Program - 2021 Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy VII

Schedule
Poster Presentations
Breakout Session Topics

2021 Schedule

Monday, June 7, 2021
Time	Session
10:00–11:00 a.m.	Invited Talk and Commentary I Jean-Luc Starck (CEA-Saclay) Topic: Sparsity and machine learning for astronomical image restoration Commentator: Shiro Ikeda (Institute of Statistical Mathematics) Chair: Kaisey Mandel (University of Cambridge)
11:00 a.m.–noon	Invited Talk and Commentary II Alberto Krone-Martins (University of California Irvine) Topic: Turning astronomical catalogs into discoveries Commentator: Maria Suveges (Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne) Chair: Kaisey Mandel (University of Cambridge)
Noon–12:15 p.m.	Break
12:15–1:45 p.m.	Poster presentations A–K (presenters with last names beginning with A-K)
1:45–2:00 p.m.	Break
2:00–3:00 p.m.	Invited Talk and Commentary III Daniela Huppenkothen (SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research) Topic: Spectral timing of X-ray sources Commentator: Aneta Siemiginowska (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) Chair: Alessandra Brazzale (University of Padua)

Tuesday, June 8, 2021
Time	Session
10:00–11:00 a.m.	Invited Talk and Commentary IV Anais Moller (University of Clermont-Auvergne) Topic: Bayesian neural networks for time-domain astronomy and cosmology Commentator: Marc Huertas-Company (Observatoire de Paris) Chair: Sujit Ghosh (North Carolina State University)
11:00 a.m.–noon	Invited Talk and Commentary V Alan Heavens (Imperial College London) Topic: Bayesian hierarchical models for cosmology Commentator: Tom Loredo (Cornell University) Chair: Sujit Ghosh (North Carolina State University)
Noon–12:15 p.m.	Break
12:15–1:45 p.m.	Poster presentations L–Z (presenters with last names beginning with L-Z)
1:45–2:00 p.m.	Break
2:00–3:00 p.m.	Invited Talk and Commentary VI Rodrigo Carrasco-Davis (ALeRCE broker) Topic: Rapid classification for survey broker systems Commentator: Ashley Villar (Columbia University) Chair: Kara Ponder (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

Wednesday, June 9, 2021
Time	Session
10:00–11:00 a.m.	Invited Talk and Commentary VII Derek Bingham (Simon Fraser University) Topic: Emulation and uncertainty quantification of astrophysical computer models Commentator: Justin Alsing (Stockholm University) Chair: Robert Szabo (Konkoly Observatory)
11:00 a.m.–noon	Invited Talk and Commentary VIII Stella Offner (University of Texas) Topic: Deep Learning to identify structures in 3D data Commentator: Francois Lanusse (Centre d’Etudes Atomique de Saclay) Chair: Robert Szabo (Konkoly Observatory)
Noon–12:15 p.m.	Break
12:15–1:45 p.m.	Breakout sessions Breakout Session I – Deep Learning Moderators: Bruce Bassett (University of Cape Town) and Matthew Graham (California Institute of Technology) Breakout Session II – Bayesian Modeling Moderators: Yang Chen (University of Michigan) and Kaisey Mandel (University of Cambridge) Breakout Session III – Irregular Time Series Moderators: Josh Bloom (University of California Berkeley) and Hyungsuk Tak (The Pennsylvania State University) Breakout Session IV – Methodology for the Rubin/LSST Survey Moderators: Leanne Guy (Rubin Observatory) and Francisco Forster (University of Chile)
1:45–2:00 p.m.	Break
2:00–3:00 p.m.	Invited Talk and Commentary IX Brian Nord (University of Chicago) Topic: Deep Learning and uncertainty quantification Commentator: Chad Schafer (Carnegie Mellon University) Chair: Roberto Trotta (Imperial College London/SISSA)

Thursday, June 10, 2021
Time	Session
10:00–11:00 a.m.	Invited Talk and Commentary X Nathan Hara (University of Geneva) Topic: Detecting exoplanets in radial velocity data Commentator: Roman Baluev (St. Petersburg State University) Chair: Pauline Barmby (Western University)
11:00 a.m.–noon	Invited Talk and Commentary XI Barak Zackay (Weizmann Institute) Topic: Exact statistics for optical and gravitational wave astronomy Commentator: Thomas Dent, University of Santiago de Compostela Chair: Pauline Barmby (Western University)
Noon–12:15 p.m.	Break
12:15–1:45 p.m.	Breakout sessions Breakout Session V – Deep Learning Moderators: Bruce Bassett (University of Cape Town) and Matthew Graham (California Institute of Technology) Breakout Session VI – Bayesian Modeling Moderators: Yang Chen (University of Michigan) and Kaisey Mandel (University of Cambridge) Breakout Session VII – Irregular Time Series Moderators: Josh Bloom (University of California Berkeley) and Hyungsuk Tak (The Pennsylvania State University) Breakout Session VIII – Methodology for the Rubin/LSST Survey Moderators: Leanne Guy (Rubin Observatory) and Francisco Forster (University of Chile)
1:45–2:00 p.m.	Break
2:00–3:00 p.m.	Invited Talk and Commentary XII Michele Vallisneri (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Topic: Statistics for finding gravitational waves from pulsar timing arrays Commentator: G. Jogesh Babu (The Pennsylvania State University) Chair: Alessandra Corsi (Texas Tech University)

Poster Presentations

SCMA VII poster presentations will be conducted via an interactive, multimedia virtual presentation platform. Participants can view posters in advance of the meeting and “visit” posters to converse with presenters during the Monday and Tuesday poster sessions. All conference participants who have registered by 10:00 a.m. (ET), Friday, May 14, are eligible and invited to submit a poster. You may provide the title or topic of your poster during the conference registration process.

Breakout Session Topics

Two 1.5-hour sessions of SCMA VII will be devoted to community discussion of four important topics in astrostatistics today. Researchers on these issues are invited to present contributed poster papers and discuss the challenges together in a moderated discussion environment.

Deep Learning

Sophisticated neural network architectures are finding a wide range of applications within astronomy, but they present many challenges. Network construction is often not based on principled statistical considerations; model interpretability and error quantification are difficult. Recent progress on these issues is promising.

Moderators: Bruce Bassett (University of Cape Town) and Matthew Graham (California Institute of Technology)

Bayesian Modeling and Computation

Bayesian inference provides powerful mechanisms to incorporate new data into existing knowledge and constraints and to gain subtle insights from complex models. But the framework requires accurate specification of likelihood functions and heavy computation, requiring mathematical development and computational innovation. Astronomers are deeply involved in these issues.

Moderators: Yang Chen (University of Michigan) and Kaisey Mandel (University of Cambridge)

Irregular Time Series

Ground-based astronomical surveys produce vast numbers of lightcurves with irregular cadences. Specialized methods are needed for time domain characterization, search for periodicity, search for sudden transients, and classification into many types of variable objects. This is an area where most advances are made in astronomical contexts.

Moderators: Josh Bloom (University of California Berkeley) and Hyungsuk Tak (The Pennsylvania State University)

Methodology for the Rubin/LSST Survey

Wide-field, multi-epoch imaging surveys are now entering the peta-scale era with the LSST survey projected to detect tens of billions of cosmic objects. The many statistical challenges will require advanced image analysis, real-time filtering of variable objects, parameter estimation using complex models, and knowledge discovery from multivariate catalogs.

Moderators: Leanne Guy (Rubin Observatory) and Francisco Forster (University of Chile)