Updates from the MPIA Data Science Group
February 19, 2026
Dear Colleagues,
I would like to bring to your attention the activities organized by the Data Science Group and advertise upcoming opportunities.
Our workshop schedule for 2026 is now available, with the first workshop next Friday on project structure to get all your 2026 projects started off well. We are planning a number of events, both during the Friday workshop slots and during office hours. If you are interested in attending a workshop, please add your name to the corresponding spreadsheet. For events that are a few months out, dates may be tentative - add your name to receive updates if changes happen. The first few upcoming events are:
2026-02-27: Documentation, Software Architecture & Project Structure
2026-03-20: Time Series and Gaussian Processes
2026-04-20: Working on Remote Systems (e.g. MPCDF, during office hours)
2026-05-08 and 05-22: Statistical Thinking for Scientists (2 days)
2026-05-29: Probabilistic Modeling: Bayesian Methods & MCMC
Register here if you are planning to attend.
Thanks to all who gave feedback on our programming! We hope you enjoy the new topics we are offering. And congratulations to the raffle winners!
We are also planning an industry visitors series this year. The first edition will be in late March. Visitor names and careers represented will be announced shortly.
Materials from (most) all past workshops are available in here, including materials from the recent workshops on AI-Agents and pixi.
I would also like to draw your attention to events organized by MPCDF. Please register on the event webpages if you would like to attend:
- AMD-GPU Workshop, Lectures and Exercises, Apr 21 - 24, 2026 (online via Zoom)
- AMD-GPU Workshop, Hackathon, Apr 27 -29, 2026 (online via Zoom)
- Introduction to MPCDF Services, Apr 30 (online via Zoom)
AI and Astronomy Weekly Roundup is a weekly summary of machine learning papers on the arXiv. Check it out if interested.
This newsletters (and past editions) are also 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
Cover image generated with Midjourney.