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Training for Tomorrow

Friday, April 28, 2017
The First Cohort of LSSTC's DSFP, with U of A Student Auditors
The First Cohort of LSSTC's DSFP, with U of A Student Auditors

April 28, 2017 - The third session of the LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Program(DSFP), hosted jointly by NOAO and the University of Arizona, took place this week in Tucson. The Data Science Fellowship Program is a two-year training program supported primarily by the LSST Corporationthrough its Enabling Science Initiative, with additional contributions from Northwestern University. The program is designed to teach astronomy students essential skills that will prepare them to work with big data from LSST. It provides a valuable complement for current graduate programs in astronomy, which typically do not include data science coursework. The future of astronomy is inexorably linked to big data, so it’s critical that tomorrow’s astronomers develop skills to help them navigate the vast landscape of information produced by LSST.

This week’s session in Tucson focused specifically on databases and scalable programming. Now that the course is complete, participants will return to their graduate studies with new skills that will benefit themselves and their institutions. In the words of program director Lucianne Walkowicz, “While we can’t teach every student in astronomy, we are empowering our students not only to learn these skills, but to go out and teach their peers too.”

In return for hosting the DSFP on its campus, the University of Arizona was given the opportunity to select four students to audit this session. The students were chosen by U of A based on their interest in acquiring data science skills and the likelihood that they will apply these skills to their future studies. As a result of this course, U of A will boast its own core group of experts in the use of databases and parallel programming that enables analyses to scale to large datasets like those produced by LSST. Additionally, the students will have access to social media channels shared by DSFP students so they can continue to be part of the larger community of future LSST users.

The DSFP is especially grateful for Dara Norman's (NOAO) leadership in coordinating this week's session. For more details about the DSFP program, click here.

Financial support for Rubin Observatory comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Cooperative Agreement No. 1258333, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515, and private funding raised by the LSST Corporation. The NSF-funded Rubin Observatory Project Office for construction was established as an operating center under management of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA).  The DOE-funded effort to build the Rubin Observatory LSST Camera (LSSTCam) is managed by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC).
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.
NSF and DOE will continue to support Rubin Observatory in its Operations phase. They will also provide support for scientific research with LSST data.   




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