Data Intensive Astrophysics

The MSc in Data-Intensive Astrophysics has been designed to provide you with the skills and knowledge needed for a career in a range of areas including academic research in astronomy or astrophysics as well technical, development and engineering positions in related scientific fields.

The MSc in Data-Intensive Astrophysics has been designed to provide you with the skills and knowledge needed for a career in a range of areas including academic research as well technical, development and engineering positions in the “in-demand” field of “Big Data” and related scientific fields. By combining data analysis and computational techniques with a core science discipline, the course is intended to satisfy the increasing demand for well-qualified postgraduates who are equipped with the expertise to respond to a range of challenges arising from this exciting field. It has been estimated that “Big Data” has already added thousands of new jobs to the UK economy and this is likely to increase as new approaches to data transform the public, private and academic sectors.

The course is delivered by members of our Data Innovation Research Institute, which was recently established to conduct research into the aspects of managing, analysing and interpreting massive volumes of textual and numerical information.

A key component of the course is a 3 month summer project, which will be based either in our School of Physics and Astronomy, or with one or more of our external partners. The project will focus on the application of modern data science methodologies to a problem in Astrophysics (such as star formation, galaxy formation or gravitational waves), providing the hands-on experience needed to succeed in the dynamic field of Data-Intensive Astrophysics as well as wider aspects of data science.