rubinann16021 — Announcement

Rubin Digest 10 June 2016

10 June 2016

Project News

Registration for the LSST 2016 Project and Community Workshop is open and agenda details are coming together on the meeting website. The workshop is scheduled August 15 – 19 as follows:

• An all-day Commissioning Planning Workshop will take place on August 15th, along with an afternoon Science Advisory Committee meeting.  Additional breakout rooms are available.
• A Joint NSF/DOE Status Review will take place August 16 – 18 involving LSST Project staff Tuesday (project status plenaries, open to Project and Community members) and Wednesday (breakout sessions).
• The Community Workshop will begin at 9 am on Wednesday and continue through Friday lunch.  Community participants are encouraged to contribute ideas, until Wednesday June 15, for breakout sessions through discussion threads in the LSST community forum starting here.
• Wednesday plenary topics include “O/IR Resources Needed to Maximize LSST Science” (B. Willman), “A Science Collaboration Update” (L. Walkowicz), and “LSST’s Observing Strategy and Community Study” (P. Marshall).
• Thursday plenary topics include a special talk on “Dynamics of Large Science Collaborations” by Stasa Milojevic (Indiana Univ.), a discussion of “How to Run an Effective Meeting” (B. Willman) as a result of last year’s silent discussion on project culture, and “In-depth Reports from the Data Management Team” of interest to Community Members.

The first set of 24 custom electronics units built by the Telescope & Site group is complete. Inner Loop Controllers (ILC) are components which measure and control forces with the mirror actuators shaping the mirror to preserve its precise curvature at different sky positions.  This first shipment of ILC units will be integrated with the M2 mirror cell at Harris, in Rochester, NY.

D. Calabrese is working with his team in the Project Office to develop online training modules of value project-wide.  A training session on The Oz Principle shows how to create both individual and organization accountability for achieving results.   It includes instruction on receiving and giving feedback, a skill which builds trust and respect, core components of the workplace culture LSST aims for.  Central to LSST’s Project Office culture is the motto “Be Kind”, as articulated by the Tucson-based Ben’s Bells program, promoting intentional acts of kindness.  More on all this at LSST 2016.

Personnel News

Felipe Menanteau has joined the Data Management subsystem as Research Scientist at NCSA, working part-time to help develop the Level 1 data processing system.  Felipe has been working at NCSA on the Dark Energy Survey Data Management team since 2013 and has an extensive background in observational astronomy and cosmology.

Josh Barr has joined the Telescope & Site group as a Data Analyst.  Josh is already onboard working with Jacques Sebag to create 3D maps from drone imagery of Cerro Pachón.   That work will be debuted at the upcoming SPIE meeting in Edinburgh.

Upcoming 2016 Meetings with LSST Involvement

(those with asterisk* are LSSTC funded):

June 12-16: Meeting of the Stars, Milky Way and Local Volume Science Collaboration* at AAS 228, San Diego, CA

June 13-15: Camera Workshop, SLAC

June 20-24: LSST@Europe2*, Belgrade, Serbia

June 28-July 1: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation, Edinburgh, Scotland

July 18-22: LSST DESC meeting*, at Oxford, UK

July 22-23: LSST Galaxies Workshop*, at Oxford, UK

July 27-29: 2016 Director's Review of Project Status, SLAC

August 15-19: LSST 2016 Project & Community Workshop, Tucson, AZ

August 16-18: LSST Joint Status Review, Tucson, AZ