# Event Details

- **Event Name**: Dr. Lucy Fortson - Mapping the Haystack / Finding the Needles
- **Event Start and End Date**: Wed, 17 Feb, 2021 at 01:00 am – Wed, 17 Feb, 2021 at 03:00 am
- **Event Description**: Dr. Lucy Fortson, Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics – Mapping the Haystack while Finding the Needles: How Crowdsourcing Science is Solving Big Data Problems in Research

WE WILL NOT BE OPENING THE OBSERVATORY
 
NOTE: This lecture will be hosted as a Webinar on Zoom and alternatively on our YouTube channel. We encourage you to participate and ask questions live and be a part of the meeting. 
 
Zooniverse is the largest online citizen science platform in the world, with over 2 million participants on over 300 projects performing tasks like classification or marking, on images from camera traps in the Serengeti to those from Astronomical Sky Surveys. Within astronomy alone, serendipitous discoveries with Zooniverse include new categories of galaxies and extra-terrestrial planets. But new generations of instruments are creating ever-larger numbers of images that need to be classified. Machine learning can now do a lot of the tasks that humans can do – and they can do those tasks more efficiently. But can machines make serendipitous discoveries?  
 
Join Dr. Lucy Fortson, cofounder of the Zooniverse and Associate Head and Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota, as she takes you on a quick tour of the engaging projects in the Zooniverse – from the Lions in the Serengeti to galaxies in the furthest reaches of time and space. Along the way, she will describe the issues that researchers now face with “Big Data”, what crowdsourcing is and how combining human intelligence with artificial intelligence is revolutionizing how science is being done. 
 
Dr. Lucy Fortson is a Professor of Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. As an observational astrophysicist, she uses very-high-energy gamma ray telescopes to study active galactic nuclei. She is also a founding member of the Zooniverse project where over 2 million volunteers contribute to discovery research by performing simple data analysis tasks across a wide range of disciplines from Astronomy to Zoology.  Fortson focuses on developing human-computation algorithms to tackle Big Data challenges with next generation observatories such as LSST and the Cherenkov Telescope Array. Prior to joining the faculty at UMN, Fortson was Vice President for Research at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and a research scientist at the University of Chicago. She received her BA in 1984 from Smith College in Physics and Astronomy, and her PhD in 1991 from UCLA in High Energy Physics on CERN’s UA1 experiment. She has served on numerous committees including the National Academy of Sciences Astronomy 2010 Decadal Survey, NASA’s Astrophysics Science Subcommittee and the Human Capital Committee of the NASA Advisory Council, the NSF’s Mathematical and Physical Sciences Advisory Committee, and the Education and Public Outreach Review Committee for National Optical Astronomy Observatory. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a member of the American Astronomical Society, the Citizen Science Association and the Association for Computing Machinery. Her awards include the APS Nicholson Medal, NASA’s Exceptional Public Service Award, the University of Geneva’s Innovation Award and UMN’s Community-Engaged Scholar Award.
- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/online/dr-lucy-fortson-mapping-the-haystack-finding-the-needles/200020579416433
- **Event Categories**: performances, entertainment, workshops, nonprofit, virtual, webinar, it
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 0

## Ticket Details


## Event venue details

- **city**: Online
- **location**: online
- **lat**: 0.0000000000
- **long**: 0.0000000000
- **full address**: Online

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: Dr. Lucy Fortson - Mapping the Haystack / Finding the Needles
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events2/banners/f96b62168d277957a8df1643d2c3b0c637b747a2e55c381412dc7d528b8966f4-rimg-w526-h296-gmir.jpg?v=1613295648

## FAQs

- **Q**: When and where is Dr. Lucy Fortson - Mapping the Haystack / Finding the Needles being held?
  - **A:** Dr. Lucy Fortson - Mapping the Haystack / Finding the Needles takes place on Wed, 17 Feb, 2021 at 01:00 am to Wed, 17 Feb, 2021 at 03:00 am at Online.
- **Q**: Who is organizing Dr. Lucy Fortson - Mapping the Haystack / Finding the Needles?
  - **A:** Dr. Lucy Fortson - Mapping the Haystack / Finding the Needles is organized by Westport Astronomical Society.
- **Q**: Who is this event for? Is it right for me?
  - **A:** Dr. Lucy Fortson - Mapping the Haystack / Finding the Needles is ideal for curious learners, students, and skill-builders looking to gain hands-on knowledge and practical expertise in a focused, interactive setting. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a longtime enthusiast in Online, this event is thoughtfully curated to deliver a standout experience worth every moment. If Dr. Lucy Fortson - Mapping the Haystack / Finding the Needles sounds like your kind of event, don't wait - spots fill up fast.

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