Special Earth Day Citizen Science SETI Session
Description
Kia ora koutou,
This Earth Day, join a live global research session exploring one of humanity’s biggest questions:
Are we alone in the Universe?
We are delighted to welcome Megan Li (UCLA SETI), a researcher working at the forefront of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Megan leads a major citizen science project on Zooniverse that invites the public to help analyse real radio signals collected by the Green Bank Telescope, in search of possible signs of extraterrestrial technology, known as technosignatures.
How to Join
Join live from home before school (NZ time)
No prior experience needed
Open to students, teachers, and the curious public
Teachers are encouraged to share with interested students
A recording will be available for classroom use after the event.
What You’ll Experience
How scientists search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI)
How radio signals from distant stars are detected and analysed
A walkthrough of the Zooniverse project you can join
How your contributions help train AI and support real research
Lineup
Megan Li
About Megan Li Megan Li is a PhD researcher with UCLA SETI and plays a leading role in managing and analysing data from the Zooniverse project “Are We Alone in the Universe?” Her work focuses on combining citizen science and machine learning to process large volumes of radio telescope data and identify signals of interest. She is also passionate about making science accessible, by building a global community of participants who contribute to this search.
Kate Genevieve - Facilitator
Kate Genevieve is an artist-researcher and Adjunct Researcher at Pūtaiao ki te Pāpori / the School of Science in Society, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. She leads the Cosmoimaginaries programme at the Astro Ecologies Institute and serves on the organising committee of the SETI Post-Detection Hub.
Hari Mogoșanu - Facilitator
Hari is an astrobiologist (New Zealand Astrobiology Network and Blue Marble Space Institute of Science) and space sciences educator (Mars Blueberry Planetarium and SpacewardBound New Zealand).
This is real science, you can take part in
Modern SETI research produces vast amounts of data, millions of signals, most of which come from human-made interference. Even with advanced algorithms, tens of thousands of signals still require human review.
That’s where participants come in.
By classifying signal patterns, volunteers help train AI systems to distinguish between noise and potentially meaningful signals, accelerating one of the most ambitious scientific searches ever undertaken.
As Megan puts it:
“Humankind’s most profound discovery could be a few clicks away.”
Try the Research Yourself
Curious to get started?
You can explore the project right now and begin classifying real signals from space:
Join the Zooniverse project:
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/ucla-seti-group/are-we-alone-in-the-universe
No experience is needed!
Every classification helps researchers better understand the data and improve the AI systems used in the search for technosignatures.
A Global Earth Day Event
This Earth Day conversation is hosted from Aotearoa, New Zealand, and held together with the international SETI Post-Detection Hub, as a shared citizen science event for the next generation.
This session connects participants across Aotearoa New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom, bringing together a global community contributing to real scientific discovery.
Hosted by Haritina Mogoșanu (astrobiology.nz / SpacewardBoundNZ)
and Kate Genevieve (astroecologies.org).
Who Should Join
Curious students, particularly at secondary school level (Years 7–13 in NZ)
Teachers and educators
Anyone interested in space, science, and discovery
Meetings like this open that search to everyone, transforming it from something done by scientists alone into something we can explore together, as a global community.
All are welcome.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity
