ABSTRACT
Earth's magnetic field has been a subject of study since 600 BCE in ancient Greece and has been used for navigation since the early 900s in China. To build robust modern-day navigation systems based on magnetic fields, however, is challenging. It requires 1) capturing and characterizing various magnetic field signals from natural sources such as the Earth's core, crust, ionosphere, and magnetosphere, as well as anthropogenic magnetic noise, including those from the instruments and vehicles themselves, and 2) isolating different signals in real-time to use one true signal for navigation.

AQ - The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum physics innovations, harnessed by the AQNav team in SandboxAQ, provides novel capabilities to meet the challenge in better characterizing the geomagnetic field and building reliable alternative navigation capacity. Quantum magnetometers that exhibit unparalleled sensitivity enable precise detection of magnetic signals. The synergy of quantum magnetometry with meticulously tuned machine learning (ML) models allows extraction of just the Earth’s crustal magnetic signal for navigation.

These advancements significantly enhance the scientific understanding of geomagnetic fields and phenomena. By continuously acquiring and analyzing data with state-of-the-art AI models, we can iteratively improve our geomagnetic models, paving the way for deeper insights into the Earth's magnetic environment. SandboxAQ’s work underscores the promise of AI-driven quantum magnetometry in advancing both practical navigation solutions and fundamental geophysical research, demonstrating the transformative potential of AI and quantum technologies in space and science exploration.

BIO

I am commonly identified as a planetary scientist specializing in planetary magnetism and magnetospheres, though the titles of geophysicist, data scientist, and educator also fit the roles I play. Currently, I am a postdoctoral scientist at SandboxAQ, working with the Quantum Navigation team (AQNav). I am also a visiting scientist at Johns Hopkins University, where I earned my Ph.D. I collaboratively use novel datasets and simulations to better characterize the magnetic fields of planets and subsequently gain insights into the deep interior regions from which these fields arise. In this curiosity-driven pursuit, I piece together a small part of the puzzle of how planets form and evolve, and what our place is in this grandness. I also have a passion for science education and outreach, which has manifested in research on inclusive teaching and the development of new curricula. I am always looking to motivate and work on inclusive and sustainable, interdisciplinary science that brings communities together to bond over a sense of awe and/or address the challenges of our time.

ABSTRACT
Large galaxy surveys like the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) provide huge discovery potential. The sheer volume of astronomical spectra now available, however, combined with their high-dimensional representation means it is a challenge to find anomalous instances. Unsupervised machine-learning techniques have been used for a number of years and are mostly well suited to identifying anomalies at scale, however, they can struggle with high-dimensional data. This talk highlights some of the issues key to the high-dimensional data problem, and then reframes it by looking at it from the perspective of the manifold created when dimensionality-reduction techniques are employed to get around the Curse of Dimensionality. I introduce the terms 'on-manifold' and 'off-manifold' as a helpful way of categorizing different unsupervised anomaly-detection techniques. I provide examples, both illustrative and using real DESI data, to show what difference this manifold can make in practice. The illustrations show that by combining complementary on- and off-manifold techniques, we might increase the number of anomalies detected – which will be of particular importance in recall-sensitive tasks. Finally, I discuss how these ideas might be applied in future work across a variety of domains to enhance discovery.

BIO
Paul Nathan (he/him/his) is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society who studied Natural Sciences and Computer Science at the University of Cambridge. After a twenty-five-year career in finance, he recently returned to academia. He holds a Masters in Astrophysics from University College London where he is currently studying for his PhD at the Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science, researching anomaly detection techniques in cosmology. He is a collaborator in the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Survey, the largest galaxy survey of its kind. With his varied background he is hoping his ideas on anomaly detection will transfer to other domains of research, in particular medicine and finance. Under the pen-name R. P. Nathan he is also an author of several highly regarded novels, most notably ‘Now We Are Animals’ which reimagines a world where humans have been deposed as the pre-eminent species and addresses themes of colonisation and our relationship with the natural world.

ABSTRACT
Are we alone in the Universe? This fundamental question has driven humanity to seek our place in the cosmos. Currently, with the help of Breakthrough Listen program, more than two dozen observatories around the globe are actively engaged in the search for technologically advanced extraterrestrial intelligence, known as technosignatures. These efforts span from detecting nano-second duration laser pulses in the near-ultraviolet range to searching for narrowband drifting signals at the lowest end of the electromagnetic spectrum, around 30 MHz, visible from the ground, and everything in between. The range of technosignatures includes both direct, deliberate beacons targeted towards Earth and subtle, indirect evidence of activities by highly technologically advanced extraterrestrial life. In this talk, I will provide a brief overview of these ongoing efforts and discuss how these various strands are converging to impose some of the strictest constraints on the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. I will address the challenges we are encountering and explore potential solutions emerging from advancements in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, particularly in semi-supervised convolutional neural networks and autoencoders. 

BIO
Dr. Vishal Gajjar is a Staff Astronomer at the SETI Institute and a Visiting Researcher with the Breakthrough Listen group at UC Berkeley. He serves as Project Scientist for Breakthrough Listen's International Collaboratory facilities. His professional interests include the search for technosignatures, the origins of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), and the emission mechanisms of pulsars. Dr. Gajjar is also the principal investigator of three grants, focusing on: designing a theoretical framework for the impact of stellar environments on technosignatures, developing ML-based solutions for technosignature searches, and engaging two dozen community colleges to incorporate hands-on activities involving technosignatures and the Allen Telescope Array into their courses.

ABSTRACT
Scientists and science-fiction dream of exploring distant worlds that could harbor life outside of Earth. While humans cannot currently travel to the best candidates for life in our solar system - ocean worlds such as Europa and Enceladus - our spacecraft can. Our group has been developing a collaborative, onboard AI capability that draws not only from the expertise of human scientists, but one that can learn 'on-the-fly'. Our AI framework empowers new scientific breakthroughs by analyzing data onboard, which would allow missions to collect more observations and Earth-based science teams to focus on interpretation and discovery. Here I will discuss how we use machine learning algorithms as an onboard science team and present a simulated mission scenario to Enceladus that demonstrates our onboard AI capability during a possible life detection event. 

BIO
Dr. Bethany Theiling is a Planetary Research Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center who specializes in understanding the geochemistry, habitability, and biosignature detection of ocean worlds (such as Europa, Enceladus, and even Earth) across our solar system. She has had the great fortune of being able to build multidisciplinary teams with expertise spanning across geoscience, planetary science, chemistry, data science, artificial intelligence, and computer science. Their collaboration has inspired her team's development of a cooperative AI capability that focuses on science observations. Theiling also co-leads the Goddard Instrument Field Team (GIFT), which conducts planetary analog research and plans for future missions using Earth environments; these activities have broadened her research to include studying the habitability of subsurface caves (e.g., lava tubes) on Mars. 

ABSTRACT
What if we found life in several worlds of the solar system? Surely that would be promising for finding complex life-forms around other stars - even some communicating civilizations? The hunt starts in our own backyard, looking for simple microbes whose waste products might include chemically-peculiar gases, out of equilibrium with their surroundings. I will describe the radio telescopes on Earth that can take spectra of these gases for worlds of the solar system, in particular focussing on our searches of the clouds of Venus. A runaway greenhouse effect long ago on the planet may have forced microbes into a survival route afloat in the cloud decks. My team now has evidence of two rare gases at Venus that can be produced by (Earth-type) life, that are out of equilibrium with the Venusian atmosphere (as we understand it). I will show the data and talk about where we go from here, especially looking into the most promising temperate-zones of the clouds, and using computational (and other!) modelling.

BIO
Prof Greaves has been an astrobiologist at heart since reading science fiction from age 13; she obtained a degree in physics at Oxford University and then a doctorate in astrophysics from the University of London in 1990. Her training in observing with radio telescopes has taken her across the world, including a treasured period living in the Big Island of Hawaii and supporting other telescope users. A move back to the UK and academia saw her through several research fellowships into posts in Scotland and now Cardiff University in the capital city of Wales. A Full Professor since 2017, she was awarded a Silver Medal of the Institute of Physics for furthering understanding of planet formation and exoplanet habitability. She has switched her subject of study within astronomy five times so far, and nervously awaits whatever is coming up after Venus. She is a noisy advocate of equality in science and does some strange things in art/science crossover... that may be revealed.

ABSTRACT
Eukaryotes (biologically complex life) make up the bulk of documented biodiversity and biomass today. However, for most of Earth’s history, eukaryotes were absent or minor players in our planet’s ecosystems. Their initial diversification in the Proterozoic Eon (2,500–539 million years ago) represents one of the most fundamental transitions for life on Earth. Understanding precisely when and how this diversification occurred, is challenged by the rarity of documented early eukaryote fossils. I show how antibacterial clay minerals are an important factor in the fossilisation of early eukaryotes, and how the abundance of clays in mudstones can pinpoint which Proterozoic rocks to investigate for key new fossils. I test this clay-rich search image by investigating mudstones ~880 million years old in Svalbard, revealing new multicellular algae. The ability to systematically target rocks for early fossils yields the prospect of significant advances in our understanding of how eukaryotes rose to ecological prominence on the Earth and beyond.

BIO
Ross Anderson is a geobiologist who employs the record of exceptionally preserved fossils to understand how eukaryotes (biologically complex life) first diversified on our planet across the Proterozoic Eon (2,500–539 million years ago). He combines fossil discovery with detailed interrogation of the environmental conditions conducive to exceptional fossilisation, enabling robust interpretations of the ecological and temporal range of early eukaryotes. Ross received a bachelor’s degree (2012) in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Harvard University, before master’s (2014) and doctoral (2017) degrees in Geology and Geophysics from Yale University. At Yale, his doctoral work was funded by a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship. He was elected a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Life Sciences at All Souls College, University of Oxford in 2017. In 2022, he was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship at Oxford's Department of Earth Sciences and began his position as Senior Researcher of Natural History at the University’s Museum of Natural History in 2024. He continues as a Fifty-Pound Fellow at All Souls College. Ross was a recipient of the President’s Prize of the Palaeontological Association in 2017.

ABSTRACT
Studying the outer solar system with spacecraft has always been a challenge. Cruise times are long (New Horizons took nine years to reach Pluto), and the missions aren’t usually cheap (the Voyager program cost ~$3.9 billion when adjusted for inflation). However, the payoff is paradigm-changing planetary science.
For example, Voyager data showed us Jupiter has rings, there is active volcanism on Jupiter’s moon Io, geysers on Neptune’s moon Triton, and much more besides. New Horizons continued the exploration of our solar system, showing us Pluto is geologically activity – perhaps even enough to support life! This revolutionized our understanding of the astro-biological potential for similarly situated worlds outside our solar system, increasingly dramatically the chances for life elsewhere.
With all these discoveries it’s easy to think that our solar system is explored, when there remains so much we don’t know. For example, we’ve only imaged ~40% of Triton’s surface, meaning ~9 km2 (the size of the USA) has never even been seen! We will discuss the driving science questions for outer solar system exploration, along with the extent of the current program, what’s coming next, and ideas for the future

BIO
Dr. Carly Howett is an of Associate Professor of Space Instrumentation at the University of Oxford. She is also the Principal Investigator of NASA’s New Horizons’ Ralph Instrument, an Instrument Scientist on NASA’s Lucy Mission, and a Co-Investigator of NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission.
She has 20+ years of experience in studying planetary science since obtaining her D.Phil. at the University of Oxford. Much of this time was spent at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI, Boulder, Colorado, USA) most recently as the Assistant Director, before returning to the University of Oxford in 2021.
Her primary focus is on better understanding the surfaces of icy worlds of our outer solar system through research, and instrumentation/mission operations and development. This included leading the planning of thermal observations of Saturn’s icy satellites from Cassini, supporting New Horizon through its Kuiper Belt Object (Pluto and Arrokoth) encounters, and Lucy through its asteroid encounter. She was the Deputy-Principal Investigator of NASA Discovery Mission Proposal to Triton that won Phase A funding and led a NASA Planetary Mission Concept study to return a probe to Pluto.
Since returning to Oxford, she continues to work on developing novel missions and instrumentation to explore our outer solar system.

ABSTRACT
The relentless pursuit of miniaturisation in technology has enabled countless applications and industries on Earth. However, miniaturising technologies for space exploration is essential to unlocking new possibilities, enabling more ambitious missions with reduced logistical and financial burdens. This talk delves into the transformative impact of miniaturised technologies in the field of space exploration. We will explore cutting-edge advancements in opto-electronics, quantum science, and manufacturing that are opening up the development of smaller, more efficient spacecraft and instrument designs. These innovations not only enhance the feasibility of interplanetary missions but also open new avenues for research and exploration. By comparing traditional space exploration methodologies with the new, miniaturised approaches, the talk will highlight significant reductions in cost, launch complexity, and mission timelines. Developments in space exploration technologies lead to real-world applications, including their future use in manned and unmanned missions. The era of large, costly space missions is yielding to a new epoch where smaller is not only better but essential for the sustained exploration of our universe.

BIO
Dr Hugh Mortimer is the Associate Director of the National Laboratories at the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council and a Senior Research Scientist at RAL Space, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire. He is an interdisciplinary physicist specialising in the development of technologies for planetary science research and Earth observation, and a science communicator who works to break down the boundaries between art and science.
With a career spanning over twenty years, his work has bridged both science and policy. He has led the development and application of novel miniaturised hyperspectral technologies for planetary observations and has worked in government to shape national policy, providing advice to the UK's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Dr. Mortimer’s strategic involvement in scientific initiatives extends to both national and international arenas, where he has developed and delivered major collaborative space science programmes between the UK and countries such as Brazil, Australia, China, and Chile. These efforts enhance global academic and industrial partnerships in space data and technology and utilise space technology to tackle real-world challenges. He actively contributes to various scientific and governmental panels, driving advancements in environmental physics and space science.

ABSTRACT
Aerospace industrialisation is at a critical point for affecting Earth’s upper atmosphere and our planet’s low-orbit environment. The rate of rocket launches is accelerating, driven by the rapid global development of the space industry. Rocket launches emit gases and particulates into the stratosphere, where they impact the ozone layer via radiative and chemical processes. The rate of emplacement of satellites in orbits at ~200-600 km altitude is accelerating, driven by choices made by industry for 'megaconstellations' of satellites. On orbit, these many thousands of satellites affect global dark skies. When decommissioned, their ablative reentry generates particulates with currently unknown levels of radiative and chemical stratospheric impact. As we build a spacefaring future, what choices is our global community willing to make?

BIO
Dr Michele Bannister is a Royal Society Te Apārangi Rutherford Discovery Fellow and faculty at the University of Canterbury in Aotearoa New Zealand, following postdoctoral work at Queen’s University Belfast and at the National Research Council of Canada, and PhD at the Australian National University. Her work as a planetary scientist spans issues of space sustainability and the exploration and observation of small worlds in the Solar System. She is particularly involved in developing the new field of small-body Galactic studies, through the modelling and observation of interstellar objects.

ABSTRACT
The Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE) project is a joint effort between NASA and Technion – Israel Institute of Technology to overcome the current scaling limitations for space optics via a novel approach based on fluidic shaping in microgravity. This technique has already been successfully demonstrated in a laboratory neutral buoyancy environment, in parabolic microgravity flights, and aboard the International Space Station (ISS). It is theoretically scale-invariant and has produced optical components with superb, sub-nanometer (RMS) surface quality. This talk will present the results to date and outline the work in progress, including FLUTE mission concepts currently under development.

BIO
Edward Balaban is a scientist at NASA Ames Research Center and the NASA Principal Investigator for the Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE) project. His professional interests include robotics, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and development of innovative space missions. During his years at Ames, he has been involved in a variety of R&D and mission projects, including the X-34 experimental reusable space plane, autonomous robotic planetary drills, and the K-11 planetary rover prototype. He was one of the creators of the Personal Satellite Assistant (PSA), a robot designed for operating on the International Space Station and a predecessor to the contemporary Astrobee robots. Currently, when not thinking about creating giant telescope optics out of exotic liquids, Edward leads strategic mission planning for NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), as well as the development of System Health Enabled Realtime Planning Advisor (SHERPA) — an artificial intelligence system used in VIPER mission planning. He is also part of VIPER’s Science, Mission Planning, and Mission Operations teams. Edward holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from The George Washington University, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University.

ABSTRACT
Perhaps more than any other field of science, astronomy has long been accelerated through philanthropic engagement. Many of the first pioneering telescopes were named for their (often aristocratic) donors who found fascination both in the scale and finesse of the technology, and the subject of study. In intervening years, the bulk of astronomical research progress has been driven by public funds. And yet as a field, we find ourselves today still frequently leveraging philanthropic interest to achieve extremely large apertures, as well as risky offshoots of mainstream technology. Philanthropy, therefore, can clearly push the envelope in ways that governmental funding cannot. Further, these very different forms of support can mutually amplify the impact on a research field. In this talk, I will describe the arc of philanthropy’s relationship with astronomy, and extrapolate to future possibilities given our specific moment in time — including the incoming lessons from JWST, the scope for complementarity to Decadal pathways, and the opportunity to re-envision technology on the ground and in space.

BIO
Dr. Arpita Roy is Lead of the Astrophysics & Space Institute at Schmidt Sciences. She previously served as a tenure-track Astronomer at NASA's Space Telescope Science Institute and as a Millikan Prize Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech. Dr. Roy specializes in exoplanet discovery and characterization, through building and leveraging extreme precision spectroscopy instruments such as the Keck Planet Finder, Habitable Zone Planet Finder, and NEID. Her work in hardware innovation and software development has advanced the detection of Earth analogs and addressed stellar noise effects on precision measurements. Dr. Roy has variously served in Deputy PI, Project Scientist, and Instrument Scientist roles for major projects on both ground and space. She holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy & Astrophysics from Pennsylvania State University and a B.A. in Astrophysics and English (Creative Writing) from Franklin & Marshall College.

ABSTRACT
The theory of universal constructors is fundamentally different from that of universal computers (classical and quantum) and from that of von Neumann's theory.

BIO
Professor David Deutsch has been awarded the Institute of Physics’ Isaac Newton Medal and Prize 2021, and elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Physics for founding the discipline named quantum computation and establishing quantum computation's fundamental idea, now known as the ‘qubit’ or quantum bit.
Professor Deutsch is the theoretical physicist to whom we owe our current understanding of the role of quantum bits in physical reality; he represents the convergence of decades of efforts by two great schools of thought of theoretical physics: the British and the American.
Professor Deutsch envisions reality as a multi-branched tree-like structure in which every possible classical outcome is realised, using Hugh Everett III's multiverse interpretation of quantum mechanics. He understood that because multiple coexisting worlds actually interact, these interactions constitute an entirely new mode of computation. Thus, the world can be thought of as consisting of quantum bits, in that every answer to a question about whether something could be observed in nature corresponds to a question about such a quantum bit.