Data Access and Visualization for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
Martin White, Professor
Physics
Closed. This professor is continuing with Fall 2024 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Spring 2025.
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI, https://desi.lbl.gov) is making the world's largest 3D map of the universe. In this project you will help us develop web-based data access, visualization, and analysis tools for use by thousands of scientists worldwide.
Role: The student will work with the DESI Data Systems team to develop web-based data access, visualization, and analysis tools for the underlying hundreds of terabytes of DESI data at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) and/or Amazon Web Services. They will learn pragmatic methods for working with astronomy/cosmology survey datasets and how to share those data worldwide. The tools developed by this student will be used by the 1000 person DESI collaboration, and by the worldwide astronomy community using DESI public data. The specific tasks will be tuned to match the skills and interests of the selected student.
Qualifications: Required:
* Physics or astronomy major with an interest in computing, or CS or Data Science major with an interest in cosmology/astronomy/physics;
* prior programming experience in any language;
* self-motivated ability to work independently within the context of a team;
* like working with computers with an interest in applying that to other areas of science;
Bonus, but not required (you will learn!):
* completed or taking an introductory astronomy class;
* programming experience in python;
* programming experience in javascript;
* experience working with Amazon Web Services (AWS);
* experience with Docker or other container methods;
* working knowledge of git;
* experience with Linux (or other flavors of Unix, e.g. MacOS command line);
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Stephen Bailey, Staff Researcher
Hours: to be negotiated
Off-Campus Research Site: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab building 50, and remote work
Related website: https://desi.lbl.gov
Related website: https://data.desi.lbl.gov