Summary for Science Enthusiasts

Over the last decade humanity has developed an unprecedented capability to monitor the night sky and track its changing features: from Near-Earth Asteroids to Supernovae and other stellar explosions, the amount of transient events detected every night has already surpassed our ability to properly follow-up these events.

Explosive transients are particularly important to categorise because the various “flavours” they come in can inform different areas of Astrophysics, from the expansion of the Universe to the origin of the elements we need to create planets like the Earth.

I created a Virtual Research Assistant (V.R.A) that helps humans classify the new cosmic explosions we detect night after night. Working in partnership with Professor Stephen Smartt (Astrophysics) and Professor Stephen Roberts (Machine Learning), my VRA has reduced workload by 85% in the ATLAS sky survey team - allowing our researchers to focus on their science. I aim to create a further generations of the VRA to be ready before the new Vera Rubin Observatory opens its dome in 2025