Welcome to the website for the SMASH initiative: UC San Diego Meetings between Astro/physics, SDSC, & HDSI
The SMASH initiative is a collaborative effort on the UCSD campus to tackle the big data era in Astronomy & Physics: making discoveries about our cosmos in an era with rapidly increasing data size, data complexity, and dimensionality.
Our goals are to create a collaborative environment that helps researchers at UCSD initiate novel interdisciplinary research collaborations, strengthen their skills, knowledge, and experience in AI, Machine Learning, and Data Science, and provides them with the tools to “smash” records in the Big Data era of Astronomy & Physics, and lead novel discoveries about the (astro)physics processes underlying our Universe and our place within it. The SMASH initiative strongly supports and aligns with UCSD’s research themes and future focus including UCSD’s goals to advance fundamental knowledge, shaping and engaging with technology, and conserving the planet and exploring the Universe.
The SMASH group will come together to (i) learn and discuss (new) techniques, methods, and tools from the interconnected fields of AI, Machine Learning, Software, Applied Statistics, Data Science, and High Performance Computing for astrophysics and physics, (ii) brainstorm and start collaborations on new interdisciplinary projects and research between UCSD/HDSI/SDSC researchers (iii) provide a mentoring and support network for the community. We will meet on a bi-weekly basis (with occasionally extra activities such as workshops, discussions, tours, and networking events). The meetings will rotate location between the UCSD department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, the UCSD department of Physics, HDSI, and SDSC. All meetings will be hybrid and open to all scientists and staff on campus to attend.
Get involved!
It’s easy to get involved with SMASH. We have bi-weekly meetings that everyone can join. Just sent a request to be on the UCSD SMASH email list where we make the announcements, you can also join our slack channel for discussions.
The easiest way to join this is to join the SMASH google group smash-list@googlegroups.com, and/or contact Floor Broekgaarden (fbroekgaarden[@]ucsd.edu) to be added to our slack.
