ADACS astrocomp hack week

10 to 14 February 2020 - AAO, North Ryde, Sydney

About the astrocomp hack week

Img

View Schedule and Topics

In recent years hack weeks have become a popular way of introducing and teaching new data analysis methods to researchers and there are examples across many fields, including astronomy. Hack weeks have been shown to be an effective way of facilitating the exchange of knowledge, teaching new tools, and cultivating collaboration amongst researchers.[1]

Considering the success of similar events in the international astronomy community ADACS is organising an astro-computational hack week for February 10 to 14, 2020 at the AAO in Sydney.

Aside from structured tutorials in the mornings the astrocomp hack week will include unconference sessions, presentations, hack sessions (sprints) and participant led tutorials in the afternoons. As well as upskilling the participants the hack week aims to encourage collaboration and sharing of knowledge on astronomy tools, in particular useful Python packages, techniques and coding best practices.

The structured tutorials offered during the hack week will introduce good programming practices, scientific programming languages (e.g. Python and R), as well as tools and software applicable to astronomy research.
The unconference sessions and lightning talks will offer participants the opportunity to shape the content of the workshop and can be used for example to work through online tutorials in groups or present tips and tricks and new tools to the other participants.
And of course there will be plenty of time to work on a “hack project”, so come with something in mind or join another group. The hack sessions will allow you to put concepts learned during the morning sessions into practice and give you the space and time to implement that new idea/feature/concept/testing protocol/version control/….

The ADACS astrocomp hack week is inspired by the Python in Astronomy meeting[2], the SciCoder[3] workshop and of course the astrohackweek[4]. The content of the workshop is developed in collaboration with OzGrav, ASTRO 3D, and the ASVOs with input from the ASA ECR chapter and PhD students. See the SOC page for more info.

[1] “Hack weeks as a model for data science education and collaboration”, Daniela Huppenkothen, et al., PNAS September 4, 2018 115 (36) 8872-8877, https://www.pnas.org/content/115/36/8872
[2] Python in Astronomy meeting: http://openastronomy.org/pyastro/
[3] SciCoder: https://scicoder.org/
[4] astrohackweek: http://astrohackweek.org/2019/

Come along to the astrocomp hack week

An important aspect of the ADACS astrocomp hack week is the exchange of knowledge and collaboration between participants, to encourage this we aim to bring together a diverse group of participants.
To ensure a wide variety of attendees, we have put together an application form for the hack week. We will be using entrofy to select participants based on maximising diversity across skills, skills levels, gender/minority status, geographic location, career stage, and field of research.

Please submit your applications by 11.59pm AWST on Sunday 24 November to be considered for a place. If you would like to propose a talk or tutorial, please be prepared to submit a title and abstract as part of your application. Participant selection will be announced in early December. Due to the interactive nature of the workshop and space constraints we will cap attendance at a max of 40.
The registration is free for students and kept low-cost for researchers at $100. We have a limited number of travel grants available so please indicate during your application if you need financial assistance. Note that catering will be provided throughout the hack week.

Apply to Attend Applications are closed.