이슈를 수집할 때 자동으로 추가된 것으로, 아직 사람이 검토하지 않았고 실습 노트북이 없습니다. 노트북의 데이터는 개념 확인용으로 생성한 값이며 실제 측정값이 아닙니다.

Models and algorithms · added by AI

Diffractive Neural Network · D2NN

Diffractive Neural Network · D2NN

A neural network that physically implements neural-network operations by using diffraction and interference of light. The propagation process itself acts like a computational layer, and the parameters of the optical structure are optimized through training.

In materials terms

In an optical classifier using metasurfaces, a diffractive neural network directly processes the input image.

Edge-enhanced diffractive neural networks based on spin-multiplexed nonlocal metasurfaces ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Equivariant Graph Neural Network

Equivariant Graph Neural Network

A graph neural network whose output changes according to the corresponding transformation law when a specific symmetry transformation is applied to the input structure. It is suitable for predicting molecular and crystal structures by reflecting physical symmetries such as rotation and translation.

In materials terms

An equivariant graph neural network is used when predicting charge density or forces while preserving the rotational symmetry of a crystal structure.

Efficient equivariant framework for universal charge density prediction | Nature Machine Intelligence ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Contrastive Learning

Contrastive Learning

A method that learns representations by bringing similar samples closer together and pushing different samples farther apart. It is often used to build embeddings that capture structural relationships well even when labels are scarce or unavailable.

In materials terms

It learns material representations by aligning crystal structures and text descriptions close to each other in the same space.

Giving AI a “crystal clear” view of the materials world | MIT Energy Initiative ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Machine Learning Regression

Machine Learning Regression

A supervised learning method that learns a function between input variables and target values in order to predict continuous values. Unlike classification, its goal is to match the magnitude of the value itself.

In materials terms

It is used when predicting continuous properties such as band gap from composition or structural features.

Bio-Inspired Crystal Machine Learning for Band Gap Prediction in Hybrid Halide Perovskite Monolayers ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Domain Adaptation

Domain Adaptation

A technique that adapts a model trained in one environment to a target domain with a different distribution or conditions. The key is to reduce the distribution gap between the source domain and the target domain.

In materials terms

It is used when a defect detection model trained in laboratory A is calibrated to field data from a different process condition.

On-Device AI Against Scams: Google DeepMind & MDDI — Google DeepMind ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Joint Generation

Joint Generation

A method in which two or more interrelated representations or target variables are created simultaneously in a single generation process. It can reflect the structural correlations among the variables together.

In materials terms

Crystal structures and local electronic descriptors can be jointly generated to design candidate materials.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41524-026-02328-y ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Line Graph Neural Network

Line Graph Neural Network

A graph neural network that learns by converting edge relationships in a graph back into nodes. It can express relational information more directly in materials-property problems where linear connectivity structures such as atom-bond-angle are important.

In materials terms

A Line Graph Neural Network can be used to predict electronic structure by reflecting bond-angle information in a crystal structure.

High-throughput screening of Heusler alloys for thermoelectrics combining machine-learned densities of states and first-principles transport ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

LoRA · Low-Rank Adaptation

LoRA · Low-Rank Adaptation

LoRA · Low-Rank Adaptation is a fine-tuning technique that learns only a small number of parameters by adding low-rank matrices instead of directly changing the weights of a large model significantly. It can perform domain adaptation while reducing computational cost and memory usage.

In materials terms

When adapting an existing MLIP with a small amount of materials data, LoRA can be used to lower the training burden.

Targeted fine-tuning of machine-learning interatomic potentials for phonons and phase transitions | npj Computational Materials ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Multi-head Fine-tuning

Multi-head Fine-tuning

Multi-head Fine-tuning is a method that places multiple output heads on top of a single shared backbone and fine-tunes the model to learn different prediction tasks or material properties simultaneously. It can leverage both shared knowledge across tasks and specialized predictions.

In materials terms

Multi-head Fine-tuning can be applied so that phonons and thermal and elastic properties are predicted together in the same ML potential.

Targeted fine-tuning of machine-learning interatomic potentials for phonons and phase transitions | npj Computational Materials ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Recursive Feature Elimination · RFE

Recursive Feature Elimination · RFE

This is a feature selection method that repeatedly removes features with low contribution to model performance, leaving only the important variables. It is often used to improve both training performance and interpretability.

In materials terms

When there are many candidate composition descriptors, Recursive Feature Elimination can be used to retain only the key variables.

Physics‐Guided Active Learning Enables Energy‐Filtering Flexible Thermoelectric Composites for Self‐Powered Wound Bioelectronics - Hu - Advanced Materials - Wil ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Combinatorial Optimization

Combinatorial Optimization

A field that deals with problems of optimizing an objective function among combinations of finite or discrete choices. Because the number of candidates can be very large, approximate solutions or heuristics are often used instead of exact search.

In materials terms

A problem of finding the most stable combination among candidate structures can be viewed as Combinatorial Optimization.

Large language models discover complementary heuristics for combinatorial optimization | Nature Machine Intelligence ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Heuristic

Heuristic

An empirical rule or search strategy used to solve a complex problem quickly. It does not guarantee an optimal solution, but it is useful for reducing computational cost and efficiently finding a good solution.

In materials terms

When exploring a broad composition space, a Heuristic is used to select promising candidates first.

Large language models discover complementary heuristics for combinatorial optimization | Nature Machine Intelligence ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Conditioning

Conditioning

A method that adds auxiliary information to a model input and adjusts the prediction or generation process according to that information. It is useful when reflecting contextual information such as metadata, environmental variables, or system characteristics.

In materials terms

By conditioning a catalytic atomistic potential on system metadata, different reaction systems can be distinguished.

AQCat25: unlocking spin-aware, high-fidelity machine learning potentials for heterogeneous catalysis | npj Computational Materials ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Support Vector Regression · SVR

Support Vector Regression · SVR

Support Vector Regression · SVR is a method that extends support vector machines to regression problems, controlling the complexity of the prediction function while allowing errors within a certain range. Nonlinear relationships can be expressed through kernel functions.

In materials terms

In spectroscopic property prediction, support vector regression can be used to model nonlinear relationships in small datasets.

Machine learning-enabled prediction and interpretation of spectroscopic properties in Nd and Y co-doped fluorite platform via local coordination engineering | n ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Flow Matching

Flow Matching

A generative modeling method that directly learns a continuous vector field or flow toward the data distribution. It focuses on matching the transformation path itself rather than on stochastic noise reversal.

In materials terms

In generative crystal structure prediction, it appears when candidate structures are generated by learning a structural vector field.

Deep Generative Crystal Structure Prediction: A Benchmark Study and a Controlled Test of Prototype Dependence ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Equivariance

Equivariance

It is the property that, when a transformation is applied to an input, the output changes in a corresponding way as well. It is an important concept when reflecting symmetry in a model.

In materials terms

An equivariance model is used in which, when a molecular structure is rotated, the predicted force vector also rotates in the same way.

OMC-bench and AtomBit-OMC: task-aligned benchmarks and robust, interpretable machine-learned interatomic potentials for organic molecular crystals | npj Computa ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Singular Value Decomposition · SVD

Singular Value Decomposition · SVD

A linear algebra technique that decomposes an arbitrary matrix into the product of orthogonal matrices and a diagonal matrix. It is often used to separate the main structure of data into low-dimensional components or to construct matrix approximations.

In materials terms

The weight matrix of an LLM can be decomposed by singular value decomposition to perform a low-rank approximation and fine-tuning initialization.

Memristive singular value decomposition | Nature Communications ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Latent Space

Latent Space

Latent space is a space in which high-dimensional data are compressed and represented in a lower-dimensional continuous space. It is used in generative models and embeddings to handle the hidden structure of data.

In materials terms

Exploring catalyst candidates in latent space can continuously suggest new composition combinations.

Quantum-inspired inverse design of heterogeneous catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction | npj Computational Materials ↗
Models and algorithms · added by AI

Orthogonal Transformation

Orthogonal Transformation

An orthogonal transformation is a linear transformation that preserves vector length and angle. It includes rotations and reflections, and is used to change representation while maintaining geometric structure in numerical settings.

In materials terms

Orthogonal transformation can be used when transforming candidate material representations while preserving the structure of latent space.

Quantum-inspired inverse design of heterogeneous catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction | npj Computational Materials ↗