Bio:
Education:
- University of Tokyo, PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysical Data
- University of Tokyo, Master of Science in Astronomy
- Western Kentucky University, BS in Biology and Physics
- Gatton Academy at Western Kentucky University,
- HS-University dual credit, General STEM
Expertise:
Astronomy, Astrobiology, Computer Science Machine Learning, Data Science, Applied AI for Business
Biography:
Aaron originally studied biology and then moved into the field of astronomy as his interests evolved. He has experience with image analysis, machine learning, data processing, and anomaly detection.
Aaron is the founding faculty member, who has been uniquely developing inter-disciplinary career in science – astrophysics as an astronomer and artificial intelligence (AI) – as a solution design engineer for the past decade. Aaron originally studied biology, and then moved into the field of astronomy as his interests evolved. While researching the Milky Way, and the kinds of dust and molecules floating around between the stars, he took a strong interest in the analysis of large astronomical “all-sky” surveys, taken by cutting-edge space telescopes. After finishing graduate school, Aaron continued astronomical research for a time, and joined the short-term research accelerator program, NASA Frontier Development Lab, a public-private partnership with ESA in Europe and NASA in the USA. Loving this type of fast-paced, collaborative atmosphere, he decided to move to industry, first working at a Tokyo-based AI solutions startup as an engineer, and finally joining Insight Edge, Insight Edge, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation, as Data Scientist. He has expertise in image analysis, machine learning, data processing, and anomaly detection. His role within IE and Sumitomo Corp spans from ML technologies, development, data science, and digital identity due diligence. Aaron continues to be interested in space, computing, and solving social problems through a balance technology, curiosity, and empathy. In summer 2022 Aaron returned to the Frontier Development Lab, this time with the fresh perspective of several years working on industry-scale ML and data science problem solving. Now back at his day job with Insight Edge and Sumitomo Corp., Aaron is leading to scale their digital products and solutions into the Americas: building DX collaborations with Sumitomo Corporation of the Americas group companies.
His early career can be traced back to AI Solutions Engineer at Ridge-i Inc., where he handled various projects such as industrial-manufacturing anomaly/outlier detection and geospatial image segmentation, cooperated with the consulting team in terms of client relationship management (CRM) from public to private, and facilitated new team members to become part of the company smoothly from recruiting to onboarding. He also served as Visiting Researcher at University of Tokyo in the context of a postdoctoral study at the Department of Astronomy.
Aaron travels, whenever he has the chance, to random and hidden places around Japan with his partner, or visit his mother (of 11 children + 1 “Geep”) at her farm in Kentucky. He continues to be interested in space, computing, and solving social problems through a balance of technology, curiosity, and empathy.
Select publications:
- Gebhard, T.D.; Bell, A.C.; Gong, G.; Hastings, J.J.A.; Fricke, G.M.; Cabrol, N.; Sandford, S.; Phillips, M.; Warren-Rhodes, K.; Baydin, A.G., Inferring molecular complexity from mass spectrometry data using machine learning. Machine Learning for the Physical Sciences Workshop at NeurIPS 2022.
- Bell, A.C.; Onaka, T.; Galliano, F: et al., Investigation of the origin of the anomalous microwave emission in Lambda Orionis, 2019, PASJ, 71-7.
- NASA Frontier Development Lab 2018 Using machine learning to study E.T. biospheres. Challenges in Machine Learning Workshop, at NeurIPS 2018.
- Dickinson, C; Ali-Haïmoud, Y.; Barr, A.; Battistelli, E. S.; Bell, A.; et al., The State-of-Play of AME research, 2018, New Astronomy Reviews, 80:1-28
- Bell, A.C.; Onaka, T.; Doi, Y.; et al., Akari and Spinning Dust: Investigating the Nature of AME via Infrared Surveys, 2017, PKAS, 32:97-99″