A Cosmic Game of Battleship

It’s important to understand how massive stars live and die because of their role in the formation of some of the fundamental elements of the universe. That kind of science requires the development of computer simulations that model the universe from the Big Bang to today—an unimaginably complex task that is rife with uncertainties, computationally expensive, and can take years to complete. But data scientist and astrophysicist Floor Broekgaarden, PhD '23, has developed an algorithm that speeds up these simulations by more than a factor of 100, dramatically decreasing their cost as well. In this episode of Colloquy, Broekgaarden explains her work and why she has high hopes for its impact on our understanding of how the universe evolved. (Note: This talk was originally given during the Harvard Horizons Symposium in 2023.)