Working Group on Astroinformatics and Astrostatistics (WGAA)
From the webpage:
History: The WG was established at the 220th Meeting, June 2012 in Anchorage in response to a White Paper report submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey.
Members: Any AAS member with an interest in these fields is invited to join.
Steering Committee: ~10 members including the chair; initially appointed by Council and in successive terms, nominated by the Working Group and confirmed by the AAS Council
Term: Three years staggered, with terms beginning and ending at the close of the Annual Summer Meeting. Members may be re-appointed.
Chair: Initially appointed by Council after consultation with the inaugural WG members. In successive terms, nominated by the Working Group; confirmed by the AAS Council.
Charge: The Working Group is charged with developing and spreading awareness of the applications of advanced computer science, statistics and allied branches of applied mathematics to further the goals of astronomical and astrophysical research.
The Working Group may interact with other academic, international, or governmental organizations, as appropriate, to advance the fields of astroinformatics and astrostatistics. It must report to Council annually on its activities, and is encouraged to make suggestions and proposals to the AAS leadership on ways to enhance the utility and visibility of its activities.
Astroinformatics and astronstatistics, modern astronomy in general, doesn’t have small data. All of its data is “Big Data.”
Members of your data team should select not-your-domain groups to monitor for innovations and new big data techniques.
I first saw this in a tweet by Kirk Borne.
PS: Kirk added a link to the paper that resulted in this group: Astroinformatics: A 21st Century Approach to Astronomy.