Professor Lucy Fortson

The Fortson research group is focused on two main research areas, both of which require MSI resources.

• Gamma Ray Astrophysics: VERITAS is an array of four imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs), located at the F. L. Whipple Observatory in southern Arizona. The array has been detecting extraterrestrial gamma rays since 2007. In order to properly calibrate the results, large amounts of simulation and data processing are required. In addition to VERITAS, the next-generation gamma-ray experiment CTA, with a factor of 10 improvement in sensitivity over existing arrays, is finalizing development of its low-level systems. One key system is the calibration of the full instrument throughput. 
• Zooniverse Citizen-Science Platform: The Zooniverse is the world’s largest online citizen science platform and several members of the Fortson group are involved in the development and analysis of Zooniverse project data, including specifically for VERITAS and CTA as well as galaxy evolution, ecology projects analyzing large amounts of camera trap data, medical data and handwritten texts. The Fortson group leads three data intensive, citizen-science based deep-learning projects, and are in the process of building several smaller modules for the Zooniverse platform, which all require access to MSI’s storage and computational resources.

Several Zooniverse projects have been featured on the MSI website:

• February 2019: Eyes on the Wild
• February 2018: New Citizen-Science Project, Snapshot Serengeti, Launches
• July 2015: Wildlife in the Serengeti
• November 2014: Translational Informatics