Merging Astrophysics and Computer Science

[Krishant]

I am currently a student studying for my degree and I'm 18. My question is that is it possible to pursue Computer Science and Astrophysics simultaneously. As a child I was fascinated with the origin of the universe and wanted to know how everything started and how everything works and later in Life I got interested in programming and Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing recently. So my question is that, is there a way to somehow bridge the gap between Computer science (Artificial intelligence and Quantum computing more specifically) and Astrophysics that I can happily pursue in my future.I would be very happy to hear from everyone.

 

[CarmineS]

I can't honestly think of any correlations with the two. Although I have had a similar question about merging AI and physics in general. There didn't seem to be a career in which the two would be applicable. You could be a computational physicist, but that's just physics with more programming involved than average. Could you double major/minor in both of the fields? Yes, it is very possible. Would you find a career where both would be applicable? No.

 

[Choppy]

Actually, if you're interested in pursuing astrophysics, I think you would be hard pressed NOT to find any overlap with computer science in the coming decades.

I heard a brief segment on the radio last night about at new radio-telescope in Penticton BC, and the astrophysicist they were interviewing was talking about how what's unique about it is that unlike most modern telescopes it doesn't track a specific segment of the sky. My guess is that they're more interested in the frequency space of the signals they receive, although I didn't quite catch the details. The point though was that the whole project was enabled by the ability to do fast processing of the data it will take. Here's a (non scientific) link to the article.

In radiology, I think we're going to see a lot of work being done in the coming years using AI to extract information from images and assist radiologists with diagnoses. There's no reason to assume that AI won't play a major role in doing much the same thing in mapping the sky, or answering some of the big questions in astrophysics.

 

[CarmineS]

Actually, if you're interested in pursuing astrophysics, I think you would be hard pressed NOT to find any overlap with computer science in the coming decades.

I heard a brief segment on the radio last night about at new radio-telescope in Penticton BC, and the astrophysicist they were interviewing was talking about how what's unique about it is that unlike most modern telescopes it doesn't track a specific segment of the sky. My guess is that they're more interested in the frequency space of the signals they receive, although I didn't quite catch the details. The point though was that the whole project was enabled by the ability to do fast processing of the data it will take. Here's a (non scientific) link to the article.

In radiology, I think we're going to see a lot of work being done in the coming years using AI to extract information from images and assist radiologists with diagnoses. There's no reason to assume that AI won't play a major role in doing much the same thing in mapping the sky, or answering some of the big questions in astrophysics.

That's interesting, I haven't took a look at the article but I will after my reply. I didn't know that there was an overlap of astrophysics and AI. Do you think there would ever be an overlap in general physics and AI? I have done some researching and I can't find anything so far.

EDIT: Really interesting article. I just followed any of the social media updates I could find. Excited to see what it discovers!

 

[Choppy]

Do you think there would ever be an overlap in general physics and AI?

I'm sure there is and will continue to be. Any problem that involves processing large amounts of data and/or pattern recognition is likely to benefit from machine learning. A friend of mine did some work with neural networks processing data for the MINOS neutrino oscillation experiment a few years ago, for example. If you're having a difficult time finding examples, you might just want to refine your search terms a little bit - rather than "artificial intelligence" search for specific machine learning algorithms: neural networks, naïve Bayes classifier, principle component analysis and specific problems in physics that you're interested in.

 

[Locrian]

I'm not involved with the astrophysics community at all, but I frequent a lot of statistical learning and python sites, and I feel like I bump into astro folks every day.

Below are a few links, but they're just a taste.

http://www.schawinski-group.ethz.ch...ep-learning-and-big-data-in-astrophysics.html

https://arxiv.org/pdf/0906.2173.pdf

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/doing-astronomy-python

 

[Krishant]

I'm not involved with the astrophysics community at all, but I frequent a lot of statistical learning and python sites, and I feel like I bump into astro folks every day.

Below are a few links, but they're just a taste.

http://www.schawinski-group.ethz.ch...ep-learning-and-big-data-in-astrophysics.html

https://arxiv.org/pdf/0906.2173.pdf

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/doing-astronomy-python

Thanks : )

 

[wukunlin]

There are quite a few distributed computing projects for astrophysics research. Not sure if they are what OP is looking for though.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_projects

 

[radium]

Machine learning is very big in physics these days. I hear people talking about it all the time. It has a lot of applications in fields like biophysics and quantum many body physics where you have very complex systems with the many the different components interacting with each other.

 

[knox69]

I am currently a student studying for my degree and I'm 18. My question is that is it possible to pursue Computer Science and Astrophysics simultaneously. As a child I was fascinated with the origin of the universe and wanted to know how everything started and how everything works and later in Life I got interested in programming and Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing recently. So my question is that, is there a way to somehow bridge the gap between Computer science (Artificial intelligence and Quantum computing more specifically) and Astrophysics that I can happily pursue in my future.I would be very happy to hear from everyone.

Lol this is late but just thought I should let you know...my physics teacher mentioned that she had a friend who worked at NASA (before the Hubble and better telescopes were invented) and essentially her job was to take the data of each image, from telescopes on earth, and edit the code for what I assume is the front-end (I don't know any many front-end languages but I assume something like CSS on a way larger and more complicated scale). So basically her job was to edit images and make them clearer for other scientists to use.