A week of lectures, hands-on problem-solving, and interdisciplinary learning marks the 23rd session of the Data Science Fellowship Program
The Data Science Fellowship Program recently welcomed the 8th Cohort of fellows into the program at their 23rd training session, held May 19-23, 2025, at the University of Pittsburgh (the local organizer was LSST-DA Board Chair, Dr. Michael Wood-Vasey). Fellows in Cohort 8 participated in a one-day orientation program, after which they were joined by fellows from Cohort 7 for five days of training in the use of statistical methods for large astronomical surveys. The session was headlined by three guest lecturers: Dr. Sylvia Biscoveanu (CIERA Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University), Dr. Greg Gilbert (Postdoctoral Associate at Caltech), and Dr. Chad Schafer (Professor of Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University). The meeting was organized by Dr. Bryan Scott (DSFP postdoctoral fellow) and Dr. Adam Miller (DSFP Director) with additional support from Dr. Megan Newman (Postdoctoral Associate at UT Austin, and alum from Cohort 5 of the DSFP). Fellows attended 9 different lectures and also collaboratively worked on problems related to statistics in astronomical surveys for more than 15 hours over the course of the session.
Admitting new fellows in Cohort 8 and the continuation of the LSST-DA DSFP would not have been possible without recent grants from the Brinson Foundation, the WoodNext Foundation, and the Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement.
Scenes from the 23rd Data Science Fellowship Program training session at the University of Pittsburgh, where fellows from Cohorts 7 and 8 engaged in collaborative problem-solving, lectures, and peer-led learning focused on statistical methods for astronomical surveys.
(Photos courtesy of Adam Miller, Associate Professor, Northwestern)