Wednesday, December 30, 2020

JWST has a problem all right

The stats of the James Webb space telescope cycle 1 proposal round came in the other day. In summary: an over subscription rate of 1:4. A little less even. 

There was immediate spin how the stats were a good thing. Enthusiasm from around the globe! So many investigators! But that does not change that the 1:4 oversubscription is a disappointment. If I were part of the project, this would and should worry me. 

Remember the collapse of the Arecibo telescope. Ran on a budget of 17m$/yr?  That also has a 1:4 subscription rate (source: egg.astro.cornell.edu › ugradPDFThe Arecibo Radiotelescope - Cornell University) a few years ago. If your shiny new telescope that hands out grants with their data has the same subscription rate as a 60 year old radio telescope that doesn’t, you have a problem. 


Let’s go over what the issues are. 


JWST has the Herschel problem: the lifetime is inherently limited by consumables. 11 years and change. So it is paramount all the science that can be done with it is envisaged now and proposed. The pressure is on. But the Herschel community only figured out what it wanted by cycle 3... this means there may be some science I can do with JWST but I don't quite know how yet. That's a problem for cycle-1 but should go away soon.


JWST has a hype problem: for years we now have heard it was going to be revolutionary. And soon. This led to predictions of an oversubscription rate of 20:1 etc. Especially since much of the first year goes to GTO! Better get ready! We tried. But apparently could not think of that much. 


JWST is a technical Matterhorn: The modes of the instruments are myriad and very complex. Instead of a science case (phase 1) and a technical (phase 2) it’s all combined. This makes every proposal an enormous time and energy investment. The project thought they could get around that by documentation and hype (see above). Get started early! Go to a workshop! But in the end the complexity made it similar to a radio telescope: only the initiated can realistically propose. This issue did not completely go away especially with the last problem.


JWST has a timing problem: oh hey there was a pandemic. Everyone is trying to do their normal work with 10-20% extra effort for every damn thing. So there was less time to work on proposals. But it also had the poorest timing: a deadline on literally the last day of everyone’s semester (ok in the USA) after announcing the opportunity effectively at the start of the semester from hell. And this was the second cycle 1 deadline. It’s getting harder to believe that the project will stick to the timeline this time. Most astronomers expected a third “cycle 1” deadline. After JWST slips even more due to the pandemic etc. It won’t be called that of course. It’ll be the first“mid-cycle” or something. But in reality it’ll be cycle 1c. 


The JWST project could simply not imagine that we did not have any science for it. It was the most amazing thing ever. So poor timing, making the proposals technically hard, a pandemic semester would all be overcome by the community. This is not unique to the JWST. You can always add to an academic’s workload. Until you can’t. 


This is also the reason I don’t expect the gender stats on cycle 1 to be released. Those will be too embarrassing. Men got to put them in but all the women had child care and school from home dumped on them. 


But it will get more competitive later! I hear you say. Different prediction from earlier. This was the first cycle. Much was taken up by guaranteed time and early science projects. Maybe. But when WFC3 was installed, demand for it peaked in the first cycle it was offered. True for every new HST instrument. And this is a whole package of cool new instruments. What gives? At this rate we could be done in year 4... ok some new ideas and follow up and barely end up filling the observatory's lifetime. If that happens...it might be time to update the resume. 


So what can JWST do to improve the numbers. 

  1. Split phase 1 and 2. This was a lesson learned from the early Hubble proposals. ALMA want through something similar. 
  2. Smarter timing. It’s not just your own internal capacity that’s in play here. Make sure your customers can do the work. 
  3. Less modes. Honestly. Get me a spectrum of this thing over there. Don’t make it harder than that. More templates etc for phase 2. 
  4. Stop thinking of this as an observatory. Despite all the instrument modes, it’s a much narrower science range. Does high redshift and planetary formation. Throw in some AGN science. That’s...sorta it? Spitzer wavelengths but high resolution is not as wide a field as Hubble covers. Maybe we'll get excited about brown dwarfs suddenly. 
  5. Organize a legacy survey mode. No not the “survey” mode but legacy proposals like ANGST and PHAT. ERS is filing that niche but JWST is already the same amount of time away from end-of-mission as HST was when the call went out for legacy. Time to organize some conferences and think up must do science. Eg it’s pretty clear that all the nearby known planets will need to be done. And all the CANDELS fields. Just do them. Make scheduling all that less of a headache. 
  6. Build up an archive. Ok I am biased here. But have this thing snap NIR high-resolution images whenever it can means there is something to scour for New Stuff. Something to combine with Roman or Euclid. 

All this comes from a place of worry for me. I like JWST and much more so the people working on it. I really want it to succeed. If it doesn’t hit the ball out of the park next cycle (which will still be pre-launch let’s be real here) it will be in big trouble. 


Thursday, December 10, 2020

Literature Workflow

 Everyone has a workflow for a given process. Most astronomers it's work frantically against a deadline and collapse. I'm not a fan. 

For literature resources, you also need a workflow. The smoother the better. The less you have to think about where that paper was or how to organize your references, the better. It makes it much much easier to write the thing. 

So here is a short intro how *I* organized my literature. Eventually. 

It began with Ron Allen suggesting I'd pick a system. He was vague as to what system. His system involved a giant drawer in his office with physical folders. I got started that way. It devolved into a mess.

A better way is a reference manager some kind. I settled on bibdesk fairly quickly (this is back in 2000) but I made a new .bib bibtex file for each paper/project I was working on. This also devolved into a mess.

I need one file. One BibTex file to rule them all. 

So I made one. Bibliography.bib. 

That's it...that's...my bibliography file. I spent a day or so merging all the files and weeding out all the duplicates. Set up so that pdfs of the papers automatically go to a folder. Name+ last two digits of the year as the identifier and it works? It lives in my dropbox so I always have it?

I was quite happy with that for a quite some time. It's where I'd dump new astro-ph papers in (for later reading hahahah anyway) and so often I'd have the astro-ph already or I could refer to the most recent work. 

And then I moved to Overleaf. Aaaah. I *love* it. Version control? No problem! Every project tagged and searchable. 

But How To Do The BibTex?

Here comes my second to last trick: I have one project called Up To Date Bibliography Here.

Yup. I always upload my bibtex there. As a rule I export it in bib desk as "minimal bibtex" so that it's small. And then I can import or refresh it in the project I'm working on. 

And the last tip: there is a command line tool called ads2bibdesk and when I call it with an astroph number of an article identifier, it loads everything in...it's done. 

At the end of every paper there is just:

\bibliographystyle{aasjournal}

\bibliography{Bibliography}  


and it's...done. 

Pick a system, design the whole flow (from search/atro-ph to final document) and then...trust that system. 

Monday, October 5, 2020

Student paper accepted!

The paper by my undergraduate Shawn Knabel was accepted. I tweet stormed about it. I have certainly helped large swaths of it but I can say with absolute certainty it’s his paper. He responded to the referee entirely on his own. 


It’s an amazing achievement. It’s a very solid paper that looked at the aspects on how one identifies strong gravitational lenses in surveys using spectroscopy, citizen science or machine learning. And how little these three techniques agree. 


This brings me to the other pet of the process: how much of the struggle to get this thing out had nothing to do with the science. The grant that was supposed to pay for it ran out and could not allow for extensions, the referee kept finding new fault where there was none (the main result of the paper didn’t change over 6 referee reports. At some point it felt like hazing. If you were the referee and read this: I hold you in low professional esteem. 


And that brings me to the issue in the astronomy community: why is this considered ok behavior? The “I had to endure this as a grad student so...” attitude. The thinly veiled disdain for science done at state schools or undergraduates. Or horror of horrors both. 


But this success means I should keep pushing. A paper is an excellent equalizer for my undergrads that want to go graduate schools. I disagree that US graduate schools now effectively expect this but it offers a clear avenue for how to get my students into them. 

Sciencing in times of Corona

 I’m trying to get a science done. This is anything from getting grant proposals set up to telescope time proposals, helping students do their science projects and trying to finish the occasional paper myself. 

Let’s admit to ourselves at least here that this is very likely more than we could finish in a good year. And this is not a good year. 

Yet we feel that as a field, or tenure committee or whatever, there is a nonzero chance collective amnesia sets in and we all fear of being labeled “unproductive”. For 2020 and 2021 (this is going to last longer and take time to recover...). 


S lets see what I have in the hopper:


8 scientific papers at 50+% complete. Many almost ready to go to coauthors or with comments or referee reports. Yeah. That should go down. That’s too many. I should finish some. But...


5 student projects that could/should be papers. That’ll take more work but is very beneficial to these students. I should get cracking on those. But they are overwhelmed and so am I. 


I agreed to write a book a few months ago. There is a draft. For me it’s a challenge to stop writing about certain things apparently. Still. Need to wrap that up. 


NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics grant proposals. These are huge with lots of moving parts. Stressful to pull together and shepherd through the University and NSF bureaucracies. I’ve...Eh... started. 

Students count on me to get them funding for their phds. And support undergrads. Oh and myself and my family. Summer salary. Eish. 


The James Webb Space Telescope proposals are due on November 24. In a giant “don’t care” by this project they just put it on the last day of just about everyone’s classes. May as well write “for Ivy League use only” on the side of this thing. But I’m stubborn so... yeah preparing some. 


This is not only hard. This is functionally impossible. So time to pair down, punt and of course “good enough” all of this. 


Teaching in time of corona

I have no clever tricks to make this all easier. This is just a collection of my thoughts now that I’m halfway through the semester. 

I am teaching a 100 level astronomy class for a relatively small class (25) using our planetarium. And a 300lvl python/computing class in a well equipped computer lab. 


So I have well equipped classrooms. With microphones. And in one case already set up recording equipment that is pretty high end. 


First up: it’s exhausting. Accept that the room with social distancing and masks gives little to no feedback. And online classes even less. Pour energy in, wonder the whole time how it’s going. 


Secondly: ruthlessly organize. The number of moving parts has increased dramatically with a bunch of small tasks such as uploading recordings and slides, making sure pre/in-class materials are available to students. So set up a schedule and stick to it. Class equipment goes into the “teaching bag” together with spare masks and sanitizer. 


Thirdly: prepare and work ahead. A lot. I went in expecting to get sick by now or something else massively going wrong. I still expect it. So all the pre-class material was already in blackboard before the semester started. I’m uploading the 300lvl classes ahead of time. As soon as I realized that these were just going to be recordings...the asynchronous also applies to the preparation! Which is good because the end of the semester brings the crunch of JWST and NSF major deadlines. So I’m up to week 11 recording these and I plan to finish recording for the semester next week. I’m sure the building will burn down soon after. Or something. 


Expansion: the work-ahead approach was one of the main takeaways I had from the spring. The asynchronous part should not mean that students can catch up later but also allow for them to work ahead to fit their schedule. 


Not that I’m smug about this. I am doing this because I expect more things to break. Soon. 


Next: flexibility. Students are not doing so hot right now. Even if every class now takes 10% more effort, that means they are over-taxed. And that is before one or two of their classes started descending into pure chaos. So. Flexibility is key. Deadlines, how many assignments will get you full marks. Etc etc. Oh and extra credit assignments. Lots of them all over the place. 


Prepare for all online. This is part of flexible but basically build a completely online course (everything in one spot) and teach in person as long as circumstances allow. Weirdly. I’m still in-person. Ok. But ready to switch. 


Hybrid/Hyflex. No. Just no. It assumes perfect internet for everyone (ha!), No emergencies (Haha!), and that instructor can be in two places at once (oh haha very funny). It. Does. Not. Work. 

I noticed this when certain committees were online/in person mix and then it falls to the people in the room. 


Foregiveness: it’s ok. Oh the kids did not learn about that? Oh well. The foregiveness goes towards yourself too. Science is suffering badly (next post). It’s ok. 2020 (and likely 2021) are mulligans. 


Wednesday, June 10, 2020

STRIKE 4 BLACK LIVES

This blog post is not to signal anything. I am putting this here so I can remind myself.

The call went out a week ago for a strike of higher education. I went on strike in grad school once and I know it did not impress The Powers That Be.

But this strike is smart: a commitment to read and educate ourselves and to commit to improved practices in the future. And we can commit a Day to plan and take action.

https://www.particlesforjustice.org

The initiative is by Dr. Brian Nord, a very respected physicist and machine learning expert and Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a cosmologist and long-time voice on social justice matters in STEM.

see the NYT article about it here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/science/science-diversity-racism-protests.html?smid=tw-nytimesscience&smtyp=cur

And I am glad to see some of my colleagues from UoL on there. As a University, it certainly has committed visibly towards justice. So this is for myself and the Physics Department. How can I help clean up my corner?

I am starting here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a-lzdtxOlWuzYNGqwlYwxMWADtZ6vJGCpKhtJHHrS54/mobilebasic?fbclid=IwAR2Lq-yVBWPPo03J68KaxbzosGyP8bzrrgBsdSqii-wbY2U6gSfN1jS-uho

some more reading I've been doing today:

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/724918/

https://medium.com/space-anthropology/diversity-is-a-dangerous-set-up-8cee942e7f22

And Dr. Tana Joseph has a video talking about decolonization in SA;

https://vimeo.com/414809354?fbclid=IwAR2fHOQiXAfvorke1xrKzhiVssjHDq9veKbD4Tkpf_TEIfBUmp9Mu22wemQ

There are some clear actions that I can take. Starting off: the Louisville Bail fund.

https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/louisville-community-bail-fund?source=twitter&

Protests continue here in Louisville for Breonna Taylor and David McAtee and the Bail system is one more element of a twisted system. Put some money where my opinions are.

Vote
2.4 years to go before I can...but who's counting?

Back to UoL Physics. Louisville is 15% black and 5% Hispanic. These numbers are not reflected in the department. We do not have representation of these groups in the faculty and we are unlikely to get any with hiring freezes and increased reliance on adjuncts. I am not in a position to do anything about that right now but I'll see if Dr Brown who is a Dean and a co-signature on the strike, has any thoughts.

So.

Goal: get a representative number of black and hispanic students in physics and astronomy and make sure they feel valued and part of it.

Issues: 
- structural racism in almost any facet of society
- loss of students from high school to Uni
- Perceived lower preparation for Uni Physics levels.
- lower participation of BIPOC in Physics.

The lack of students that major in physics at UoL due to the last two point seems closest to home (and most directly my responsibility). So that is a place to start.

Assets:
- SPS chapter, full of active and enthusiastic students. Small but sociable.
- The Louisville Astronomical Society. Both can help me organize public events. Trick will be to make sure to include all in the advertisements.
- The Bullitt Lecture. I am the organizer. Look for a more diverse lineup of speakers. Advertise to broader community.
- Planetarium. Lovely space for outreach. Costs money though. Knowledgeable people and a mobile planetarium as well.
- UoL community partnership with West Louisville
https://louisville.edu/communityengagement/signature-partnership-1
- Absolutely no money for this whatsoever. Add this to grant applications.

I'm already involved with science classes at one school. Easy, the kids go there. that is the kind of low-hanging fruit I will gladly keep doing. Add some inclusive element to activities I or the University do anyway. New initiatives seem to be discouraged.

Stuff I can do:

Low bar:
- organize with SPS events to include everyone on campus. Make sure that these are open and advertised to all. Go with SPS to African Studies department? And I mean sit in and listen.
- LAS events on campus.
- Student research opportunities (paid). Make sure I add at least one a year to every grant. Reorganize this as an advertised group project?

Mid-height bar:
- Organize Planetarium shows for schools in West Louisville. This proved surprisingly tricky with just the one school. Something to explore with the Planetarium people and the community engagement project. See if PTA can fundraise for this. The mobile planetarium is cheaper (525$ per school or $7 pr student for main planetarium plus bussing.)
- engage with West Louisville Community partnership. Seems not much has happened since 2017, the year I got here.
- Fix up the dome on top of the building for open nights. On-campus is much more accessible for everyone.
- Spanish language Planetarium shows. I mean surely...nope.
- A Bullitt Lecture Speaker that isn't a Senior White Dude. Goals for 2021/22 I'm afraid (this year's has to be cancelled).

High bar:
- explore again about making UoL a Bridge Program. When I asked earlier it was promptly shut down but this is worth exploring and pushing for. There are programs at Ohio State, Indiana and Vanderbilt.
- Push for BIPOC faculty. volunteer for the next search committee? >>18mo? I mean we are two professors short in our department.
- Summer camp. Can the university support such a program? As part of a undergraduate Bridge program?


I'll set an alarm to alert me in November (after Fall semester which promising to be full of distractions) and check if I made any progress.





Thursday, April 2, 2020

Science in the time of Quarantine




I have a few tells. To me they are very obvious. They surface when I am stressed/anxious/under-pressure/overcaffienated.

I have them all right now. This is not normal. I am not "working from home", I am sorta trying to do work while a whole mess of other stuff is happening. Which is fine. I wrote an email explaining to the students that my main goal now was to wobble in for a landing with the semester with the class. Do what we can when we can and sorta hope things will be ok.

That doesn't mean I haven't been doing some research related things. But out of order, probably badly or sorta ok but f*ck it this will have to do. Things were almost derailing already before spring break. I got a bunch of HST proposals in (because of course) but not every one of them got a last polish. fine.
I am submitted proposals where I can but sometimes it won't be a nice looking as my best work. It may not be. There is some stuff going down. The kids are home from school for weeks now and may go completely feral in Minecraft. Popping into the store feels like a heist from Mission Impossible. It's weird.

So while I still feel the pressure to produce (will the powers-that-be take this into account for tenure, at the moment they say they will but how?) and I sorta am? But focus has gone out the window. Doing the right project at the right time? In order? Ha! I just randomly grab A Thing and hope I don't get too distracted till its done.

Telescope proposals (all delayed, all for telescopes currently shuttered), funding proposals (hmmm what will the Federal budget look like when these get reviewed?) and papers (how am I paying for all these?). all the while working with people who are also just trying their best at home.

So I got some stuff done. To counteract some of the anxiety I am having. I don't expect others to. Please grade accordingly.