On 19th April 2024 the CSED Hackathon, in collaboration with DiRAC and UCL Data Intensive Science & Industry (DISI), took place at UCL’s Harwell Campus in Didcot. The event set out to promote public understanding of exoplanet science, the Ariel Mission, and facilities such as DiRAC that support their developments. 32 attendees came from various universities including UCL, Imperial, Cardiff, Warwick, Bristol, Cambridge, and Oxford, representing diverse educational backgrounds primarily in Engineering, Computer Science and Physics. Industry and the Scientific Community were also represented with participants from ESA, Deimos Space, RAL Space and the STFC team, giving a high level of knowledge exchange in space science. Attendees in 7 small teams had the opportunity to learn and apply their Data Science skill sets on a challenging problem.
Participants were invited to work as a team and extract signals of exoplanets from simulated observations provided by mission experts involved in the ESA Ariel mission. Participants engaged in problem-solving sessions and had the opportunity to learn from Prof. Ofer Lahav, Vice-Dean (International) of UCL Faculty of Mathematical & Physical Sciences, and Luís Simões, Lead Data Scientist and co-founder at ML Analytics, who shared their experiences in applying machine learning in Space Science from both academic and industrial perspectives.
Feedback from attendees showed high satisfaction with the event’s organisation and atmosphere. Participants valued the chance to deepen their understanding of exoplanetary science and the Ariel Mission, with many expressing interest in future engagements.
Image credit: UCL Data Intensive Science & Industry (DISI)
