Archived Event: 2015 Tucson Researcher Workshop

Tucson, AZ, USA; 2015 September 28

Steward Observatory, N505

This will be an intensive one-day working workshop for people who are interested in porting their data into WorldWide Telescope (WWT) and developing uses for those data in WWT – video abstracts, tours, etc. A follow-up data showcase at the Flandreau Planetarium is also planned. The morning session will focus on how to get your data into WWT and the afternoon session will give participants time to make something interesting with WWT.

Starting with Your Data

Getting original data into WWT is something that is potentially time-consuming and somewhat challenging; that is why the morning is devoted to that task. Examples of data you could bring to the workshop include:

Raw image data, FITS format
Processed images in any image format (JPEG, PNG, TIF etc.)
WMS-served data
All-sky, survey images
Tabular catalog data
Traverse trails
SPICE kernels
3D models

However, if you don’t know before the workshop what data you might want to bring or if you don’t know what data might be relevant for you to get into WWT, we will have some test datasets available for the morning session.

Some Ideas of What you can do with WWT

WorldWide Telescope (WWT) can be used to create many assets that are of use to professional scientists and educators. Below is just an example list of some of the ways you can use WWT:

Video Abstracts in AAS Journals
Figures in context in AAS Journals
Videos for professional colloquia and seminars
Videos for public outreach
Tours for public exploration
Tours and videos you can use in classroom instruction
Tours you can share with local science centers and planetaria.

RSVP Before Thursday, September 24

There is room for 12 participants so please reserve a spot if you are interested in attending, by contacting Doug Roberts (doctor.spaceman@yahoo.com). Doug Roberts, is at Northwestern University and working with the WWT Team to plan the next steps for WWT development. He will be around the entire week of Sept. 28 to help out following the workshop. Participants are encouraged to bring their own data. All participants should contact Doug before September 24, so discuss what data to bring and what to expect as outcomes.

Checklist

RSVP by emailing Doug Roberts (doctor.spaceman@yahoo.com)
If you have access to a Windows laptop (less than 4 years old) bring it with you! OR
If you don’t have access to a Windows laptop, let Doug know.
If you are bringing your own laptop, make sure your data is on it or easily available OR
If you are going to use a laptop provided by the workshop make sure to have a thumb drive with the data or make it available on-line.

Workshop Schedule

Getting Data into WWT (9:00 am – noon)

9:00-9:10 am: Introduction to WWT
9:10-10:00 am: Demonstrate getting various data in: all-sky surveys, FITS files, catalogs, 3D models etc.
10:00 am-noon: Hands-on: Get Your Own Data In!

Pizza Lunch for Workshop Participants and Graduate Students (noon – 1:00 pm)

Doing Something Cool with WWT (1:00 – 5:30 pm)

1:00-2:00 pm: Demos; Making simple tours; Audio; Video Abstracts; Rendering to Video; Oculus Rift
2:00-5:00 pm: Making Something Cool with Your Own Data!
5:00-6:00 pm: Participants Report Out

Following the workshop Doug will be around Steward for the rest of the week and available for one-on-one help with any aspect of WWT, especially any refinement of end products of workshop, such as tours or videos or helping out getting data into WWT.

More information on the workshop is available at http://wwtworkshops.org

To participate please email Doug Roberts before September 24, but sooner is better as when you connect with Doug, he will follow up to discuss what data you might try to load in and uses you might consider. Any work of getting the data together is better done at the before the workshop as it will make it much more likely that you will be able to create something useful by the end of the workshop.

Workshop Participants

Connie Walker
Dolores Hill
Ed Prather
Knut Olsen
Lia Medeiros
Mark Newhouse
Matthew Wenger
Molly Simon
Robert Sparks