diff --git a/.github/workflows/lint.yml b/.github/workflows/lint.yml
index d8802a8a..f6df8f1d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/lint.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/lint.yml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ jobs:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
       - name: Set up Python
-        uses: actions/setup-python@v4
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
         with:
           python-version: "3.11"
           cache: pip
diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yml b/.github/workflows/test.yml
index acaf8436..3f0c747f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yml
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
       - name: Set up Python
-        uses: actions/setup-python@v4
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
         with:
           python-version: 3.9
           cache: pip
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install dependencies
         run: |
           pip install cython
-          # install ase from main branch until FrechetCellFilter is release
+          # install ase from main branch until FrechetCellFilter is released
           # TODO remove pip install git+https://gitlab.com/ase/ase
           pip install git+https://gitlab.com/ase/ase
           python setup.py build_ext --inplace
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Check out repo
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
-      - uses: actions/setup-python@v4
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
         name: Install Python
         with:
           python-version: "3.10"
diff --git a/chgnet/model/composition_model.py b/chgnet/model/composition_model.py
index 7f2c2825..d9d6f544 100644
--- a/chgnet/model/composition_model.py
+++ b/chgnet/model/composition_model.py
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ def _get_energy(self, composition_feas: Tensor) -> Tensor:
             prediction associated with each composition [batchsize].
         """
         composition_feas = self.activation(self.fc1(composition_feas))
-        composition_feas = composition_feas + self.gated_mlp(composition_feas)
+        composition_feas += self.gated_mlp(composition_feas)
         return self.fc2(composition_feas).view(-1)
 
     def forward(self, graphs: list[CrystalGraph]) -> Tensor:
diff --git a/chgnet/model/dynamics.py b/chgnet/model/dynamics.py
index 95ea7c20..0e6f1fcf 100644
--- a/chgnet/model/dynamics.py
+++ b/chgnet/model/dynamics.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import contextlib
+import inspect
 import io
 import pickle
 import sys
@@ -10,7 +11,6 @@
 import torch
 from ase import Atoms, units
 from ase.calculators.calculator import Calculator, all_changes, all_properties
-from ase.filters import Filter, FrechetCellFilter
 from ase.md.npt import NPT
 from ase.md.nptberendsen import Inhomogeneous_NPTBerendsen, NPTBerendsen
 from ase.md.nvtberendsen import NVTBerendsen
@@ -33,6 +33,18 @@
     from ase.io import Trajectory
     from ase.optimize.optimize import Optimizer
 
+try:
+    from ase.filters import Filter, FrechetCellFilter
+except ImportError:
+    print(
+        "We recommend using ase's unreleased FrechetCellFilter over ExpCellFilter for "
+        "CHGNet structural relaxation. ExpCellFilter has a bug in its calculation "
+        "of cell gradients which was fixed in FrechetCellFilter. Otherwise the two "
+        "are identical. ExpCellFilter was kept only for backwards compatibility and "
+        "should no longer be used. Run pip install git+https://gitlab.com/ase/ase to "
+        "install from main branch."
+    )
+
 # We would like to thank M3GNet develop team for this module
 # source: https://github.com/materialsvirtuallab/m3gnet
 
@@ -211,7 +223,7 @@ def relax(
         fmax: float | None = 0.1,
         steps: int | None = 500,
         relax_cell: bool | None = True,
-        ase_filter: Filter = FrechetCellFilter,
+        ase_filter: str | Filter = FrechetCellFilter,
         save_path: str | None = None,
         loginterval: int | None = 1,
         crystal_feas_save_path: str | None = None,
@@ -228,8 +240,8 @@ def relax(
                 Default = 500
             relax_cell (bool | None): Whether to relax the cell as well.
                 Default = True
-            ase_filter (ase.filters.Filter): The filter to apply to the atoms object
-                for relaxation. Default = FrechetCellFilter
+            ase_filter (str | ase.filters.Filter): The filter to apply to the atoms
+                object for relaxation. Default = FrechetCellFilter
                 Used to default to ExpCellFilter but was removed due to bug reported in
                 https://gitlab.com/ase/ase/-/issues/1321 and fixed in
                 https://gitlab.com/ase/ase/-/merge_requests/3024.
@@ -248,6 +260,20 @@ def relax(
             dict[str, Structure | TrajectoryObserver]:
                 A dictionary with 'final_structure' and 'trajectory'.
         """
+        if isinstance(ase_filter, str):
+            try:
+                import ase.filters
+
+                ase_filter = getattr(ase.filters, ase_filter)
+            except AttributeError as exc:
+                valid_filter_names = [
+                    name
+                    for name, cls in inspect.getmembers(ase.filters, inspect.isclass)
+                    if issubclass(cls, Filter)
+                ]
+                raise ValueError(
+                    f"Invalid {ase_filter=}, must be one of {valid_filter_names}. "
+                ) from exc
         if isinstance(atoms, Structure):
             atoms = atoms.to_ase_atoms()
 
diff --git a/chgnet/model/layers.py b/chgnet/model/layers.py
index f087ecc4..725bba5e 100644
--- a/chgnet/model/layers.py
+++ b/chgnet/model/layers.py
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ def forward(
 
         # smooth out message by bond_weights
         bond_weight = torch.index_select(bond_weights, 0, directed2undirected)
-        messages = messages * bond_weight
+        messages *= bond_weight
 
         # Aggregate messages
         new_atom_feas = aggregate(
diff --git a/chgnet/model/model.py b/chgnet/model/model.py
index e337c9d7..537a380d 100644
--- a/chgnet/model/model.py
+++ b/chgnet/model/model.py
@@ -521,7 +521,7 @@ def _compute(
 
         # Normalize energy if model is intensive
         if self.is_intensive:
-            energy = energy / atoms_per_graph
+            energy /= atoms_per_graph
         prediction["e"] = energy
 
         return prediction
diff --git a/examples/basics.ipynb b/examples/basics.ipynb
index cb348136..cedde93b 100644
--- a/examples/basics.ipynb
+++ b/examples/basics.ipynb
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
     "    from chgnet.model import CHGNet\n",
     "except ImportError:\n",
     "    # install CHGNet (only needed on Google Colab or if you didn't install CHGNet yet)\n",
-    "    !pip install chgnet\n"
+    "    !pip install chgnet"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
     "# If the above line fails in Google Colab due to numpy version issue,\n",
     "# please restart the runtime, and the problem will be solved\n",
     "\n",
-    "np.set_printoptions(precision=4, suppress=True)\n"
+    "np.set_printoptions(precision=4, suppress=True)"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@
     "    cif = urlopen(url).read().decode(\"utf-8\")\n",
     "    structure = Structure.from_str(cif, fmt=\"cif\")\n",
     "\n",
-    "print(structure)\n"
+    "print(structure)"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@
      "name": "stdout",
      "output_type": "stream",
      "text": [
-      "CHGNet initialized with 400,438 parameters\n"
+      "CHGNet v0.3.0 initialized with 412,525 parameters\n"
      ]
     }
    ],
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@
     "chgnet = CHGNet.load()\n",
     "\n",
     "# Alternatively you can read your own model\n",
-    "# chgnet = CHGNet.from_file(model_path)\n"
+    "# chgnet = CHGNet.from_file(model_path)"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@
     "    (\"stress\", \"GPa\"),\n",
     "    (\"magmom\", \"mu_B\"),\n",
     "]:\n",
-    "    print(f\"CHGNet-predicted {key} ({unit}):\\n{prediction[key[0]]}\\n\")\n"
+    "    print(f\"CHGNet-predicted {key} ({unit}):\\n{prediction[key[0]]}\\n\")"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@
      "name": "stdout",
      "output_type": "stream",
      "text": [
-      "CHGNet initialized with 400,438 parameters\n",
+      "CHGNet v0.3.0 initialized with 412,525 parameters\n",
       "CHGNet will run on cpu\n"
      ]
     }
@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@
    "source": [
     "from chgnet.model import StructOptimizer\n",
     "\n",
-    "relaxer = StructOptimizer()\n"
+    "relaxer = StructOptimizer()"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -219,31 +219,53 @@
      "output_type": "stream",
      "text": [
       "\n",
-      "CHGNet took 29 steps. Relaxed structure:\n",
+      "FrechetCellFilter took 49 steps. Relaxed structure:\n",
+      "\n",
+      "Full Formula (Li2 Mn2 O4)\n",
+      "Reduced Formula: LiMnO2\n",
+      "abc   :   2.876179   4.609830   5.862965\n",
+      "angles:  89.863012  89.706707  89.946402\n",
+      "pbc   :       True       True       True\n",
+      "Sites (8)\n",
+      "  #  SP           a         b         c      magmom\n",
+      "---  ----  --------  --------  --------  ----------\n",
+      "  0  Li+   0.481659  0.517177  0.377268  0.00253999\n",
+      "  1  Li+   0.012506  0.04361   0.611305  0.00241017\n",
+      "  2  Mn3+  0.508999  0.531361  0.860983  3.88035\n",
+      "  3  Mn3+  1.00639   0.032734  0.130496  3.87339\n",
+      "  4  O2-   0.506676  0.039479  0.353671  0.0450131\n",
+      "  5  O2-   0.009236  0.531155  0.094449  0.0397426\n",
+      "  6  O2-   0.503994  0.029776  0.896556  0.0407182\n",
+      "  7  O2-   0.009769  0.521232  0.636952  0.0473042\n",
+      "\n",
+      "ExpCellFilter took 83 steps. Relaxed structure:\n",
+      "\n",
       "Full Formula (Li2 Mn2 O4)\n",
       "Reduced Formula: LiMnO2\n",
-      "abc   :   2.865864   4.648716   5.827764\n",
-      "angles:  89.917211  90.239405  89.975425\n",
+      "abc   :   2.874395   4.611958   5.852410\n",
+      "angles:  89.943237  89.910969  89.994579\n",
       "pbc   :       True       True       True\n",
       "Sites (8)\n",
-      "  #  SP            a          b         c      magmom\n",
-      "---  ----  ---------  ---------  --------  ----------\n",
-      "  0  Li+    0.494018   0.479737  0.387171  0.00498427\n",
-      "  1  Li+    0.008464   0.006131  0.625817  0.00512926\n",
-      "  2  Mn3+   0.50073    0.502478  0.869608  3.85374\n",
-      "  3  Mn3+   0.997815  -0.000319  0.139344  3.859\n",
-      "  4  O2-    0.502142   0.009453  0.363411  0.0253105\n",
-      "  5  O2-    1.00293    0.502592  0.104559  0.0366638\n",
-      "  6  O2-    0.493749   0.998092  0.903592  0.0365367\n",
-      "  7  O2-   -0.002278   0.495108  0.645655  0.0248522\n"
+      "  #  SP           a         b         c      magmom\n",
+      "---  ----  --------  --------  --------  ----------\n",
+      "  0  Li+   0.474099  0.522936  0.375014  0.00291404\n",
+      "  1  Li+   0.007464  0.033067  0.61184   0.00261617\n",
+      "  2  Mn3+  0.512206  0.531325  0.861133  3.87057\n",
+      "  3  Mn3+  1.00718   0.030874  0.130145  3.86706\n",
+      "  4  O2-   0.504485  0.035636  0.353984  0.0443497\n",
+      "  5  O2-   0.010645  0.532059  0.095251  0.0381828\n",
+      "  6  O2-   0.510762  0.030743  0.896625  0.0382355\n",
+      "  7  O2-   0.012389  0.529884  0.637688  0.0455911\n"
      ]
     }
    ],
    "source": [
     "structure.perturb(0.1)\n",
-    "result = relaxer.relax(structure, verbose=False)\n",
-    "print(f\"\\nCHGNet took {len(result['trajectory'])} steps. Relaxed structure:\")\n",
-    "print(result[\"final_structure\"])\n"
+    "for ase_filter in (\"FrechetCellFilter\", \"ExpCellFilter\"):\n",
+    "    result = relaxer.relax(structure, verbose=False, ase_filter=ase_filter)\n",
+    "    n_steps = len(result[\"trajectory\"])\n",
+    "    print(f\"\\n{ase_filter} took {n_steps} steps. Relaxed structure:\\n\")\n",
+    "    print(result[\"final_structure\"])"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -289,7 +311,7 @@
     "    logfile=\"md_out.log\",\n",
     "    loginterval=100,\n",
     ")\n",
-    "md.run(50)  # run a 0.1 ps MD simulation\n"
+    "md.run(50)  # run a 0.1 ps MD simulation"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -316,7 +338,7 @@
    ],
    "source": [
     "supercell = structure.make_supercell([2, 2, 2], in_place=False)\n",
-    "print(supercell.composition)\n"
+    "print(supercell.composition)"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -340,7 +362,7 @@
     "remove_ids = random.sample(list(range(n_Li)), n_Li // 2)\n",
     "\n",
     "supercell.remove_sites(remove_ids)\n",
-    "print(supercell.composition)\n"
+    "print(supercell.composition)"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -756,7 +778,7 @@
     }
    ],
    "source": [
-    "result = relaxer.relax(supercell)\n"
+    "result = relaxer.relax(supercell)"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -769,7 +791,7 @@
     "import pandas as pd\n",
     "\n",
     "df_magmom = pd.DataFrame({\"Unrelaxed\": chgnet.predict_structure(supercell)[\"m\"]})\n",
-    "df_magmom[\"CHGNet relaxed\"] = result[\"final_structure\"].site_properties[\"magmom\"]\n"
+    "df_magmom[\"CHGNet relaxed\"] = result[\"final_structure\"].site_properties[\"magmom\"]"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -1820,7 +1842,7 @@
     ")\n",
     "fig.layout.legend.update(title=\"\", x=1, y=1, xanchor=\"right\", yanchor=\"top\")\n",
     "fig.layout.xaxis.title = \"Magnetic moment\"\n",
-    "fig.show()\n"
+    "fig.show()"
    ]
   }
  ],