Summer School in Statistics for Astronomers XVIII
For the 18th year, Penn State’s Center for Astrostatistics is offering its week-long Summer School in statistical methodology for astronomy. The summer school will be held in person at Penn State from June 5-9, 2023.
The School provides an intensive program in statistical inference covering topics such as principles of probability and inference, regression and model selection, bootstrap resampling, multivariate clustering and classification, Bayesian data analysis, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), time series analysis, spatial statistics, deep learning neural networks, and machine learning with random forest.
Lectures will be presented by experienced instructors in astrostatistics from 9:30am-5:30pm EDT (UTC-4 hours) each day. Lab tutorials in the form of computational notebooks will reinforce the learning experience, encouraging participants to exercise the methods with astronomical datasets illustrating realistic challenges faced in contemporary research. Lectures and tutorials will be enhanced via face-to-face interactions among instructors, teaching assistants, and participants, which will also be supported via a Slack channel.
For participants’ interest, the School is followed by the Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy VIII conference from June 12-16, 2023. Click here for details.
Intended Audience & Preparation
The School is designed for graduate students and postdocs in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Advanced undergraduate students and more senior researchers are also welcome to join. The Summer School in Statistics for Astronomers assumes working mathematical knowledge at the level of undergraduate physics or astronomy major, but does not assume that students have had any prior formal training in statististics.
The School assumes that participants have basic familiarity with programming, but does not assume that participants are familiar with the syntax of any particular language. The School will provide training in using R, an open-source statistical software environment widely used among statisticians. It is highly recommended that all of the participants install R before the beginning of the summer school. Click here to download R on your local machine. Participants will also be provided instructions for installing R during the first day, so they can complete notebook-based labs on their local system.
Serious participants should expect to engage for full-days during the week. In addition to lectures and tutorials, we recommend budgeting ~2 hours per day to work through the computational notebook tutorials, and consulting with instructors, teaching assistant & other participants on Slack. While this may be a heavier expectation than is common for many other meetings, previous years’ experience teaches us that applying lessons learned in lab tutorials is extremely valuable for participants to gain intuition for methods and improve their data analysis skills.
Course Information
Details of the tentative program/schedule is available below.
Registration Information
Registration Deadline: May 12th, 2023
Registration Fee: $450
Refunds and Cancellations:
Refunds will be issued for cancellation by the registrant if we receive your notification in writing by May 12th, 2022.
A $50 administrative fee will be charged for all cancellations. Refund requests made after that time will not be honored.
The University may cancel or postpone any course or activity because of insufficient enrollment or other unforeseen circumstances. If a program is canceled or postponed, the University will refund the full registration fees but cannot be held responsible for any other related costs, charges, or expenses.
Local Information (Lodging and Travel)
The School will be held on the Pennsylvania State University’s University Park Campus, located in State College, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
The town of State College and the university campus combine to offer a relaxed, college town atmosphere with many shops, restaurants and points of interest. Recreational opportunities abound including fine golf courses, tennis courts, gymnasiums and swimming facilities. For maps and tourism information, visit the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau.
Accommodation:
A limited number of rooms with negotiated rates have been set aside at the following locations. A specific instruction about how to book a room would be provided here, once the hotels set up their own methods to accommodate the conference participants. Downtown State College hotels are within walking distance to the Life Sciences building (where the conference will be held), and to varieties of eateries. Check with the hotels for their cancellation policies. The stated rates are basic room rates. Taxes will be additional.
Scholar State College, Tapestry Collection by Hilton (USD $114)
205 E Beaver Ave
State College, PA 16801
T: +1 814-778-0300, ext 317
Click to check the distance from the hotel to the conference location (Huck Life Sciences Building).Reservations can be made by either calling Central Reservations at 1-800-445-8667 and referencing the group name (PSU Astrostatistics) in addition to the code AST or going online at https://www.hilton.com. When booking online, guests will need to type in group code AST to ensure that they receive the group discount. Once the dates of stay are selected, there is a drop down tab labeled “Special Rates” where the guest will type in the three digit code into “Group Rate”. The cutoff date for booking reservations is May 12, 2023.
Hyatt Place State College (USD $114)
219 W Beaver Ave
State College, PA 16801
T: +1 814-862-9808
Click to check the distance from the hotel to the conference location (Huck Life Sciences Building).Reservations can be made by either calling Central Reservations at 1-888-492-8847 and referencing the group name (PSU Astrostatistics) in addition to the code G-ASTA or going online at https://statecollege.place.hyatt.com. When booking online, guests will need to type in group code G-ASTA to ensure that they receive the group discount under the “Corporate or Group Code” option from the drop-down menu (which is listed as the last one) beneath the dates. Individual reservations do not go through Hyatt Sales, so please use the phone number above or the website for booking. The cutoff date for booking reservations is May 12, 2023.
Air travel:
Delta, United, and American Airlines serve the University Park Airport (airport code SCE) located six miles from State College PA and Penn State’s University Park campus. Connections can be made through New York – LaGuardia (LGA), Newark (EWR), Philadelphia (PHL), and Chicago – O’Hare (ORD). We highly recommend booking a flight to SCE as ground transportation from other cities is not easily arranged. Please keep in mind that there are not many seats on flights to SCE, and so please book the flight well ahead of the travel date. Car rental is available at the airport but is not needed. Uber and Lyft can be used from the airport to the hotels.
Ground travel:
Route I-99 connects State College with I-80 and I-70. The campus is within driving distance of many major cities, including Harrisburg (1.5 hours, 90 miles); Pittsburgh (2.5 hours, 137 miles); Philadelphia (3.5 hours, 194 miles); Baltimore (3.5 hours, 155 miles); Washington, D.C. (4 hours, 190 miles); and New York City (5 hours, 250 miles). Greyhound and Megabus bus services are available from major cities to State College, Pennsylvania.
Visa information:
International participants arriving from outside the United States with passports from many countries in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) who have machine-readable passports may be able to travel without a visa. However, a valid Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) approval is required for all participants in VWP to travel to the United States. ESTA is a free, automated system used to determine the eligibility of visitors to travel to the United States under the VWP. Please click here for details about VWP and ESTA. Participants from other countries will need a B-1 (business) visa or B-2 (tourist) visa.
Note: Obtaining U.S. visas may require a visit to a U.S. consulate or embassy, payment of a fee, and significant wait time. Please contact the local U.S. consulate or embassy for the up to date information.
COVID-19
Penn State University encourages visitors to wear masks indoors during the conference. Participants must inform the summer school organizers if they test positive for COVID-19. We encourage participants to arrive with COVID-19 vaccinations and to take care to mitigate infection during travel. For further advice, see University guidance here.
Conference: Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy VIII
Graduate students and early-career researchers in astronomy are invited to attend the 8th Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy conference, hosted by the Penn State Center for Astrostatistics. The conference is truly cross-disciplinary — presentations by invited scholars of astronomical and data sciences are mixed in a program that pursues both scientific and methodological goals. Themes include statistical modeling of astronomical phenomena, discovering hidden astronomical signals, and enhancing the roles of machine learning for astrophysical insights. The SCMA VIII conference is being held at a critical moment in time, as astrostatistical efforts are thriving around the world with increasing impact on the broader research enterprise.
The conference was also held in person at Penn State from June 12-16, 2023, just after the summer school. Details of the program are available on the conference website here.