ECE Seminar Series: Lifan Wang

Please join the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering for a seminar series featuring guest speaker Lifan Wang, a professor in astrophysics at Texas A&M University, for a presentation titled, “A Data-Driven Approach to Spectroscopic Analyses in Astronomy.” This seminar will take place on Tuesday, October 24, in room 203 of Siegel Hall from 12:45–1:45 p.m. This event is open to the public.

Abstract

Spectroscopic diagnostics plays a crucial role in astronomical studies. The observed photons experience extensive interaction among hundreds of thousands of atomic lines before escaping. Spectral features are broadened and blended in rapidly expanding objects like supernovae. Artificial intelligence has the potential to disentangle the coupling of the atomic lines and achieve quantitative measurement of the chemical compositions based on the observed spectra. This goal can be accomplished in two approaches. The first one is based on empirical analysis of observational data. Neural networks can be built to reduce the dimensionality of the problem. The second is to build physics-informed neural networks and construct physical models with observational data as the initial/boundary conditions. I will show the applications of these two to the studies of Type Ia supernovae, considered the most accurate extragalactic distance calibrators in the universe.

Bio

Lifan Wang is a professor in astrophysics at Texas A&M University.  His research interests include spectropolarimetry observations of supernovae. The supernovae he studies are so far away that even the largest telescopes in the world cannot resolve their shapes through direct imaging. Spectropolarimetry is a technique that enables geometric structures of supernovae to be studied. He is also doing research on machine learning enabled studies of large astronomical data sets and he is a member of the TAMIDS Scientific Machine Learning Lab. He leads the DECam search for Intermediate Redshift Transients (DESIRT), which uses DECam to find transients and DESI to carry out spectral follow-ups. Most excitingly, he is working on finding high redshift transients using the JWST. His team is also endeavoring to build an astronomical observatory at Dome A, the highest point in Antarctica. He hopes to set up several telescopes in the coming years to study the mysterious dark energy in the universe.