La Serena School of Data Science: Applied Tools for Data-Driven Sciences

MESA, VALERIA; DAMKE, GUILLERMO; AMELIA BAYO; MATTHEW GRAHAM; DARA NORMAN; MAURICIO CERDA; FRANCISCO FORSTER; CAMILA IBARLUCEA

Montevideo

Congreso; XVII RRLA-LARIM; 2023

The volume and complexity of astronomical data continues to grow as the current generation of surveys come online (PanSTARRS, Dark Energy Survey, VISTA). Astronomers will need to work with giga, tera and even petabytes of data in real time (LSST). This poses the challenges of developing and using new tools for data discovery, access, and analysis. At the same time, there are new opportunities for interdisciplinary research in applied mathematics, statistics, machine learning, crowd-sourcing, etc. Astronomy provides a sand-box where scientists can come together from diverse fields to address common challenges within the "Big Data" paradigm. In response, since 2013 the AURA/NOIRLab observatory has implemented the “La Serena School for Data Science: tools for Data-Driven sciences”. In this contribution we present our initiative, which is developed annually at the AURA campus in La Serena, Chile. Each August, the school receives 32 students and 10 expert professors for 10 days, following an intensive program of introductory classes with an important component of hands-on learning. This is materialized mainly by the development of group projects, where students solve complex problems in groups, applying what they have learned and guided by the teachers. Participants come from various countries such as the US (NSF-funded), Chile, and other Latin American countries such as Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico or Colombia. Students from different disciplines are encouraged to participate, including (but not limited to) astronomy, physics, computer science, statistics, mathematics, biology medical informatics. Finally, we discuss the opportunities that this school can offer to students in Latin American institutions.