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Texas Science Festival: AI Among the Stars: How Machines Help Us Explore the Universe

The recent revolution in artificial intelligence (AI), together with technical advances in telescopes and computing, have opened new frontiers for astronomy data processing and analysis.

Meanwhile, open, rich, massive datasets are the lifeblood of AI innovation. In the current big-data era of astronomy, new facilities like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory are generating a firehose of data. Planned facility upgrades, such as the next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) and Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), will routinely yield datasets containing 1 trillion voxels, exceeding current processing capacity and requiring new AI developments.

Panelists will discuss:

  • How AI tools will interact with current and forthcoming surveys to accelerate astronomy research workflows;

  • Highlight recent AI applications for analysis of big datasets;

  • Discuss the activities of the NSF-Simons AI Institute for Cosmic Origins (CosmicAI), an institute at UT Austin aiming to develop transformative AI approaches to tackle astronomy problems.

Speakers

  • Arya Farahi (Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics and Data Sciences, UT Austin)

  • Niall Gaffney (Director of Computing, Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC))

  • Stella Offner (Professor, Department of Astronomy, UT Austin)

  • Josh Taylor (Research Associate, UT Austin Oden Institute and CosmicAI Institute)

Location

Peter O'Donnell Building, Avaya Auditorium, Room 2.302, 201 E. 24th Street, Austin, TX 78712

Closest Parking on UT Austin Campus: San Jacinto Garage

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January 21

Spring 2026 CosmicAI Seminar Series Talk #1

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March 15

SXSW 2026: Revolutionizing Astronomy with Next Generation Big Data