AI Boot Camp for Astronomers

Hands-on AI training for the next generation of astronomy research.

June 1 - June 5, 2026

Texas Advanced Computing Center
Advanced Computing Building (ACB)
J.J. Pickle Research Campus,
10505 Exploration Way, Room ACB 1.10
Austin, TX 78758

Register

The AI Boot Camp For Astronomers is a weeklong, immersive training experience designed to help researchers build practical AI skills for astronomy. Participants will learn core AI methods, work through hands-on exercises, and apply techniques directly to scientific problems in high-performance computing settings. The boot camp also includes opportunities to connect with CosmicAI researchers and other attendees. Whether you’re new to AI or looking to deepen your skills, the boot camp offers a focused way to learn how modern AI tools can support research across astronomy and astrophysics.

Agenda:

Morning Session: 9am - 11:45pm, Lunch: 11:45pm - 1pm, Afternoon Sessions will run from 1pm - 4pm

    • Morning I: Introduction to TACC, computing cluster (Instructor: Niall Gaffney)

    Break

    • Morning II: Introduction to building environments at TACC (cont’d) (Instructor, Jixian Li)

    Lunch

    • Afternoon I: Introduction to Machine Learning and Supervised Learning (Instructor: Juliana Duncan)

    • Afternoon II: Introduction to Machine Learning and Supervised Learning (Instructor: Juliana Duncan

    • Morning I: Advanced Supervised Learning Topics: Ensemble methods, Hands On (Instructor: Julianna Duncan)

    Break

    • Morning II: Introduction to Deep Learning, Multilayer Perceptrons (Instructor: Jixian Li)

    Lunch

    • Afternoon I: Convolutional Neural Networks (Instructor: Juliana Duncan)

    Break

    • Afternoon II: Distributed Deep Learning (Instructor: Amit Gupta)

    • Morning I: Intro to LLMs, Transformer Architecture (Instructor: Gabriel Jaffe)

    Break

    • Morning II: Prompt Engineering, Structured Generation, RAGs (Instructor: Gabriel Jaffe)

    Lunch

    • Afternoon I: Agentic AI (Instructor: Gabriel Jaffe)

    Break

    • Afternoon II: Evaluation of LLM applications (Instructor: Juliana Duncan)

    • Morning I: Introduction to Unsupervised Learning (Instructor Luke Smith)

    Break

    • Morning II: Introduction to Unsupervised Learning (Instructor: Luke Smith)

    Lunch

    • Afternoon I: Graph Neural Networks (Instructor: Sikan Li)

    Break

    • Afternoon II: Surrogate Modelling (Instructor: Luke Smith)

    • Morning I : Introduction to Deep Reinforcement Learning (Instructor: Amit Gupta)

    Break

    • Morning II: Explainable AI (Instructor: Sikan Li)

    Lunch and Adjourn

Learn more about your trainers
 

Food:

We will serve breakfast, coffee, and lunch at one of UT's favorite dining establishments - the Commons Cafe. These meals are included with your registration.

There are plenty of dinner options nearby in the Domain area.

Venue:

Texas Advanced Computing Center
Advanced Computing Building (ACB)
J.J. Pickle Research Campus,
10505 Exploration Way, Room ACB 1.10
Austin, TX 78758

Accommodation:

We can suggest three hotels within walking distance of the boot camp location:

  1. Lone Star Court, Valencia Hotel Collection

  2. Element Austin at The Domain

  3. Hilton Garden Inn Austin North-Near the Domain

If you choose to stay elsewhere in the city, we recommend taking a ride-share (Uber or Lyft) instead of renting a car. Parking is limited on the TACC campus and can be expensive for the day.