McGill Space Institute

Mentors: Student: jysi

<p>Transparency in conceptualizing, creating, and circulating a model is respected within the scientific community; however, open sharing of these has yet to rise as a commonplace practice. Distribution of models in the form of open-source modules is needed to initiate freer discourse in the scientific world, where the development of interdisciplinary fields has served to the end of establishing specificity of focus instead of fostering a more holistic and collaborative approach to investigation.The McGill Space Institute (MSI) is an organization located at the crossroads of astronomy, biology, and earth sciences, embodying an archetype characterized by transparency, sharing, and collaboration: facets reflected in open-source culture. By developing three pieces of code for a model of an important microbial metabolism, dissimilatory sulfate reduction, we can meet the interests of MSI researchers from all walks. In making a single core model available to these three sub-groups of workers in formats that are compatible with their existing working methods and languages of choice, it is possible to set a precedent in the encouragement of transdisciplinary collaboration in science.</p>

Mentors: Student: popeye

<p>To code up a Python open source data reduction pipeline for space-based infrared observations. The goal of this project is to reduce images from the Spitzer Space Telescope into ultra-high precision time-resolved photometry suitable for characterizing the atmospheres of transiting extrasolar planets. The code written will be highly modular so that it can be adapted for the James Webb Space Telescope (which is capable of measuring the temperature of temperate terrestrial planets), due to launch in 2018. This project is a contribution to establishing the habitability of nearby rocky exoplanets.</p>

Mentors: Student: Akshay Narasimha

<p>Icarus is an open source tool used for light curve synthesis. The aim of the project is to add more functionalities to Icarus.</p>