[Ssnet_list] STS research on the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)

[Anissa Tanweer]

We are pleased to announce an opportunity for UW students to get involved
with a study of the Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time
(LSST). Participating students will register for Directed Research Group
(DRG) credits in the Department of Human-Centered Design and Engineering at
the University of Washington, and enrollment is open to students from other
departments.

Details are provided below and can also be found here
<https://www.hcde.washington.edu/research/lee>.

The application for enrollment in the DRG can be found here
<https://forms.gle/6MqTUydmp5mhG8Jx5>.

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The Production of Astronomical Knowledge in the Legacy Survey of Space and
Time (LSST)

We are seeking a small group of 2-4 doctoral, masters and/or undergraduate
students interested in studying the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy
Survey of Space and Time.

The Rubin Observatory in Chile is slated to come online next year and begin
the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), a wide angle, decade-long
survey of the southern night sky. The LSST will leverage the largest
digital camera ever created to produce what has been described as a 10-year
long high definition video of the cosmos. This will give scientists the
ability to track changes and movement over time, and in turn ask
fundamental questions about the past and future of our solar system, the
composition of the universe, and much more. The telescope will produce data
of unprecedented size and speed, churning out 20 terabytes of raw data
nightly and hundreds of petabytes of processed data over the course of the
decade. Data releases will be made available broadly within the astronomy
community at regular intervals, some nightly and some annually.

The scale, immediacy, and openness of LSST data will ostensibly obviate
many of the tradeoffs that characterized the preceding era of optical
astronomy by sidestepping competition for access and observing time at
scarce facilities. As such, LSST has the potential to democratize the field
of astronomy by dramatically increasing access to astronomical data. At the
same time, LSST data can only be made useful through the collaborative
development and use of novel computational tools and techniques capable of
handling the volume and velocity of data produced by the Rubin telescope.
As such, the LSST has been imagined and structured as a convergent endeavor
involving coordination and sense-making among astrophysicists, data
scientists, and software engineers.

Students in this DRG will be part of exploratory research that will kick
off longer-term ethnographic inquiry into the LSST project and the
communities that support it. Some of the broad questions that may be of
interest include:

   - What does the role of software in analyzing LSST mean for who gets
   included in the production of astronomical knowledge?
   - How does LSST membership, access to LSST data, and access to software
   tools mediate the production of scientific knowledge across various kinds
   of teams, experts, and institutions?
   - How does the availability of LSST data open up new directions of
   inquiry in astronomy, and what are the implications for how the field—and
   society more broadly—come to understand the universe?

This DRG will be jointly led by Dr. Anissa Tanweer
<https://escience.washington.edu/people/anissa-tanweer/>, Research
Scientist at the eScience Institute and Will Sutherland
<https://willsutherland.com/>, PhD Candidate in HCDE, with supervision and
guidance from Dr. Charlotte Lee <https://www.hcde.washington.edu/lee> of
HCDE. Our own goal in this project is to better understand the negotiation
of access in this new model of big data astronomy exemplified by the LSST.

We anticipate that students will benefit from the following opportunities
in this DRG:

   - Development of qualitative ethnographic research skills, including
   interviews, field observations, and/or documentary analysis
   - Exposure to theories about the organization of knowledge production
   - Window into the making of cutting-edge scientific research
   - Contribution to the early stages of planning for long term
   ethnographic research with the chance to influence the trajectory of that
   work
   - Possibility of longer-term collaborations

Logistics

   - This DRG is open to doctoral, master’s and undergraduate students
   interested in taking 3-5 DRG credits in Winter ‘23.
   - Non-HCDE students are permitted to enroll.
   - We also anticipate running this DRG in Spring ‘23 and hope for
   continuity among participants.
   - The DRG will likely meet on the sixth floor of the Physics/Astronomy
   Tower (location will be confirmed later).
   - The meeting day and time will be one that is agreed upon by all
   participants.
   - Interested students should fill out this application form
   <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScwPYvI8cFNXTS7DWD9D5sviE_0TK5vkIimdUasT9utwq_RGw/viewform>
   .


-- 
Anissa Tanweer
Research Scientist, eScience Institute
Program Chair, Data Science Studies Special Interest Group
Program Chair, Data Science for Social Good
Affiliate Faculty, Department of Communication
University of Washington

Pronouns: she/her or they/them
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