Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convenor, lecturer, lab demonstrator
Matt Owers
7 Wally's Walk, room 2.703
By appointment
Lecturer
Christian Schwab
7 Wally's Walk, room 2.202
By appointment
Lab demonstrator
Lee Spitler
7 Wally's Walk, room 2.605
By appointment
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Credit points |
Credit points
10
|
Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
PHYS202 or PHYS2020
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
|
Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
We are in the 'golden age' of astronomy: powerful new telescopes are giving us exciting new visions of the Universe. For example, radio telescopes are uncovering hidden structures in our own Milky Way galaxy and space telescopes are revealing exotic planets orbiting alien stars. However, analysing the flood of data from new instruments has been compared to 'drinking from a firehose' - impossible for individuals to do unassisted. Scientists increasingly rely on intelligent algorithms and robust statistical analysis to make new discoveries in astronomical 'big data'. In this unit, students will learn about the astrophysics of the Milky Way galaxy and the hot topic of extra-solar planets - both fields where advanced analysis techniques are making a significant impact. Students will hone their data analysis skills during labs, where they will use machine learning, Bayesian statistics, and data-mining techniques to analyse cutting-edge astronomy data sets linked to the lecture material. The techniques learned here are broadly applicable to a wide range of problems outside of astronomy and this unit will equip students to be pioneers of the information age. |
Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
The 'estimated time on task' for each assessment item is an estimate of the additional time needed to complete each assessment outside of all scheduled learning activities. These estimates assume that you actively engage with all scheduled learning activities and spend an additional 12 hours of self-led study over the course of the session.
The final examination is a hurdle requirement. You must obtain a mark of at least 40% in the final exam to be eligible to pass the unit. If your mark in the final examination is between 30% and 39% inclusive, you may be a given a second and final chance to attain the required level of performance; the mark awarded for the second exam towards your final unit mark will be capped at 40%, and you will be allowed to sit the second exam only if this mark would be sufficient to pass the unit overall.
There is now a General Faculty of Science and Engineering Policy for assessment submission deadlines and late submissions:
Online quizzes, in-class activities, scheduled tests and exams must be undertaken at the time indicated in the unit guide. Should these activities be missed due to illness or misadventure, students may apply for Special Consideration.
All other assessments (e.g., lab reports and assignments) must be submitted by 5:00 pm on their due date.
Should these assessments be missed due to illness or misadventure, students should apply for Special Consideration.
Late submission are allowed in this unit, and a consistent penalty will be applied for late submissions as follows:
A 12-hour grace period will be given after which the following deductions will be applied to the awarded assessment mark: 12 to 24 hours late = 10% deduction; for each day thereafter, an additional 10% per day or part thereof will be applied until five days beyond the due date. After this time, a mark of zero (0) will be given. For example, an assessment worth 20% is due 5 pm on 1 January. Student A submits the assessment at 1 pm, 3 January. The assessment received a mark of 15/20. A 20% deduction is then applied to the mark of 15, resulting in the loss of three (3) marks. Student A is then awarded a final mark of 12/20.
If you receive special consideration for the final exam, a supplementary exam will be scheduled after the end of the normal exam period. By making a special consideration application for the final exam you are declaring yourself available for a resit during the supplementary examination period and will not be eligible for a second special consideration approval based on pre-existing commitments. Please ensure you are familiar with the policy prior to submitting an application. Approved applicants will receive an individual notification one week prior to the exam with the exact date and time of their supplementary examination.
If you are given a second opportunity to sit the final examination as a result of failing to meet the minimum mark required, you will be offered that chance during the same supplementary examination period and will be notified of the exact day and time after the publication of final results for the unit.
Name | Weighting | Hurdle | Due |
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Problem sets | 20% | No | Weeks 3, 8, 12 |
Final exam | 30% | Yes | Session 1 exam period. |
Lab reports | 50% | No | Weeks 7, 10, 13 |
Assessment Type 1: Problem set
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Weeks 3, 8, 12
Weighting: 20%
A series of assignments throughout the semester.
Assessment Type 1: Examination
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Session 1 exam period.
Weighting: 30%
This is a hurdle assessment task (see assessment policy for more information on hurdle assessment tasks)
Examination in the university exam period, covering all content from the unit.
Assessment Type 1: Lab report
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Weeks 7, 10, 13
Weighting: 50%
A report for each of the three computational projects.
1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:
2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation
Your lecturers in this course are Matt Owers and Christian Schwab. Each week, there will be 2 hours of lectures that will be delivered on-campus with echo recordings provided. There will also be a one hour of lectorial-type demonstration delivered on-campus. The 2 hours of lectures will cover astronomy content related to the Milky Way galaxy (Matt Owers) and extra-solar planets (Christian Schwab), while the one hour lectorials will cover techniques used to extract information from datasets (Matt Owers).
The lab sessions run from Week 3-12 on-campus in the Physics and Astronomy computer lab, and will involve a series of computer labs completed using Python Notebooks within the Google Colab environment. Note that labs start in Week 3. Matt Owers and Lee Spitler will be your lab demonstrators.
Resources will be provided on iLearn. There is no required text, although the Milky Way Galaxy component will primarily draw content from the book "Galaxies in the Universe: An Introduction" 2nd Ed. by Sparke and Gallagher, supplemented by material from "An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics" 2nd Ed. by Carroll and Ostlie and "Galactic Astronomy" by Binney and Merrifield. Useful resources for the data science part of the course are the books "Statistics, Data Mining, and Machine Learning in Astronomy: A Practical Python Guide for the Analysis of Survey Data" by Ivezic et al. and "Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and Tensorflow" by Geron.
Week | Lecture material (Matt/Christian) | Lectorial material (Matt) |
Computer Labs (Matt/Lee) |
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1 | Introduction, basic astro (Matt) | Getting started with Google Colab | N/A | |
2 | Distance measurements & introduction to GAIA (Matt) | Manipulating, visualising and cleaning data (Pandas) | N/A | |
3 | Demographics of stars and stellar populations (Matt) | Fitting a model to data. | Lab 1: Line Fitting and the Period-Luminosity relation. | |
4 | Structure and components of MW part I (Matt) | Modelling data: Bayesian reasoning and samplers (MCMC). | Lab 1: Line Fitting and the Period-Luminosity relation. | |
5 | Structure and components of the MQ part II | Exploring structure in data: visualisation, PCA | Lab 1: Line Fitting and the Period-Luminosity relation. | |
6 | Kinematics of the Milky Way (Matt) | Exploring structure in data with K-means clustering. | Lab 2: Determining star cluster membership using Gaia data. | |
7 | Orbital Dynamics within the Milky Way (Matt) | Exploring structure in data with Gaussian Mixture Models | Lab 2: Determining star cluster membership using Gaia data. | |
Mid-sem | Break | |||
8 | Formation and evolution of the Milky Way and local group (Matt) |
Anzac day |
Anzac Day | |
9 | Introduction to Exoplanets (Christian) | Classification: decision trees and random forest | Lab 2: Determining star cluster membership using Gaia data. | |
10 | Detection of Exoplanets (Christian) | Artificial neural networks | Lab 3: Deep Learning to classify Galactic objects. | |
11 | Demographics of Exoplanets (Christian) | Convolutional neural networks | Lab 3: Deep Learning to classify Galactic objects. | |
12 | Exoplanet atmospheres (Christian) | Revision | Lab 3: Deep Learning to classify Galactic objects. | |
13 | Revision (Matt/Christian) | N/A |
N.B.: This schedule is flexible and subject to change.
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.
To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct
Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au
At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
The Writing Centre provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.
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Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:
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Unit information based on version 2022.02 of the Handbook