Updates from the Data Science Group
October, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
I would like to bring to your attention the activities organized by the Data Science Group and advertise upcoming opportunities.
Workshops continue with several events planned over the next few months:
2025-10-27 Astropy Hack Day, 14:00 - 16:00, Beschprechungsraum
2025-11-07, (tentative) SPHEREX Hack Day, keep an eye on Slack for details
2025-11-21 Workshop: Data Visualization, 13:00 - 16:30, Horsaal
2025-12-12 Workshop: Data management and open science, 13:00 - 16:30, Horsaal
Register here if you are planning to attend the workshops. The Hack days are open door.
Note: We have shifted some of the dates to avoid overlap with other events. Please recheck the dates if you plan to attend workshops.
Materials from (almost) all past workshops are available in this repo.
MPCDF also offers frequent workshops on computational topics, specifically around the services they offer. Please check their webpage for more details.
Our FAQ gets regular updates
We want to reiterate the recent articles on changes to the package and environment managers in Python:
Python Package and Environment Management contains recommendations about managing environments with managers other than Conda. The article has been updated with info following the recent change in Anaconda licensing. We no longer recommend Conda as the primary environment manager for researchers.
Migrating from Anaconda gives you step-by-step instructions on how to move from Conda to Miniforge.
AI and Astronomy Weekly Roundup is a weekly summary of machine learning papers on the arXiv. Check it out if interested.
Newsletters (and past editions) are available via Substack. Sign up to receive notifications when new resources are published.
We also regularly update the Awesome Astro Data Science List with relevant resources.
Our Google Calendar lists all our events.
One-on-one career counseling, academic and non-academic sessions. The sessions can cover discussions of different options, resume reviews, advice on upskilling, networking help, and more. Reserve a slot here: Iva or Morgan
Project Consulting We have availability to consult on projects! If you need help with a model, a statistical analysis, implementing a new data analysis method, developing a new piece of code, or refactoring an old library, please reach out! We are also happy to help with data and software publication. Take a moment to chat with us on our calendar.
Weekly coding coffee (office hours) We hold regular coding coffee and cookies in the third-floor lounge every Monday from 14:00 to 16:00. Feel free to come with your projects, questions, or just for a chat.
Slack Join the #data-science Slack channel for ~daily updates on exciting data science and tech developments.
Feel free to contact us via e-mail (ds@mpia.de) or stop by our offices. We look forward to working with you.
All the best,
-Iva & Morgan
(Opening image generated with Midjourney.)