Overview of Astronomy Minors Astronomy Data Science

The Astronomy Major at Cornell University is designed to be flexible so that it can be customized to the needs of each student. There is a common core set of courses followed by two concentration paths:

1) Astrophysics Concentration is designed for those who intend to go on to graduate school in the physical sciences such as Astronomy, Physics, or Engineering.

2) General Astronomy Concentration is intended for students who do not plan on research careers in astronomy, but may have more broad intellectual interests, and are interested in related career paths, such as education or public outreach. The flexibility offered by the General Astronomy Concentration make it suitable to be elected as second major by broad group of students.

The Astronomy Minors at Cornell University are designed to be flexible so that it can be customized to the needs of each student. There are three concentration paths:

1) Astrobiology Minor is designed for students interested in astronomy, geophysics, biology and science communication.

2) Astronomy Minor is designed for those students focued on astronomy.

3) Data Science in Astronomy Minor is designed for students interested in astronomy and data science.

The Astrobiology Minor is designed for students who are interested in the search for life in the universe, the origin of life on Earth, the evolution of life on Earth, possible life in the Solar System and on Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. The minor provides a cross-disciplinary frame work linking selected Astronomy courses with appropriate courses in Earth and Atmospheric Science, Biology and Science Communication, including:

a. 3 courses in Astronomy from the list below, at least 2 of which must be at or above the 3000 level.

ASTRO 1101 - From New Worlds to Black Holes and
ASTRO 1103 - From New Worlds to Black Holes
ASTRO 2202 - A Spacecraft Tour of the Solar System: Science, Policy and Exploration
ASTRO 2212 - The Solar System: Planets, Small Bodies and New Worlds
ASTRO 2299 - Search for Life in the Universe
ASTRO 3301 - [Exoplanets & Planetary Systems]
ASTRO 3302 - The Life of Stars: From Birth to Death
ASTRO 3310 - Planetary Image Processing
ASTRO 3334 - Data Analysis and Research Techniques in Astronomy
ASTRO 4410 - Experimental Astronomy

b. 3 courses in other departments from the list below, at least 1 of which must be from the first 3 courses which are focused on Biology/Geobiology.

BIOMI 2900 - General Microbiology Lectures or
EAS 2500 - Meteorological Observations and Instruments or
EAS 3030 - Introduction to Biogeochemistry (crosslisted)

BIOMG 4380 - The RNA World
BIOMG 4810 - Population Genetics (crosslisted)
COMM 2850 - Communication, Environment, Science, and Health (crosslisted)
COMM 3020 - Science Writing for the Media (crosslisted)
EAS 3010 - Evolution of the Earth System
EAS 3040 - Interior of the Earth
EAS 3050 - Climate Dynamics

The Astronomy Minor is designed for students with interests focused on astronomy and astrophysics in general and demonstrates a level of interest and competence that is appropriate for pursuit of a wide variety of careers. The Astronomy Minor requires completion of a total of 13 credit hours in Astronomy at or above the 2000 level. At least 6 of these credits must be at or above the 3000 level, and at least 6 of the 13 credits must have a letter grade. All 3000 level courses or above count towards the requirements. The 2000 level courses that count towards the requirements include:

ASTRO 2211 - Astronomy: Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology
ASTRO 2212 - The Solar System: Planets, Small Bodies and New Worlds
ASTRO 2290 - [Relativity and Astrophysics]
ASTRO 2299 - Search for Life in the Universe

The Data Science in Astronomy Minor is designed for students with interests in data science and its applications to topics in astronomy. The minor provides a cross-disciplinary frame work linking selected Astronomy courses with appropriate courses in Computer Science, ECE, Information Science, Statistics and Data Science, and ORIE including:

a. 2 courses in Astronomy from the list below, at least 1 of which must be at or above the 3000 level.

ASTRO 2211 - Astronomy: Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology or
ASTRO 3302 - The Life of Stars: From Birth to Death or
ASTRO 4431 - Physics of Stars, Neutron Stars and Black Holes

ASTRO 2212 - The Solar System: Planets, Small Bodies and New Worlds
ASTRO 2290 - [Relativity and Astrophysics]
ASTRO 2299 - Search for Life in the Universe
ASTRO 3301 - [Exoplanets & Planetary Systems]
ASTRO 3303 - Galaxies Across Cosmic Time
ASTRO 4432 - [Introduction to Astrophysics and Space Sciences II]
ASTRO 4433 - Introduction to Cosmology (crosslisted)
ASTRO 4445 - Introduction to General Relativity (crosslisted)
ASTRO 4940 - Independent Study in Astronomy

ASTRO 3310 - Planetary Image Processing
ASTRO 3334 - Data Analysis and Research Techniques in Astronomy
ASTRO 3340 - Symbolic and Numerical Computing
ASTRO 4410 - Experimental Astronomy
ASTRO 4523 - [Modeling, Mining and Machine Learning in Astronomy]

c. 2 courses in Computer Science, ECE, Information Science, Statistics and Data Science, and Operations Research and Information Science (ORIE).

This includes 1 course in probability and statistics, and 1 course in data structures and algorithms, modeling, and/or machine learning with choices influenced by the particular astronomy emphasis, availability of courses, and consultation with the Astronomy Director of Undergraduate Studies and, if relevant, the instructor of a data-oriented Independent Studies Course (e.g. ASTRO 4940)

BTRY 3010 - Biological Statistics I (crosslisted)
CS 2110 - Object-Oriented Programming and Data Structures (crosslisted)
CS 3110 - Data Structures and Functional Programming
CS 4786 - Machine Learning for Data Science
ECE 3100 - Introduction to Probability and Inference for Random Signals and Systems (crosslisted)
ENGRD 2700 - Basic Engineering Probability and Statistics
INFO 2950 - Introduction to Data Science
MATH 4710 - Basic Probability
MATH 4720 - Statistics
ORIE 3120 - Practical Tools for Operations Research, Machine Learning and Data Science
ORIE 3500 - Engineering Probability and Statistics II
ORIE 4740 - Statistical Data Mining I
ORIE 4741 - Learning with Big Messy Data
ORIE 4742 - [Information Theory, Probabilistic Modeling, & Deep Learning with Scientific & Financial Applications]
ORIE 6741 - Bayesian Machine Learning
STSCI 3080 - Probability Models and Inference (crosslisted)
STSCI 4520 - Statistical Computing (crosslisted)
STSCI 4740 - Data Mining and Machine Learning
STSCI 4780 - Bayesian Data Analysis: Principles and Practice

All courses in astronomy, except ASTRO 1700 may be used to fulfill the science distribution requirement in the College of Arts and Sciences.