Chandra/CIAO Workshop. UMass Lowell, 19-23 May 2025
Previous CIAO Workshops
Overview
Members of the Chandra X-ray Center, CfA and MIT, join the staff at the University of Massachusetts Lowell for a week long workshop focused on Chandra data analysis. The workshop includes presentations, science talks, and ample time for hands-on learning.
Post-Workshop Survey
Please take a few minutes to provide us with some feedback about the Chandra/CIAO workshop by filling out the CIAO Workshop Followup Survey form. Your commentary and assessment are very beneficial to us. Please complete the survey before end-of-day Wednesday, 28 May 2025.
Workbook
A key element of the Chandra/CIAO workshop time reserved for Hands On data analysis. Some students may come to the workshop with specific datasets or specific analysis questions. However, for new Chandra/CIAO users we have created a Workbook with some basic exercises to complement the talks.
In addition to the PDF, we also have provided the workbook in the form of a Jupyter notebook. There are two versions: an emptied notebook without (most) of the exercise questions answered, and a completed notebook. To run these notebooks users will need to install the bash_kernel before starting jupyter notebook/lab using the commands below
pip install bash_kernel python -m bash_kernel.install --sys-prefix
Tip: Students may want to skip and circle back around to the "Extra Credit" sections unless they are especially interested in a specific topic.
Using the workbook on SciServer
The workbook uses the bash kernel, which is not provided by default on SciServer. It can be installed but is a slightly-involved process:
-
Start a Terminal (under the Other tab)
and enter the lines:
- conda acitvate ciao
- pip3 install bash_kernel
- python -m bash_kernel.install --sys-prefix
- jupyter kernelspec list
- wget https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/ciao/workshop/may25/CIAO_Workshop_Exercises_ciao417_blank.ipynb
- Close all the tabs within the SciServer environment.
- At this point a new notebook cell labelled "(ciao)" will appear, with a black-and-white logo.
At this point you can start the notebook "CIAO_Workshop_Exercises_ciao417_blank" and uncomment the first two lines in the first cell; that is, change the first cell to:
conda activate ciao
PATH="${ASCDS_INSTALL}/bin:${PATH}"
ciaover -v
Venue
Sessions and meals will be held in Coburn Hall, 850 Broadway St., classrooms 110 and 140.
UMass Lowell campus map: https://www.uml.edu/maps/
Free parking is available Broadway/Riverview lot on South Campus, 900 Broadway St. Gates are open during Summer and parking free of charge without needing a permit or temporary pass.
Workshop Dinner, 6:00pm, Thursday, 22 May 2025 at Cobblestones of Lowell
There’s a free City Bus #6 that can take you to the restaurant, but since buses stop running after 6 PM, return trips will likely need to be by shared Uber.
Lodging
Participants will be staying in the Riverside Suites East dorms.
Workshop Schedule
| Time | Title | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Monday, 19 May 2025 | ||
| 09:00 - 10:00 | Registration and Breakfast | |
| 10:00 - 10:15 |
Welcome & Logistics
|
Antonella Fruscione & Silas Laycock |
| 10:15 - 11:15 | The Chandra X-ray Observatory: An Introduction | Nick Lee |
| 11:15-11:30 | Coffee & Tea break | |
| 11:30 - 12:15 |
Introduction to X-ray Astronomy and Data Analysis
|
Jonathan McDowell |
| 12:15 - 12:45 | Introduction to Chandra Data Products | Kenny Glotfelty |
| 12:30 - 14:00 | Lunch | |
| 14:00-14:10 |
Kahoot!
|
Katie Cranmer |
| 14:00 - 14:45 |
Introduction to CIAO
|
Antonella Fruscione |
| 14:45 - 15:30 | Science Talk I: Image Analysis
|
Rudy Montez |
| 15:30 - 15:45 | Coffee & Tea | |
| 15:45 - 17:00 | Hands On w/ Introduction | |
| Tuesday, 20 May 2025 | ||
| 09:00 - 09:30 | Registration and Breakfast | |
| 09:30 - 10:00 |
CIAO Documentation and Helpdesk
|
Katie Cranmer & Nick Lee |
| 10:00 - 10:30 |
Science Talk II: X-rays from the Dawn of Time
|
Thomas Connor |
| 10:30 - 10:45 | Coffee & Tea break | |
| 10:45 - 11:45 | SAOImageDS9 and DAX
|
Kenny Glotfelty |
| 11:45 - 12:30 | X-ray Imaging and Extended Sources | Rudy Montez |
| 12:30 - 14:00 | Lunch | |
| 14:00-14:10 | Kahoot! | Katie Cranmer |
| 14:00 - 14:30 |
Source Detection & Statistics
|
Vinay Kashyap |
| 14:30 - 15:00 |
Calibration and CALDB
|
Dave Huenemoerder |
| 15:00 - 15:15 | Coffee & Tea | |
| 15:15 - 17:00 | Hands On | |
| Wednesday, 21 May 2025 | ||
| 09:00 - 09:30 | Registration and Breakfast | |
| 09:30 - 10:15 |
Imaging Spectral Analysis
|
Antonella Fruscione |
| 10:15-10:30 | Coffee & Tea break | |
| 10:30 - 11:45 |
Sherpa: Modeling and Fitting 
and Intro to notebook_plotter
|
Aneta Siemiginowska & David A Principe |
| 11:45 - 12:30 |
Merging and Combining data
|
Doug Burke |
| 12:30 - 14:00 | Lunch | |
| 14:00-14:10 | Kahoot! | Katie Cranmer |
| 14:00 - 16:00 | Hands On
|
|
| 15:30 - 15:45 | Coffee & Tea | |
| 16:00 - 17:00 |
The X-ray Sky in High Definition: Twenty-five Years of Astrophysics
with the Chandra X-ray Observatory
|
Pat Slane |
| Thursday, 22 May 2025 | ||
| 09:00 - 09:30 | Registration and Breakfast | |
| 09:30 - 10:30 |
Science Talk III: Gratings data analysis of the accreting young star TW Hya
& HETG tutorial notebook
|
Hans Moritz Guenther |
| 10:30 - 10:45 | Coffee & Tea break | |
| 10:45 - 11:45 |
Chandra Source Catalog
and
TGCat
|
Doug Burke & Mel Nynka |
| 11:45 - 12:30 |
Chandra Source Catalog as Legacy Product
for Machine Learning Discovery in High Energy
Astrophysics &
notebook
|
Rafael Martínez-Galarza |
| 12:30 - 14:00 | Lunch | |
| 14:00-14:10 |
Kahoot!
|
Katie Cranmer |
| 14:00 - 17:00 | Hands On | |
| 16:00 - 17:00 | Excursion to
Boott Cotton Mills Museum
(optional)
|
|
| 15:30 - 15:45 | Coffee & Tea | |
| 17:00 - 18:00 | Relocate to dinner venue | |
| 18:00 - | Workshop Dinner
|
|
| Friday, 23 May 2025 | ||
| 09:00 - 09:30 | Registration and Breakfast | |
| 09:30 - 10:30 | Hands On | |
| 10:30 - 11:30 |
Science Talk IV: Astronomical Timing Analysis
|
Silas Laycock |
| 11:30 - 12:00 | Share Out/Student Presentations
|
|
| 12:30 - 14:00 | Lunch | |
| 14:00-14:30 | Kahoot! | Katie Cranmer |
| 14:00 - 16:00 | Hands On
|
|
| 15:30 - 15:45 | Coffee & Tea | |
| 16:00 - 16:30 | Concluding Remarks
|
|
Local Organizing Committee
- Mike Trischitta (CfA)
- Kara Tutunjian (CfA)
- Cathryn Murphy (CfA)
- Giancarlo Romeo (CfA)
- Tamara April (CfA)
- Ethel Dotts (CfA)
- Lynne Nee (CfA)
- Laura Doucette (CfA)
- Paige Schaller(Umass Lowell)
- Patrick Fitzgibbons (Umass Lowell)
- Graham Allen (Umass Lowell)
Presenters and Science Organizing Committee
- Antonella Fruscione (CfA) co-Chair
- Kenny Glotfelty (CfA) co-Chair
- Silas Laycock (UMass Lowell) co-Chair
- Nick Lee (CfA)
- Jonathan McDowell (CfA)
- Rudy Montez (CfA)
- Katie Cranmer (CfA)
- Thomas Connor (CfA)
- Vinay Kashyap (CfA)
- Dave Huenemoerder (MIT)
- Aneta Siemiginowska (CfA)
- Doug Burke (CfA)
- David A. Principe (MIT)
- Pat Slane, Dir. (CfA)
- Hans Moritz Guenther (MIT)
- Mel Nynka (MIT)
- Rafael Martínez-Galarza (CfA)
- Amruta Jaodand (CfA)
- Malgorzata Sobolewska (CfA)
Sponsors
This workshop is made possible by a generous donation from the Heising-Simons Foundation and from contributions by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.