Please note that workshop participation is only available for registrants. One can't register for workshop only.

AAS Astronomy Ambassadors Workshop: Resources and Techniques for Effective Outreach
Saturday, 8 Jan | 8:30 AM – 5:30 PM
Sunday, 9 Jan | 8:30 AM – 5:30 PM

We invite graduate students, postdocs, and new faculty, as well as advanced undergraduates, to join the AAS Astronomy Ambassadors program, established to support early-career AAS members interested in doing outreach to K-12 students, families, and the general public. The program is offering a two-day workshop at the 239th AAS meeting in Salt Lake City, during which you will: * Improve your ability to communicate your research specifically, and the science of astronomy in general, to public audiences. * Increase your ability to use feedback tactics to understand your audience and adjust your presentation based on the response to the feedback received. * Enhance your ability to determine what your audience needs and knows. * Increase your confidence in establishing ongoing community partnerships. * Increase your awareness of resources to help you with your outreach efforts. * Connect you with a network of peers and mentors who share a similar interest in effective public outreach. * Learn strategies and techniques to improve your presentation skills. The workshop includes presenters from the American Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and the Institute for Learning Innovation. Early-career astronomers who are interested in doing outreach, but who haven't done much yet, are encouraged to apply; we will have sessions appropriate for both those who have done some outreach already and those just starting their outreach adventures. We especially want to encourage the participation of members of groups that are underrepresented in science. If you're interested and are not yet a member of the AAS, you may submit a membership application at the same time you apply for the workshop and register for the meeting. Note that if you check the box for the AAS Astronomy Ambassadors workshop when you register, you will be sent a link to the application form and must complete the application form separately from and in addition to your registration form.

Registration Fee: $0

 

Foundations of Astronomical Data Science
Saturday, 8 Jan | 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Sunday, 9 Jan | 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

As the astronomical community moves into an era of big data, the paradigm of data processing is changing. We are transitioning from local end-to-end data processing (from taking or simulating observations to publishing the data) to retrieving pre-processed large datasets through database queries. The growing importance of such transactions are evident with current projects such as TESS, Gaia, SDSS, ZTF, HST, and Illustris and will become a necessity to fully utilize the next generation of astronomical surveys, telescopes, and simulations. Interaction with these databases and visualization of these complex datasets will be essential skills. This workshop will introduce participants to selecting information from an online database in an efficient and reproducible way and effectively visualizing the results. The Astronomy Data Carpentry Workshop will consist of short tutorials alternating with hands-on practical exercises focused on building complex SQL queries using Astroquery, working with the retrieved data as Astropy Tables and Pandas data frames, storing the data locally for future use, and communicating the results with clear and compelling figures using Matplotlib. The workshop will be run by two Carpentries certified instructors as well as a team of helpers. This course is aimed at astronomers at all stages of their education and careers. Participants are expected to have shell and Python knowledge equivalent to the Software Carpentry Python Curriculum (https://swcarpentry.github.io/python-novice-inflammation/): the ability to write a function in Python, familiarity with Python built-in types such as lists and dictionaries, and the ability to navigate directories using the command line. This Data Carpentry curriculum is a new offering developed with the AAS and Carpentries using a Venture Partnership Fund from the AIP. See this blog post for more details about the curriculum and the development process: https://carpentries.org/blog/2021/04/call-for-beta-applications-astronomy/ Registration is for both days. Participants will need personal computers and to be able to install software in advance of the workshop. A group list will be compiled approximately one month prior to the workshop to distribute software requirements and provide collaborative troubleshooting. Workshop participants are also encouraged to participate in the Hack Day to apply their workshop skills. More information on the Data Carpentry project can be found at https://datacarpentry.org.

Registration Fee: $50

 

Using Python and Astropy for Astronomical Data Analysis
Saturday, 8 Jan | 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

This workshop will cover the use of Python tools for astronomical data analysis and visualization, with the focus primarily on tools in the Astropy library and its affiliated packages. The goal is to introduce participants to the variety of tools which are available inside the Astropy library and to provide ample hands-on time during which participants will explore the science analysis capabilities which the greater Python environment and community provide. The format will be very interactive and include short presentations followed by instructor-guided tutorials where participants will use the tools be able to ask questions in the company of expert users and developers. Topics will include units, quantities, and constants; coordinates; FITS, ASCII, and Astropy tables; images; point-source photometry (photutils); and single-slit spectroscopy (specutils). Finally, we will describe the various ways to get help from the Astropy community and ways to get involved with the Astropy Project.

Prerequisites: Some familiarity with Python and Numpy will be helpful but is not required. We will send some suggested tutorials before the workshop. Some familiarity with Github will be useful for installing the workshop materials on your own computer.

Registration Fee: $100

 

Software Carpentry
Saturday, 8 Jan | 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Sunday, 9 Jan | 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Computing is now an integral part of every aspect of astronomy and astrophysics, but most scientists are never taught how to build, use, validate, and share software. As a result, many spend hours or days doing things badly that could be done well in just a few minutes. The goal of the Software Carpentry Workshop is to change that by teaching best practices. The tools presented at the two day workshop will enable astronomers to spend less time wrestling with software and more time doing useful research. Furthermore, good quality, well tested code will make their science results easier to reproduce, distribute, and update. The Software Carpentry Workshop will consist of short tutorials alternating with hands-on practical exercises and will cover the core software skills needed to construct, use, verify, and share software in astronomy. The first days tutorials will consist of shell automation of tasks, basic python programming, and an introduction to code review. The second days sessions will shift to focus on advanced python and version control with git/GitHub. The workshop will be run by a set of two Carpentries certified instructors and a team of helpers. The workshop is aimed at astronomers at all stages of their education and careers who wish to learn computational tools to increase the reproducibility and efficiency of their work. Participants should have some knowledge of programming (not necessarily Python) and have some familiarity with the shell command line (i.e. navigating directories on the shell command line). Specific knowledge of Python and git are not required. Registration is for both days. Participants will need personal computers and to be able to install software in advance of the workshop. A group list will be compiled approximately one month prior to the workshop to distribute software requirements and for collaborative installation troubleshooting. Workshop participants are also encouraged to participate in the Hack Day to apply their workshop skills. More information on the Software Carpentry project can be found at http://software-carpentry.org.

Registration Fee: $50

 

LightSound: A Sonification Tool for Solar Eclipses and Inclusive Classrooms
Saturday, 8 Jan | 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Sunday, 9 Jan | 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

In October 2023, an annular eclipse will sweep across the Americas from Oregon -- through Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas -- down to Brazil. Just six months later, in April 2024, a total solar eclipse will cross North America from Mexico and Texas up to Maine and Newfoundland. As astronomers and educators prepare for these spectacular events, accessibility should be at the front of our minds. LightSound is a sonification tool that uses Arduino technology to convert light to sound. It was originally developed for the 2017 Great American Solar Eclipse as a tool for the blind and low vision community to experience a solar eclipse. The device uses a high dynamic range light sensor and outputs sound based on the intensity of the light. It can also connect to a computer to record data for later analysis or re-sonification. Detailed instructions to build the LightSound device and all necessary code to run and plot data are available for download online. The first day of this hands-on workshop will guide participants through the process of building their own LightSound device. During the second day, participants will learn to use LightSound in their classrooms, during public engagement events, and as they begin to prepare for the upcoming North American solar eclipses in 2023 and 2024 with the intent of making them more inclusive. Prior skills in soldering are not required and will be covered in the course of the workshop.

Registration Fee: $35

 

The 4th AAS Chandra/CIAO Workshop
CANCELLED

Chandra/CIAO workshops are aimed at helping users, especially graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and early-career researcher to work with Chandra data and the Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations (CIAO) software. Several workshops have been previously organized at the Chandra X-Ray Center and elsewhere (see http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/workshop/ for more details). The workshop will feature talks on introductory and advanced X-ray data analysis, statistics, and topics in Chandra calibration. The workshop will also include hands-on sessions where students can practice X-ray data analysis following a workbook of CIAO exercises or perform their own analysis with members of the CIAO team ready to assist. Participants are required to bring their own laptop. A certificate of attendance will be distributed to all the participants.

Registration Fee: $35

 

How to give great presentations: a scientists guide to effective communication
Saturday, 8 Jan | 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Presenting your research effectively to a broad audience is an essential career skill, yet most professional scientists receive little formal training in effective communication. This interactive workshop aims to empower researchers at all levels who wish to improve their own presentation skills. During the workshop participants will (i) learn how to communicate their research in various formats such as conference presentations, posters, journal clubs, and colloquia (ii) receive practical tips on presenting and answering questions with confidence (iii) create a workflow for designing accessible and engaging presentations regardless of format (iv) learn to identify common features of effective communication so they can incorporate them into their own presentations. Participants will have the opportunity to receive tailored one-on-one feedback in this hands-on workshop, and are encouraged to bring a draft of their own presentation(s) to work on. This workshop will be facilitated by a team of experienced professional astronomers with the support of the AAS Committee on Employment.

Registration Fee: $35

 

Making the Most of AAS WorldWide Telescope
Saturday, 8 Jan | 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

AAS WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is the American Astronomical Societys official tool for visually exploring humanitys scientific understanding of the Universe. This free and open-source software package can power everything from interactive "live" images in journal articles, to exploratory data visualizations in Jupyter notebooks, to immersive custom websites, to professional-grade planetariums. This interactive tutorial will introduce attendees to the WWT software ecosystem in the context of its applications to research, education, and public outreach.

Registration Fee: $35

 

JWebbinar Workshop: Intro to JWST Data Analysis and Visualization
Sunday, 9 Jan | 8:30 AM – 1:00 PM

This workshop is intended to give observers an in-person, hands-on introduction to JWST data analysis and visualization tools within the python ecosystem. The event is ideal for beginners wanting to work with the upcoming JWST cycle 1 data, including the >1000 hours of observations with no exclusive access period. During the workshop we will explore the data formats from the JWST calibration pipeline, demonstrate the jdaviz tools for visualizing imaging and spectroscopic data, and give users a chance to experiment with python workflows for different data analysis tasks. This workshop will include activities that will require users to install python-based software and download simulated data onto their computers.

Registration Fee: $35

 

Proposal Writing Workshop: Using NASA ROSES as an Example
Sunday, 9 Jan | 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

The success of scientists depends upon their ability to obtain funding. One of the largest challenges is to create strong proposals. Using Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) from NASA as a template, this workshop will focus on teaching the audience key points to communicating science through successful proposal writing. As a result of this session, participants will be able to understand the proposal writing, reviewing, and selection process for federally funded research. This will also help those who have previously submitted proposals improve their performance. How to understand ones values and maintain those throughout this process will also be focused on. Story tellers will add unique and important lessons learned to the session.

Registration Fee: $35

 

Accessing NASA's Astrophysics Archives using Python
Sunday, 9 Jan | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

NASA's Astrophysics Archives preserve many terabytes of multi-wavelength images, catalogs, and spectra. While many astronomers are familiar with web-based tools that are convenient for searching and visualizing these data, programmatic interfaces through Python are increasingly in demand. This hands-on workshop will introduce participants to the programmatic data access tools available and the tutorial notebooks NAVO offers. We will describe science scenarios that combine multi-wavelength data from the HEASARC, IRSA, NED, and MAST that participants will then be encouraged to work through themselves. Workshop organizers will be available to help participants with them or adapt them for custom projects.

Registration Fee: $35

 

How to Teach and Talk About Climate Change
Sunday, 9 Jan | 1:00 AM – 4:00 PM

As astronomers, we have a great opportunity to use the wide interest in our field to help students and the public learn the science content and perspective needed to understand and respond to the threat of climate change. This is true both for those of us teaching Introductory astronomy (i.e., Astro 101) and those who engage (or would like to engage) in public outreach. In this interactive workshop, Travis Rector (AAS Sustainability Chair) and Jeff Bennett (author of A Global Warming Primer, www.globalwarmingprimer.com) will lead discussion of how we can use the high public profile of astronomy to support education and outreach about climate change. The session will begin with Jeff presenting a brief overview of the approach he has taken in his Primer and in public talks across the country, then Travis will discuss the role of the astronomical community and lessons he has learned in his climate change education efforts. We'll discuss how many of the topics we teach (e.g., exoplanets, planetary atmospheres, and astronomical scales) lay the foundations for understanding climate science, and how they develop an "astronomical perspective that can provide context to climate change. We'll also talk about how climate change is distinct from astronomy. It is a contentious and emotionally difficult topic that requires a different approach. We'll present strategies on how to prepare students or the public to leave your class or outreach effort feeling informed, hopeful, and ready to address the problem. We'll work through different examples of classroom discussion and public interaction. We will include some time for small group work, so if you are currently teaching, please bring your syllabi and class schedules to share, and if you are already engaged in outreach on climate change, please bring any relevant materials or examples that you use.

Registration Fee: $20

 

An Introduction to Statistical Learning for Astronomy: Connecting Statistical Concepts to Algorithms and Applications
Sunday, 9 Jan | 1:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Astronomy is awash in data, just waiting to be analyzed, and the use of complex methods and algorithms such as machine learning and deep learning is becoming more common in astronomy applications. Many of these methods have statistical underpinnings that may not be taught in traditional astronomy and physics programs but that are fundamental to understanding how these algorithms work. In this tutorial-style workshop, we will cover statistical concepts important to statistical learning (including machine learning and deep learning methods), and put them to use in practical examples. We will provide illustrative laboratory materials in Jupyter notebooks for participants to use during and after the workshop. This workshop will be led by committee members of the AAS Working Group on Astrostatistics and Astroinformatics, and we will: * review the basics of probability distributions, sampling, and randomness; * discuss statistical learning and how it is applied to conventional tabular data and to time series data; * review and apply linear and generalized linear models (e.g., logistic regression, Poisson regression) in specific astronomy examples; and * draw practical connections to machine learning (including deep learning), time series models, and sampling. Throughout the workshop, we will concentrate on high-level contextual details and examples, so it will be appropriate for anyone who wants to learn more about statistical techniques, their applications and connections to algorithms, and how they all fit together.

Registration Fee: $40

 

Effective Astronomy Visualizations for Research, Communications, and Learning
Sunday, 9 Jan | 1:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Clear and powerful visualizations are a critical component of science communications whether the intended audience is researchers, students, or the general public. Todays astronomy visualizations comprise an ever-expanding collection of disciplines that include not only traditional fields of image processing, data presentation, and illustration, but also emerging technologies like data sonification, 3D printing, and virtual/augmented reality experiences. The goal of this workshop is to connect the many communities represented within the AAS (including students, educators, communicators, developers, and researchers) with shared interests in the many areas of astronomy visualization. Presenters will share lessons learned through discussions of best practices for a variety of audiences. They will survey a wide range of visualization techniques and address their advantages and accessibility for different styles of learning. Case studies of effective visualizations will showcase how to communicate both knowledge and wonder via inspiring graphics. Workshop participants will experience an overview of the current state of astronomy visualization including planning, creation, and delivery phases of the process. They will gain an enhanced appreciation for the selection of visualization-appropriate topics and datasets, the efforts and expertise required to achieve quality products, and the storytelling methods that reach learners of diverse backgrounds. In addition, participants will be encouraged to bring examples of their own projects and pose particular visualization challenges to the group. This workshop is facilitated by NASAs Universe of Learning (www.universe-of-learning.org) with the goal of contributing to an expanding community of practice for those engaged in the many aspects of astronomy visualization, or AstroViz. This workshop will be held at the Evans & Sutherland headquarters located 4 miles from the convention center. Presenters will showcase visualizations in the Cosm Experience Center, featuring an 8K immersive LED dome. Transportation details from the convention center will be provided at a later date. NASAs Universe of Learning creates and disseminates resources and experiences that enable youth, families, and lifelong learners to explore fundamental questions in science, experience how science is done, and discover the universe for themselves. NASAs Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The award is part of NASAs Science Activation program, which connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond.

Registration Fee: $35

 

Robotic Telescope Labs for Survey-Level Undergraduates
Sunday, 9 Jan | 1:30 AM – 4:30 PM

For the past dozen years, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been developing a unique, survey-level astronomy curriculum, primarily for undergraduate students, with the goal of significantly boosting STEM enrollments on a national scale, as well as boosting students technical and research skills. Called Our Place In Space!, or OPIS!, this curriculum leverages Skynet a global network of 20 fully automated, or robotic, professional-grade telescopes that we have deployed at some of the worlds best observing sites. The curriculum has now been adopted by 2 dozen institutions, and we have just received (1) $1.85M from NSF's IUSE program to expand it nationwide, and (2) $3M from DoDs NDEP program (a) to integrate a global network of 10m 30m diameter radio telescopes into Skynet, and (b) to develop a follow-up curriculum to OPIS! Both grants come with funding for new instructors. The NSF grant pays up to $3,500 per adopting instructor to learn, implement, and help to improve the OPIS! curriculum. The DoD grant pays up to $9,000 per instructor to help to develop and trial the follow-up curriculum, which will be called Astrophotography of the Multi-Wavelength Universe!, or MWU!. OPIS! is a Skynet-based laboratory curriculum for undergraduates in small to very large, introductory survey courses and works equally well online as in person. OPIS! consists of eight, and soon nine, labs in which students use the same research instrumentation as professionals to collect their own data. They then use this self-collected data (astronomical images and spectra) to reproduce some of the greatest astronomical discoveries of the past 400 years, and gain technical and research skills at the same time. Although students are not carrying out cutting-edge research, they are using cutting-edge research instrumentation, and consequently there is great overlap with the Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) pathway model. Furthermore, these labs/observing experiences are specifically designed to pair with standard introductory astronomy curricula, facilitating widespread adoption. OPIS! is built around the cosmic distance ladder, which serves as an organizing principle in many introductory astronomy courses/sequences, and as such, it reinforces students classroom experiences. The goal of OPIS! is to move beyond laboratory experiences in which students learn how to use a telescope for its own sake, to instead use them to do science the same science that they are learning in class. MWU! will be for students who have already completed OPIS!, and will be able to provide this smaller group of students more telescope time per student, making possible color- and radio mapping-, inquiry-based explorations. MWU! will consist of three optical, three radio, and two capstone observing experiences that integrate optical and radio, on the subjects of stars, galaxies, and light-producing mechanisms. Astrophotography will serve as this curriculums hook. Skynet allows students to acquire professional-quality images from multiple, professional-quality telescopes and sites around the world. However, this is only half the battle. Students also need to be able to explore their images, and make fundamental measurements from them, around which relevant laboratory experiences can be designed. As such, we have additionally developed Afterglow Access. Afterglow Access is a web application, written in AngularJS. The advantage of being a web application is that students do not need to install it, and updates can be done server-side. Furthermore, Afterglow Access is connected to Skynets 100 TB RAID, so students do not need to download, independently store, and re-upload their images. Nor do they even need a quality computer, as the heaviest computational lifting (e.g., processing/analyzing many images simultaneously) is handled server-side as well. In this workshop, participants will be given accounts on both Skynet and Afterglow Access, and observing credits on Skynet. We will learn how to queue observations on Skynet, and will carry out at least one of the OPIS! observing experiences (other OPIS! activities will be overviewed more quickly). We will also explore the color-combination and radio-mapping capabilities that we are developing for MWU!. Lastly, we will hear from Geneva Lake Astrophysics and STEM (GLAS), which is leading our accessibility efforts, both for the Skynet and Afterglow Access interfaces, but also for 65 overview and tutorial videos that we developed to accompany the OPIS! curriculum. (These videos are now receiving 350 views/day for 25 hours viewed/day on YouTube.) GLAS is also working with disability services at participating universities, and will work directly with deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) and blind and visually-impaired (BVI) students during the grant periods.

Registration Fee: $35