Khagol Bulletin # 131

Data Science in Astronomy The first day of the meeting included introductory talks about data science in Astronomy, the basics of classical machine learning, deep learning, generativemodels, foundation models and large language models. The meeting also included a talk on the best practices in software development and the reproducibility and interpretability of machine learning models. A mee t i ng gea r ed t owa rds young researchers on Data Science in Astronomy was held from 12 to 14 December 2023 at IUCAA, Pune, to address the challenges of integrating traditional scientific domains with state-of-the-art computational techniques that revolutionise research paradigms. With its rich datasets, astronomy has already taken advantage of many machine-learning techniques and statistical methodologies, but much more can be accomplished. Ninety participants at various career stages attended the meeting. The astronomical domain offers some of the most intricate and massive datasets, making it an enticing playground for data scientists looking for real-world, complex challenges. Therefore, the second day of the meeting included various science cases in astronomy which have been addressed using machine learning. These included talks related to radio astronomy, gravitational wave astronomy, galaxy morphological classification, cosmological applications, studies of stellar spectra and asteroseismology, and the Sun. Finally, the third day consisted of a brainstorming session to develop ideas for a data hackathon. The participants were divided into groups and worked o n u n d e r s t a n d i n g t h e d a t a s e t s corresponding to these ideas. This allowed for networking, collaboration, and the amalgamation of ideas. The organisers believe that the meeting has helped seed collaborative projects, both short and long- term, that will continue. The meeting was organised by Surhud More, IUCAA, and AshishMahabal, Caltech, USA. Statistical Techniques in Astrophysics and Cosmology Using Python An Introductory School on Statistical Techniques in Astrophysics and Cosmology Using Python (STACUP) was organised by the Central University of Tamil Nadu ( C U T N ) . T h e s c h o o l wa s h e l d a t Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, from 16 to 20 October 2023. The school was the second in a series of schools organised by CUTN to bolster the presence of astrophysics and cosmology research in the southern region of India. About forty participants attended the school, with about twenty from within Tiruchirappalli and the remaining from the Roychoudhury (all from NCRA-TIFR) and Neeraj Gupta, Dipanjan Mukherjee, Ranjeev Misra and Durgesh Tripathi (all from IUCAA). The students and faculty's enthusiasmand active participation helped make this an en j oyab l e educa t i ona l even t . The organising team comprised of Rajeshwari Dutta, Ashish Mhaske, Avinash Deshpande, Jameer Manur, Prakash Arumugasamy and Dhruba J. Saikia from IUCAA and Subhashis Roy fromNCRA-TIFR. the school. In addition to the organisers listed below, the resource persons included Nissim Kanekar, Divya Oberoi, Bhal Chandra Joshi, Ruta Kale, Yogesh Maan and Tirthankar | 11 | KHAG L | No. 131 - JANUARY 2024