Higgs Hunters Talk

General Welcome Thread

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Hello, Higgs Hunters participants! Welcome to the Zooniverse's newest project!

    I'll start: my name is Darren (DZM), and I'm Zooniverse's liaison/representative here on the Talk boards. I'll visit this board nearly every day and I'll be following the development of this project closely as it rolls out.

    I'm really excited about this one... We hear a lot about the discoveries made in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), but it's incredibly cool to get a look inside the thing and hopefully work towards making (or helping to make) some discoveries ourselves!

    I'll be around these boards all the time, so just call my name (@DZM) or PM me if I can be of assistance in any way.

    Okay, now tell everyone about yourselves! 😃

    Posted

  • ElisabethB by ElisabethB moderator

    Hi Darren,

    i'm really looking forward to participating in this project ! 😄

    Posted

  • mrniaboc by mrniaboc admin

    Hi All,

    I'm Grant Miller, the community/communications manager at the Zooniverse. I hope you are all as excited about this project as I am! In 2008 I turned down the chance to research particle physics, so I'm delighted to get that chance again on here 😃

    Cheers

    Grant

    Posted

  • koranzite by koranzite scientist

    Hi Higgs Hunters!

    I'm Ryan, a Masters student at Oxford University. I wrote the science pages and the first 7 or so blog posts that'll be appearing here: http://blog.higgshunters.org/

    We're all incredibly excited to be launching this project, and can't wait to see what you'll find in the ATLAS dataset!

    Thanks,

    Ryan

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin in response to koranzite's comment.

    Hi Ryan @kkoranzite! Thanks for working with us to launch this project!

    I've created a special board in the Science section for people to specifically ask questions of the scientists. It won't appear in the Recents area until someone posts there... Could you perhaps please leave a post on that board specifying how you would like questions to be presented, and what types of questions are acceptable?

    Thanks!!

    Posted

  • WickedJenn by WickedJenn

    Hello all!
    My name is Jennifer from Mexico and iam a mechatronic engineer, but a very fan of particles physics. I came here to learn new things. =)

    Greetings

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Welcome, @WickedJenn! I can pretty much promise that you'll learn stuff here. Good luck, and happy classifying! 😃

    Posted

  • Marcuandy1981 by Marcuandy1981

    My name is Andrew, I'm from Transylvania, and I'm passionate about quantum physics.

    Posted

  • ElisabethB by ElisabethB moderator in response to Marcuandy1981's comment.

    Welcome to Higgs Hunters, Andrew ! I hope you'll have a lovely time here !

    happy hunting ! 😄

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Hi Andrew from Transylvania! Welcome to the project. We love having people here who are passionate about physics!

    Posted

  • Whoandwhatitis by Whoandwhatitis moderator

    Thank you guys! I'm so incredibly excited that I finally get to participate in something like this. So many times I visited the Zooniverse site and thought "I hope someday we'll get to see what's going on in the LHC" - and here we are! Very cool.

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Hi @Whoandwhatitis, you're super welcome! Maybe you have the power to will projects into existence from the realm of your hopes and dreams! Maybe we should be studying you! 😃

    Posted

  • HMB6EQUJ5 by HMB6EQUJ5

    Whoanwhatitis! We have landed.......

    Posted

  • Marcuandy1981 by Marcuandy1981

    The Eagle has landed; 😄

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Are you the Eagle, @Marcuandy1981? 😃

    If so, well, welcome, Eagle! If not, welcome anyway!

    Posted

  • lowellbuzz by lowellbuzz

    Buzz here,
    Just one piece of advice for all of the smart physicists!
    Sorry can't help it......
    The "God" Particle the theory of "everything"
    You need some better names!!!!
    😃
    Thanks for the opportunity to help.

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Welcome to the project, @lowellbuzz !

    Yes, you're echoing a complaint famously made by Watterson's Calvin. I rather like stuff like "The Horrendous Space Kablooie." 😃 If we find something here in Higgs Hunters, let's be sure it gets a truly awesome name like that!

    Posted

  • lowellbuzz by lowellbuzz

    lol ! I'll put in for "Buzzard Nut"
    I did have a dumb question though, When sorting the data do you weigh the classifiers in any way?
    Perhaps by exactness, efficiency ...
    Regards
    Buzz

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Data reduction is a complicated process that I am woefully under-qualified to explain! 😃 I do know that whatever they do, it's astoundingly good at pulling accurate information out of a series of amateur classifications. For instance, I think Snapshot Serengeti has a 97% accuracy rate (accuracy being volunteer classifications compared to professional classifications).

    If Higgs Hunters is anything like other Zooniverse projects, I believe that's one of the reasons behind the simulated data calibrations... it lets the reduction process weigh people's classifications of new data by how good they are at classifying known data.

    A scientist would have to confirm, but that's my understanding of it!

    Posted

  • lowellbuzz by lowellbuzz

    Fascinating. I wonder if there is a discussion board somewhere in the zoo universe where the tool maker could explain further.

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Try the Ask the Science Team board here on Higgs Hunters, perhaps?

    Posted

  • rlund by rlund

    Electrical engineer here, always was inspired by both physics and general science.

    I got hooked on Plankton portal a while back, which reminded me of grade school days when I got to participate in a special project classifying diatoms in lake water.

    Been following news regarding the Higgs Boson and the particle collider in general for a while now! Neat to participate, even if in a small way.

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Welcome, @rlund ! Glad that we have a second project to catch your attention!

    What type of electrical engineer, may I ask? My father is an electrical engineer; specializes in circuit boards.

    Nice to have you on the project!!

    Posted

  • rlund by rlund

    Wireless communications, fun stuff!

    Posted

  • LHCByloved by LHCByloved

    Hi there

    I am from Germany and came here by a link on vLHC©Home and being interested/fascinated by the world of particles. 😃

    Greetings,
    Bylo

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Welcome, Bylo @LHCByloved ! Nice to have you on Talk and on Higgs Hunters; hope to see you around!

    Let us know if you spot something particularly (heh, particle-ulalry) interesting! 😃

    Posted

  • kosmala by kosmala

    I'm Margaret, of the Snapshot Serengeti team. I needed a break from clicking on penguins and so came to check out this project. Mmmm.... particles.... I love the blog and have learned so much already. Keep up the great work!

    @DZM, yes we get 97% accuracy with our stupid data reduction algorithm (the winning species is just the one that the most people chose). We're working on a smart algorithm that can do even better.

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Hi @kosmala , great to see you over here on Higgs Hunters! Thanks for the clarification on the data reduction.

    I look forward to hearing about how well the "smart" algorithm does!

    Posted

  • FalconAF by FalconAF

    Hi all. Discovered Zooniverse while browsing AskScience last night. Browsed the Higgs Hunters section here and got hooked. I'm retired, but always had a passion for science and learning new things. Have what I would call an "above average" education of many scientific disciplines, basically just from my curiosity about learning new things. Nothing formal though, like a degree to hang on the wall (I have those in other disciplines related to the "made a living" part of my life). 😉

    Started classifying stuff last night. Wasn't sure if I was doing it right (and still uncertain about some things yet) but the idea is getting clearer to me on how to do the classification process. I'd like to ask a question about it, but a little hesitant because I wouldn't want to "influence" how somebody else might alter their own classification process after reading my question, nor cause any data gathering processes the "scientists" are using to try to decipher that classification information to end up drawing wrong conclusions about it (depending on how the deciphering algorithms may be designed to analyze it). Don't know if my "semantics" in trying to describe that are correct, so if you are scratching your head right now going "Eh?", my apologies.

    Where should I ask that type of question? I've already browsed different areas here, including the FAQ post (which was very helpful BTW...kudos to "jokergirl" for that post!). Still have an "I'm not sure about..." question though.

    Looking forward to contributing to the Higgs Hunters project here.

    EDIT: It never fails. 10 minutes after posting a "Help Me!" question, you find the answer you were looking for somewhere else in a forum. I found it here: http://talk.higgshunters.org/#/boards/BHH0000003/discussions/DHH0000297

    Disregard my original question. I understand now how the "citizen science" concept of our classifications are used to provide the data you need. Basically, when I'm looking at an image, if I have any doubt about "something worthwhile being there to identify", I should just make an educated guess about it without worrying about whether I may be right or wrong. Your data accumulation and analysis will then determine if there is a "trend" that is worth causing you to look into it in more detail, probability-wise.

    Thanks!

    Posted

  • ElisabethB by ElisabethB moderator in response to FalconAF's comment.

    Hi FalconAF and welcome to Higgs Hunters

    You can start a thread in any of the 3 biscussion Boards because I am not quite certain where your question will belong to ! 😄 And we're not that strict about it (and we can move threads if necessary). So, feel free to ask your question. We'll be more than happy to try and answer it.

    In the mean time : happy hunting ! 😄

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Hi @FalconAF !! So glad to have you on board; welcome to Zooniverse! I can already tell that you are going to be an extremely helpful and valued member of our zooite community. (Our volunteers are "zooites," by the way; you are one now, too!)

    Very happy to hear that you're enjoying Higgs Hunters, and please check out some of our other projects as well when you get a chance! I'm on all the Talks, so I certainly hope to see you on a wide variety of them. 😃

    Again, welcome, and very glad that your question got answered. You definitely seem to have picked up on our citizen-science philosophy very fast!

    Posted

  • lekshin_dev by lekshin_dev

    Hello everyone!

    My name is Lekshin dev , I'm from India. Great fan of anything related to any area of physics .
    Happy to be a part of this project!
    I hope i'm of help.

    Greetings

    B. Lekshin Dev

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin in response to lekshin dev's comment.

    Welcome, Lekshin! Great to have you here; thanks for being on Talk, too! Hope to see you around a bunch.

    Good luck hunting for some awesome OCVs and other really cool events!

    Posted

  • willy71 by willy71

    Hello everyone!
    I'm Willy 71, I'm from Italy. I'm citizen scientist from 3 years, with project of Zooniverse SETI LIVE. Olso I partecipating on Distribuite Computing project of SETI PROJECT with SETI@HOME!.
    With verry pleasure, from only 2 mounths, I'm partecipate on HIGGS HUNTERS, to anather Zooniverse project. I'm very happy to be part of this project, and i hope I'm of help to scientist to LHC . I love to Science. Greetings to zooniverse team, and volunteers " ZOOITES" Good luck hunting some awesome OCVs, WILLY 71.

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin in response to willy71's comment.

    Hi @willy71 --! Great to have another longtime Zooite joining us, and we definitely like the international representation!

    You will definitely be a help to us; good luck OCV-hunting right back at you!

    Posted

  • unspoken by unspoken

    Hello my name is Patrick A. Darville.
    I am a senior in high school, that is very interested in the particle physics field and hope to work in it when I graduate. I am very excited about the work we all will be doing here and hope that I can help, along with learn what I can.

    I hope I will be a welcomed addition to the hunt.

    Posted

  • ElisabethB by ElisabethB moderator

    Hi Patrick and welcome to Higgs Hunters !

    Enjoy the hunt ! 😄

    Posted