CMU becomes go-to place for machine learning in catalysis research

Many a middle school science teacher has dripped a few drops of potassium iodide into hydrogen peroxide and watched the delight of their students as a volcano of foam erupted from the container. This experiment is often the way young people first learn about catalysts as something that that can induce a chemical reaction. But catalysts can make more than foam. As those young people grow into young scientists, they learn that catalysis--the acceleration of a chemical reaction by a catalyst--is a key process in the creation of just about everything. From the plastics that make up our medical equipment, to the gasoline in our cars, to the paint that colors our homes--none of these could exist without catalysts.