Universität Wien

450103 SE COSMOS Topic Seminar: A Bayesian Toolkit and Stellar Cluster Dynamics (PI) (2021S)

4.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 45 - Doktoratsstudium Geowissenschaften, Geographie und Astronomie
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

max 25 participants, including MSc students but PhD
students priority

Note: lectures will be online-only, with no in person teaching

  • Friday 05.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hybride Lehre
    Seminarraum 1 Astronomie Sternwarte, Türkenschanzstraße 17
  • Friday 19.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hybride Lehre
    Seminarraum 1 Astronomie Sternwarte, Türkenschanzstraße 17
  • Friday 26.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hybride Lehre
    Seminarraum 1 Astronomie Sternwarte, Türkenschanzstraße 17
  • Friday 16.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hybride Lehre
    Seminarraum 1 Astronomie Sternwarte, Türkenschanzstraße 17
  • Friday 23.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hybride Lehre
    Seminarraum 1 Astronomie Sternwarte, Türkenschanzstraße 17
  • Friday 30.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hybride Lehre
    Seminarraum 1 Astronomie Sternwarte, Türkenschanzstraße 17
  • Friday 07.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hybride Lehre
    Seminarraum 1 Astronomie Sternwarte, Türkenschanzstraße 17
  • Friday 14.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hybride Lehre
    Seminarraum 1 Astronomie Sternwarte, Türkenschanzstraße 17
  • Friday 21.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hybride Lehre
    Seminarraum 1 Astronomie Sternwarte, Türkenschanzstraße 17
  • Friday 28.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hybride Lehre
    Seminarraum 1 Astronomie Sternwarte, Türkenschanzstraße 17
  • Friday 04.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hybride Lehre
    Seminarraum 1 Astronomie Sternwarte, Türkenschanzstraße 17
  • Friday 11.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hybride Lehre
    Seminarraum 1 Astronomie Sternwarte, Türkenschanzstraße 17
  • Friday 18.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hybride Lehre
    Seminarraum 1 Astronomie Sternwarte, Türkenschanzstraße 17
  • Friday 25.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hybride Lehre
    Seminarraum 1 Astronomie Sternwarte, Türkenschanzstraße 17

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This seminar has a dual concept. In two intertwining strands, students will learn about (a) tools for Bayesian inference, and (b) the dynamics of stellar clusters. The two strands will support one another: throughout the seminar, inference tools will be applied to data from stellar clusters (both simulated and real). The course is suitable for Astronomy and COSMOS PhD students, and final year Astronomy Masters students.

AIMS - By the end of this seminar, students will understand modern concepts in Bayesian inference and gain the knowledge to apply software tools for inference to a variety of problems. Moreover, students will be able to describe the current status of research into the dynamics of stellar clusters, and to identify the main open problems.

CONTENTS - Introduction to stellar clusters: general properties and open problems, types of data available and observable properties - Dynamical models of stellar clusters - Introduction to Bayesian inference - Overview of inference techniques and software - Inference with real datasets

METHODS - The content outlined above will be presented by means of dedicated slides prepared for each session and made available to the students on Moodle. During the seminar, students will write computer programs to manipulate data, compute dynamical models, and perform inference on these models given observed data. They will also present their results, putting them into the general context of the field, compare their results with those of their peers, and discuss them in the context of the research field presented in the course.

Assessment and permitted materials

Assessment of students performances will consist of three main parts:
(1) 10%: participation
(2) 50%: exercises - after each session, the students will get a set of exercises to carry out before the next session. These exercises will be dedicated to apply methods presented during the seminar to a real case scenario
(3) 40%: final presentation (poster) - students will prepare a poster to illustrate the results obtained when fitting dynamical models to kinematic data of a stellar cluster. This will allow them to put together all the knowledge and techniques they obtained in the seminar.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

PREREQUISITES - maths/statistics and physics basics and general concepts, introduction to astronomy, basic coding skills.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
(1) participation - contributions to the discussions and active participation will grant extra points
(2) exercises - they will be graded individually from time to time, and the final grade will be a weighted average of the individual grades (with the weights clearly communicated from time to time, depending on the difficulty of the specific tasks)
(3) poster presentation: clarity of exposition, completeness and ability to discuss the results will be the criteria of assessment for the presentations.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
(1) participation: students will be required to attend at least 75% of the lectures
(2) exercises: a minimum grade of 50% will be required
(3) poster presentation: a minimum grade of 50% will be required

Examination topics

Arguments presented and discussed in class (see contents outlined above).

Reading list

Students will be provided with lecture notes and scientific papers to read in support of specific parts of the course programme. All the materials will be available as digital files, and will be freely available to the students. Occasionally, there will be references to parts of books which are either easily found in the library or free online.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Fr 12.05.2023 00:26