DScribe is a software package for machine learning that provides popular feature transformations ("descriptors") for atomistic materials simulations. DScribe accelerates the application of machine learning for atomistic property prediction by providing user-friendly, off-the-shelf descriptor implementations. The package currently contains implementations for Coulomb matrix, Ewald sum matrix, sine matrix, Many-body Tensor Representation (MBTR), Atom-centered Symmetry Function (ACSF) and Smooth Overlap of Atomic Positions (SOAP). Usage of the package is illustrated for two different applications: formation energy prediction for solids and ionic charge prediction for atoms in organic molecules. The package is freely available under the open-source Apache License 2.0.

Data‐driven science is heralded as a new paradigm in materials science. In this field, data is the new resource, and knowledge is extracted from materials datasets that are too big or complex for traditional human reasoning—typically with the intent to discover new or improved materials or materials phenomena. Multiple factors, including the open science movement, national funding, and progress in information technology, have fueled its development. Such related tools as materials databases, machine learning, and high‐throughput methods are now established as parts of the materials research toolset. However, there are a variety of challenges that impede progress in data‐driven materials science: data veracity, integration of experimental and computational data, data longevity, standardization, and the gap between industrial interests and academic efforts. In this perspective article, the historical development and current state of data‐driven materials science, building from the early evolution of open science to the rapid expansion of materials data infrastructures are discussed. Key successes and challenges so far are also reviewed, providing a perspective on the future development of the field.

Catalytic activity of the hydrogen evolution reaction on nanoclusters depends on diverse adsorption site structures. Machine learning reduces the cost for modelling those sites with the aid of descriptors. We analysed the performance of state-of-the-art structural descriptors Smooth Overlap of Atomic Positions, Many-Body Tensor Representation and Atom-Centered Symmetry Functions while predicting the hydrogen adsorption (free) energy on the surface of nanoclusters. The 2D-material molybdenum disulphide and the alloy copper-gold functioned as test systems. Potential energy scans of hydrogen on the cluster surfaces were conducted to compare the accuracy of the descriptors in kernel ridge regression. By having recourse to data sets of 91 molybdenum disulphide clusters and 24 copper-gold clusters, we found that the mean absolute error could be reduced by machine learning on different clusters simultaneously rather than separately. The adsorption energy was explained by the local descriptor Smooth Overlap of Atomic Positions, combining it with the global descriptor Many-Body Tensor Representation did not improve the overall accuracy. We concluded that fitting of potential energy surfaces could be reduced significantly by merging data from different nanoclusters.

Instant machine learning predictions of molecular properties are desirable for materials design, but the predictive power of the methodology is mainly tested on well-known benchmark datasets. Here, we investigate the performance of machine learning with kernel ridge regression (KRR) for the prediction of molecular orbital energies on three large datasets: the standard QM9 small organic molecules set, amino acid and dipeptide conformers, and organic crystal-forming molecules extracted from the Cambridge Structural Database. We focus on prediction of highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energies, computed at density-functional level of theory. Two different representations that encode molecular structure are compared: the Coulomb matrix (CM) and the many-body tensor representation (MBTR). We find that KRR performance depends significantly on the chemistry of the underlying dataset and that the MBTR is superior to the CM, predicting HOMO energies with a mean absolute error as low as 0.09 eV. To demonstrate the power of our machine learning method, we apply our model to structures of 10k previously unseen molecules. We gain instant energy predictions that allow us to identify interesting molecules for future applications.

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