The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is located on the Chajnantor plains in Chile, due to its high altitude and low humidity level. ALMA enables the viewing of regions of the universe that are optically dark, but shine brightly in the millimeter portion of the electromagnetic spectrum (x-ray). The 66 Antennas are used to create arrays for deep space observations. More extended arrays will give higher spatial resolution, more compact arrays give better sensitivity for extended sources.
The goal of this project is to work with ALMA with their historic data to improve operations by: identifying inefficiencies, reducing downtimes, optimizing operations, and predicting project success and failures (due to technical and weather issues). Dataiku is the primary tool used for data management and analysis. This project is a coordination between the University of Virginia School of Data Science, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and ALMA Observatory.