Related papers: A better consensus: Changes to the Decadal process…
This paper deals with an improved version of the deck of the cards method to render the construction of the ratio and interval scales more `accurate'. The improvement comes from the fact that we can account for a richer and finer preference…
Machine learning models are being increasingly deployed to take, or assist in taking, complicated and high-impact decisions, from quasi-autonomous vehicles to clinical decision support systems. This poses challenges, particularly when…
We present the second edition of a Best Practices Guide for academic departments and other institutions striving to create more inclusive environments for physicists and astronomers in the LGBT+ community. Our recommendations incorporate…
Explainable recommendation attempts to develop models that generate not only high-quality recommendations but also intuitive explanations. The explanations may either be post-hoc or directly come from an explainable model (also called…
The next decade of survey astronomy has the potential to transform our knowledge of variable stars. Stellar variability underpins our knowledge of the cosmological distance ladder, and provides direct tests of stellar formation and…
An important question when eliciting opinions from experts is how to aggregate the reported opinions. In this paper, we propose a pooling method to aggregate expert opinions. Intuitively, it works as if the experts were continuously…
A wide-field imager in space could make remarkable progress in two very different frontiers of astronomy: dark energy and extra-solar planets. Embedding such an imager on a much larger and more complicated DE mission would be a poor…
With the advent of numerous community forums, tasks associated with the same have gained importance in the recent past. With the influx of new questions every day on these forums, the issues of identifying methods to find answers to said…
The global climate crisis poses new risks to humanity, and with them, new challenges to the practices of professional astronomy. Avoiding the more catastrophic consequences of global warming by more than 1.5 degrees requires an immediate…
A major goal for the astronomy and astrophysics communities is the pursuit of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in all ranks, from students through professional scientific researchers. Large scientific collaborations - increasingly a…
Recommender systems are widely used to help people find items that are tailored to their interests. These interests are often influenced by social networks, making it important to use social network information effectively in recommender…
This paper models a class of hierarchical cyber-physical systems and studies its associated consensus problem. The model has a pyramid structure, which reflects many realistic natural or human systems. By analyzing the spectrum of the…
A common flaw of astronomers is to believe that they know the truth even when data is scarce. I provide ten examples where this approach led to wrong strategic decisions in research plans, causing unnecessary delays in finding the truth. In…
A budget neutral strategy is proposed for NSF to lead the implementation of multimessenger astronomy and astrophysics, as outlined in the Astro2010 Decadal Survey. The emerging capabilities for simultaneous measurements of physical and…
Existing norms for scientific communication are rooted in anachronistic practices of bygone eras, making them needlessly inefficient. We outline a path that moves away from the existing model of scientific communication to improve the…
Maximizing the public impact of astronomy projects in the next decade requires NSF-funded centers to support the development of online, mobile-friendly outreach and education activities. EPO teams with astronomy, education, and web…
Gender equity is one of the biggest issues facing the field of astrophysics, and there is broad interest in addressing gender disparities within astronomy. Many studies of these topics have been performed by professional astronomers who are…
Machine Learning is a powerful tool for astrophysicists, which has already had significant uptake in the community. But there remain some barriers to entry, relating to proper understanding, the difficulty of interpretability, and the lack…
Consensus formation and difference of opinion have long been the subject of research. However, relevant laws and systems within society are being updated to reflect the changes in information networks. Online environment has come to fulfill…
I will propose a new way of advancing white dwarf research. Open science is a method of doing research that lets everyone who has something to say about the subject take part in the problem solving process. Already now, the amount of…