Flashes of the Universe

The project has an interdisciplinary character because of the entities that form it: from the technological side and with extensive experience in citizen science projects is the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM); the scientific part is led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) who also provides the infrastructure of sky cameras; on the educational side and in continuous contact with children of all ages is the Kepler Astronomy Teaching Group and, finally, amateur astronomers from the Astronomy Association South Madrid (AAMS).

Raquel Cedazo

She holds a PhD in Computer Science from the UPM. Together with her PhD thesis director, Francisco M. Sánchez, she coordinated the European project "GLORIA: GLObal Robotic telescopes Intelligent Array for e-science"; she participated in the national consortia ASTROCAM and ASTROMADRID and in the development of MEGARA, a high resolution multispectrograph for the Gran Telescopio de Canarias. Her line of research is focused on citizen science and online reputation systems. Within this area, she has been the principal investigator of the citizen science projects Asteroid Hunters, Star Counters and Sounds of the Sky, under the umbrella of the Citizen Science Lab of the UPM. Since 2015 she is the administrator of the Francisco Sánchez Astronomical Observatory, a singular infrastructure in an Engineering university. In 2020 she co-founded with 5 other researchers the Open Science Community of the UPM.

Ángel Pérez

He is a Telecommunication Engineer by the UPM and Master in Astronomy and Astrophysics by the VIU. He is a member of the Kepler Astronomy Teaching Group and the Association for the Teaching of Astronomy. In the Agrupación Astronómica Madrid Sur he leads the Radio Astronomy group and is responsible for the design and operation of the radar echo meteor detection station of the Aula de Astronmía de Fuenlabrada, integrated in the Spanish Network for the Study of Bolides and Meteorites (SPMN). He has a long career as a communicator on astronomical topics to the general public.

The Fuenlabrada Astronomy Classroom

It is a public educational resource dedicated to the teaching of astronomy in schools since the 1998/1999 academic year. It is the result of the collaboration of the Consejería de Educación de la Comunidad de Madrid with the Concejalía de Educación del Ayuntamiento de Fuenlabrada and the teachers of the Kepler Group.

Miquel Serra-Ricart

PhD in Astrophysics from the University of La Laguna (Tenerife) with a thesis entitled "Applications of Artificial Neural Networks in Astronomy" which brought new analysis techniques to Astronomy. His main fields of research are the minor bodies of the solar system (comets and asteroids) and gravitational lenses. Since 1994 he has held the position of Administrator of the Teide Observatory, at which time he also began an important work in the dissemination of astronomy. In 1998 he created the association Shelios with the main objective of "hunting" the great celestial spectacles of our planet. In 2001, with the collaboration of the prestigious astrophotographer Juan Carlos Casado, he created the photographic project starryearth. In 2002 he founded, with funds from the Ministry of Education and Science, the educational portal astroaula. In 2004 he created the project "La Ruta de las Estrellas" where young students have the opportunity to take part in astronomical expeditions with professional astronomers with a clear objective: to promote scientific vocations. Since 2008 he has been broadcasting live astronomical events from the sky-live.tv portal. He was responsible, on behalf of the IAC, for the European projects GLORIA and STAR4ALL. He has recently coordinated the Interreg (MAC) Energy Efficiency Labs project: "Laboratories to measure the Energy Efficiency of Artificial Night Light in protected natural areas of Macaronesia".