Denis Vida
Adjunct Research Professor at Western University
Ontario, Canada
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolDenis Vida is an Adjunct Research Professor and research scientist with 11 years of experience applying computer science, AI, and machine learning to atmospheric and space phenomena—from micrometer dust to hazardous asteroids and satellites. He founded and coordinates the Global Meteor Network, an open-source, citizen-science effort operating 800+ cameras across 40+ countries to observe meteors, track satellites, and study atmospheric effects. Trained with a PhD in Geophysics and advanced degrees in computer and electrical engineering, he bridges academic research, instrumentation, and software development, and even contributes technical documentation to prominent astronomy tools like astrometry.net. Currently focused on Space Situational Awareness and practical climate mitigation—including reducing contrail impact via ground-based camera observations—he combines hands-on systems building with classroom teaching of ML and Python. Colleagues value him for turning complex observational networks into reproducible data products and for growing an international community of volunteer scientists.
11 years of coding experience
4 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Geophysics (Planetary Science & Exploration), Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Geophysics (Planetary Science & Exploration) at Western UniversityMaster of Engineering - MEng, Computer Science and Automation Engineering, Master of Engineering - MEng, Computer Science and Automation Engineering at Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Information Technology OsijekComputer Science, Computer Science at UdacityIII. gimnazija Osijek
English, Croatian
Github Skills (7)
documentation10
gnu9
python9
shell8
script8
sh8
scripting8
Programming languages (2)
Github contributions (5)
dstndstn/astrometry.net
Dec 2014 - Jan 2015
Astrometry.net -- automatic recognition of astronomical images
Role in this project:
Technical Writer
Technical WriterContributions:7 commits, 2 PRs in 24 days
Contributions summary:Denis primarily contributed to the documentation of the astrometry.net project. Their commits focused on creating guides for generating index files, specifically for the UCAC3 and UCAC4 catalogs. These guides included scripts for downloading and building indices, as well as license and copyright information. They also incorporated modifications proposed by others into the documentation, indicating a collaborative effort in maintaining clear and up-to-date instructions.
astrologyaltitudemercuryastronomical-imagesastrophysics
CroatianMeteorNetwork/RMS
Nov 2015 - Jan 2023
RPi Meteor Station
Contributions:2 releases, 5 reviews, 2083 commits in 7 years 3 months
raspberry-pirpimeteorcamerameteor-detection
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