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Python in Astronomy Conference 2019 at STScI

Proposers:

Erik Tollerud, Steve Crawford, Josh Peek, Iva Momcheva

Preferred dates (optional), with comments

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The workshop is typically held the first week of May but there is some flexibility. SMO has indicated it shouldn't be too close to the symposium, and the SOC chair has indicated SMO-suggested dates in July/August should be fine.

Presentation slides

Q & A:

• Q: How will you balance the needs of the locals with the needs of the external community for this conference?
  • A: The conference participants are selected using an algorithm ("entrofy" - the same one used for .Astronomy this year), which allows explicitly selecting a certain fraction of locals, while still balancing diversity in other criteria like gender or seniority.  This allows us to explicitly ensure it's a large enough fraction that STScI benefits while not so large that it turns into an all-STScI event.
• Q: Will the fact that the series has an external SOC make it not pay attention to the needs of STScI?
  • A: The existing SOC chair is aware that we have special requirements/expectations.  It shouldn't be thought of strictly as "Science" and "Local" - the SOC is more the "external" group.  They understand that we expect certain things in return for hosting, and it'll be the "LOC"'s job to communicate those things - sort of the "benefit" of an SOC without all the work... Additionally, there is an SOC member who is also STScI staff (Nick Earl).
• Q: Is the "normally 5 days" a problem?
  • A: SMO says this is negotiable, dependent mainly on exactly which week (and the availability of SMO staff)
• Q: Will we be able to "try again" next year since it's a series?
  • A: Probably not for several years - the conference tries to spread itself out geographically, so it may not be back to the East Coast of the US for several years.

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Enabling Multi-Messenger Astrophysics in the Big Data Era

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Preferred dates (optional), with comments

NSummer/A yetFall 2019

Presentation slides

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Proposer: Kate Rowlands (JHU) & Katey Alatalo (STScI)

Preferred dates (optional), with comments: Summer 2019 (quite flexible)

Presentation slides:

Q & A:

• Q:  You proposed that 30 people would attend. How flexible is this number given the large number of people that will likely want to attend?
  • A: Based on Kate & Katey's experience at a Lorentz Center workshop (Kate as organizer, Katey as attendee), we believe that we have the experience to be able to run a successful workshop with ~50 people and will expand our workshop group to a 50-person cap should we find that our workshop is popular.
    
    
• Q:  You have 20+ people on the SOC list, how is there going to be room for them all to attend?
  • A: Our SOC list was designed to be an inclusive "super-list", listing those who would be interested in such a workshop, and we plan on drawing on that super-list both to determine members of the SOC, as well as invited speakers and discussion leaders in order to ensure diversity of experiences and scientific expertise.
    
    
• Q:  How are you going to ensure that the involved STScI staff are not concurrently the ones who are driving the JWST science discussions?
  • A: To explicitly address this, we will be appointing external (non-STScI) discussion leads for the 3rd day of the workshop, who will be tasked with leading discussion and summarizing the consensus of the group.
    
    

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