Second Workshop on Astronomy for Inclusion

Overview

Committees

Program

Registration/Certificates

Proceedings

Posters Exhibition

Overview

Committees

Program

* Bear in mind that times are in GMT. Convert to your local time here

Day 1 (November 17)   12:30-17:00 GMT

12:30: Welcome
12:45: Invited talk by Gary Foran – Swinburne University of Technology
13:30: International collaboration for Science Education in underprivileged areas (Mirwat Shamshad)
13:45: A permanent and inclusive exhibition at INAF Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory (Alessandra Zanazzi)
14:00: Painting graphs with sounds: CosMonic sonification project (Rubén García-Benito)
14:15: GWitchHunters – A Citizen Science project for the Improvement of Gravitational Wave Detectors (Francesco Di Renzo)
14:30: Astronomía sin fronteras. Planetario accesible (Graciela Cacace)
14:45: Invited talk by Dayna Thompson – Charles W. Brown Planetarium – Ball State University
15:30: Astronomía on-line para personas con discapacidad visual (Erika Fabiola Labbé Waghorn)
15:45: The Role of Virtual Conferencing in Creating a Greener and More Inclusive Profession (Travis Rector)
16:00: SoniCosmos (Sandro Bardelli)
16:15: Chandras’s accesible universe: From Sight to Sound & Touch (Kimberly Arcand)
16:30: Dissemination of the “Touch the Universe” Tactile Exhibition (Kumiko Usuda-Sato)
16:45: End of Day 1

Posters Exhibition during all the session

Day 2 (November 18)   16:30-21:00 GMT

16:30: Welcome
16:45: Invited talk by Stavros Katsanevas (European Gravitational Observatory)
17:30: NASA’s Neurodiversity Network: Creating Inclusive Informal Learning Opportunities across the Spectrum (Lynn Cominsky)
17:45: Kit to facilitate the inclusive teaching of astronomy (Amelia María Bayo Arán)
18:00: Astro[sound]bites: An audio resource for informal education (William Saunders)
18:15: Astronomy for Students with Visual Impairments: Development of the Career Exploration Lab (Thomas Madura)
18:30: Astroparamo-Science club of planetary habitability and climate change (María José Villarreal Gómez)
18:45: #AstronomiaInclusiva – Invited talk by María del Carmen Argudo Fernández – Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
19:30: How to use Salsaj Software to Perform Photometry, Astrometry, Image Processing in 3D (John Carlos Mora Martínez)
19:45: Caribbean Astronomy for Inclusion (CAI): transforming “theory” on Inclusion into concrete actions (Breezy Ocaña Flaquer)
20:00: Accessible Astronomy: How to adapt activities for blind and visually impaired learners using low cost materials (Noreen Grice)
20:15: Dedoscopio, an inclusive project dedicated to bringing tactile astronomy talks (Carla Fuentes-Muñoz)
20:30: The path to a more accessible and inclusive future of meetings in astronomy (Vanessa Moss)
20:45: Closing of the Workshop

Posters Exhibition during all the session

Keynote Speakers:

Stavros Katsanevas:

Professor exceptional class at University Paris Diderot, and the director of the European Gravitational Observatory (2018-). He has served as director of the Laboratory of Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology (APC, 2014-2017), and co-director of the Laboratory of excellence UnivEarhs, an interdisciplinary collaboration between APC and the Institute de la Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), along themes also developed in APOGEIA. He has also served as deputy director of the National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics (IN2P3) of CNRS responsible for Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology (2002-2012), coordinator of the EU funded ERANET ASPERA (2006-2012) gathering the European agencies funding Astroparticle Physics and first chairman of the European Consortium of Astroparticle Physics (APPEC) (2012-2015). His scientific contributions (close to 400 publications), concern Particle Physics at CERN and Fermilab, beam design (CERN to Gran Sasso), Astroparticle, applications (smart sensors, medical physics) and phenomenological studies and simulation. Stavros is the coordinator of the REINFORCE program.

Gary Foran:

Staff member at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. His field of research is galaxy formation and evolution. With the aim of understanding the physical processes behind the appearance and environment of galaxies, he uses spectroscopy to study the intrinsic and extrinsic properties of galaxies in the early universe.

As a teenager growing up in Sydney he had night-blindness. He was able to obtain his PhD in chemistry. In 1992 he was one of the foundation team members of the Synchrotron project, which generates powerful X-rays to analyse the molecular structure of various substances, and he worked in that field for more than 20 years. But after he turned 40, his visual field began collapsing inwards. After his retirement in 2010, it was in 2015 that Garry heard a radio interview with some of the astrophysics team from Swinburne University. He approached the team which was fantastically supportive, particularly who was his supervisor, Professor Jeff Cooke. He started a new line of work, collaborating on refining sonification methods with the help of Jeff Hannam, a sound designer at RMIT University.

María del Carmen Argudo Fernández:

Astronomer from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaiso and PhD from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC) and University of Granada (UGR), Spain (2013). Her areas of interest in her research are the Galaxy formation and evolution, the effects of the environment on galaxies, Galaxy interactions, Star formation and Active galaxies. She leads the project AstroBVI (Astronomy Educational Kit for the visually impaired community in Central and South America) is an educational inclusion project funded by the Office of Astronomy for Development of the International Astronomical Union. BVI stands for the Blind and Visually Impaired community, who are often excluded from educational and outreach activities in relation to visually intensive areas of knowledge, as in the case of the astronomy. The goal of AstroBVI is to make Astronomy in general, and galaxies in particular, more accessible to schoolchildren with visual impairments.

Danya Thompson:

As Planetarium Director she has provided support and guidance for all planetarium activities at Ball State University since 2012. She holds a MS in Physics and has over 10 years’ experience in STEM outreach.

Ms. Thompson has created various live planetarium programs and has worked on over 8 full-length fulldome planetarium programs in various roles such as: script writer, director, program manager, 3D content programmer, sound recorder and editor. Two of her programs, “Saturn & Beyond” and “Halloween: Celestial Origins,” are available for planetariums world-wide. Ms. Thompson has worked on various planetarium related projects including “A Study on Vulnerability, Power, and Connection in the Planetarium,” “Fostering Scientists in the Dome: Cultivating the Characteristics of a Scientist,” “GIS Data to Planetarium Dome,” “To the Stars and Back: Exploring Our Planetary Backyard – Summer Science Camp for Middle School Girls at Ball State University and Pre-service Teacher Field Experience for Multicultural Education,” and “The Charles W. Brown Planetarium STEM Hands-On Activity Stations.”.

More info

Registration/Certificates

Proceedings

Posters Exhibition

Please click on every title to view the corresponding poster.

1. Touch the Stars 
By: Claudia Romagnoli, Viviana Sebben

2.  My experience 
By: Madan Sriramreddy

3. Astronomy for special education needs
By: Exodus Cl Sit

4.  LightSound: Accessibility and Awareness for Upcoming Solar Eclipses
By: Allyson Bieryla, Sóley Hyman

5. El universo en palabras. Audio description as an inclusive resource Astroaccesible
By: Enrique Pérez Montero, Celia Barnés Castaño, Emilio J. García

6.  Voices that come out of the hands: Astronomy for the deaf 
By: Marcos Rincon Voelzke, Bruno Rocha Xavier, Orlando Rodrigues Ferreira

7. An application of sonification as an alternative to the accessibility of astronomical images for the visually impaired
By: Aurellio Deandra, Mahasena Putra, Miranti Indar Mandasari, Chatief Kunjaya, Dhani Herdiwijaya, Aprilia

8.  SonoUno web interface for astronomical data sonification
By: Johana Casado, Gonzalo De la Vega, Martín Domínguez, Beatriz García

9. Astronomy Education Research:  Efforts Towards Teaching for Diversity and Inclusivity in South Africa 
By: Tshiamiso Makwela

10.  The IAU-Women in Astronomy Working Group 
By: Priya Hasan, Mamta Pommier

11. Motor disabilities in Planetariums and Observatories. IAU Working Group
Ángela Pérez, Ilhuiyolitzin Villicana Pedraza, Dimitri Veras

Astronomy Education Research: Efforts Towards Teaching for Diversity and Inclusivity in South Africa Astronomy Education Research: Efforts Towards Teaching for Diversity and Inclusivity in South Africa The IAU-Women in Astronomy Working Group

REINFORCE has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, under Grant Agreement no. 872859