The Astropy Project supports and fosters the development of open-source and openly developed Python packages that provide commonly needed functionality to the astronomical community. A key element of the Astropy Project is the core package astropy, which serves as the foundation for more specialized projects and packages. In this article, we provide an overview of the organization of the Astropy project and summarize key features in the core package, as of the recent major release, version 2.0. We then describe the project infrastructure designed to facilitate and support development for a broader ecosystem of interoperable packages. We conclude with a future outlook of planned new features and directions for the broader Astropy Project.

/pdf/the-astropy-project-building-an-open-science-project-and-28ov91jwqw.pdf

The Astropy Project: Building an Open-science Project and Status of the v2.0 Core Package

An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems.

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pachon in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.

/pdf/lsst-from-science-drivers-to-reference-design-and-5mqdgndbq1.pdf

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

International Society for Technology in Education.

On 17 August 2017, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo interferometer detected gravitational waves (GWs) emanating from a binary neutron star merger, GW170817. Nearly simultaneously, the Fermi and INTEGRAL (INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory) telescopes detected a gamma-ray transient, GRB 170817A. At 10.9 hours after the GW trigger, we discovered a transient and fading optical source, Swope Supernova Survey 2017a (SSS17a), coincident with GW170817. SSS17a is located in NGC 4993, an S0 galaxy at a distance of 40 megaparsecs. The precise location of GW170817 provides an opportunity to probe the nature of these cataclysmic events by combining electromagnetic and GW observations.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/358/6370/1556.full.pdf

Swope Supernova Survey 2017a (SSS17a), the optical counterpart to a gravitational wave source

Astronomical data analysis software and systems

Conception, development and implementation of an e-Government maturity model in public agencies

This article describes an ICT-based and capability-driven model for assessing ICT in education capabilities and maturity of schools. The proposed model, called ICTE-MM (ICT in School Education Maturity Model), has three elements supporting educational processes: information criteria, ICT resources, and leverage domains. Changing the traditional and exclusive focus on ICT, five Leverage Domains are defined: Educational Management, Infrastructure, Administrators, Teachers and Students. The Leverage Domains generate a hierarchical structure with a second level named Key Domain Areas. These areas should be measurable and controllable, so they are related to a third hierarchical level, called Critical Variables, allowing the model’s elements to be assessed qualitatively and quantitatively. The capability and maturity of these variables associated with the intersection with the other two elements establish five levels of capability. The proposed model is strongly supported by the international standards and best practices for ICT management. It has been validated through data collection instruments and its associated web–support tool was also refined with a small pilot study. In summary, the proposed ICTE-MM model provides a basis for self-assessment and improvement planning. It is not just a diagnostic tool but has also been found to be useful for guiding the principals in ICT investment.

A Maturity Model for Assessing the Use of ICT in School Education.

A parallel genetic algorithm to solve the set-covering problem

This article describes an IT-based, eGov-centered and capability-driven model for assessing e-government capabilities and maturity of public agencies It is the result of an initiative of the Chilean government to reinforce its e-government strategy The proposed model, called eGov-MM (e-Government Maturity Model), has three dimensions (a cube) supporting business processes: information criteria, IT resources, and leverage domains Changing the traditional and exclusive focus on IT, four Leverage Domains are defined: e-Strategy, IT Governance, Process Management, and People and Organization Capabilities The Leverage Domains generate a hierarchical structure with a second level named Key Domain Areas These areas should be measurable and controllable, so they are related to a third hierarchical level, called Critical Variables, allowing the model's elements to be assessed qualitatively and quantitatively The capability and maturity of these variables associated with the intersection with the other two axes of the cube establish five levels of capability The proposed model is strongly supported by the international experience and best practices for IT management and has already been field tested

Mauricio Solar

Papers

Astronomical data analysis software and systems

Conception, development and implementation of an e-Government maturity model in public agencies

A Maturity Model for Assessing the Use of ICT in School Education.

A parallel genetic algorithm to solve the set-covering problem

Capability Maturity Framework for eGovernment: A Multi-dimensional Model and Assessing Tool