Events
Past Event
CIERA Spring Interdisciplinary Colloquium: How to Find a Transiting Exoplanet: Data-driven Discovery in the Astronomical Time Domain
CIERA - Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics
4:00 PM
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F160 Technological Institute
Details
Free and open to the public. No registration or ticket required. Campus parking lots are unrestricted after 4:00 pm.
CIERA Spring Interdisciplinary Colloquium:
How to Find a Transiting Exoplanet: Data-driven Discovery in the Astronomical Time Domain
Co-hosted by Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO) & the Data Science Initiative (DSI).
Dan Foreman-Mackey
University of Washington, Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow
Talk Abstract: Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered over the past few years. These discoveries were enabled by large and homogeneous space-based time domain surveys of nearby stars, including NASA's Kepler Mission. To push the exoplanet detection threshold to the smallest planets or the longest orbital periods using these data, we combine physical models of exoplanets with data-driven models of the stars and the spacecraft. Scaling these models to be applied to hundreds of thousands of stars with tens of thousands of measurements each poses an interesting technical challenge that we have solved in close interdisciplinary collaboration. In this talk, I will describe the current and future datasets, and the basic problem of exoplanet detection. I will go on to outline the technical challenges and present some of our solutions. Finally, I will discuss how we understand the place of our Solar System in the greater context of the population of planets using these discoveries.
Time
Tuesday, May 16, 2017 at 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location
F160 Technological Institute Map
Contact
Calendar
CIERA - Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics
WED@NICO Fall Seminar Series returns on Sept 24th!
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
The Wednesdays @ NICO Fall Seminar Series returns on September 24th and will run through November 12th, 2025. Please visit our web site in early September for detailed speaker information, talk titles and abstracts.
This fall, we are honored to host the following distinguished speakers:
9/24 - Emma Alexander, Dept of Computer Science, Northwestern University
10/1 - Sebastien Martin, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
10/8 - Tomer Ullman, Dept of Psychology, Harvard University
10/15 - Patrick Park, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
10/22 - Max Kreminski, Midjourney
10/29 - Elizabeth Gerber, Mechanical Engineering and Communication Studies, Northwestern University
11/5 - Julio Ottino, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University
11/12 - Blaise Aguera y Arcas, Google Research
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: TBA via Zoom
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, September 24, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)