Saint Mary's College Undergraduate Angelina Cervantes Spearheads Machine Learning Star-Mapping Breakthrough in Moraga

Undergraduate astrophysics and computer science researcher Angelina Cervantes, a member of the class of 2028 at Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga, earned widespread academic recognition on Monday after publishing a groundbreaking open-source algorithm that utilizes deep machine learning to automate stellar spectral classification. Developed inside the college's Brousseau Hall computational physics lab, Cervantes's neural network accurately maps and categorizes low-metallicity stars across massive public astronomical datasets from the James Webb Space Telescope and European Gaia mission.

Physics faculty mentors and regional astronomical researchers praised the sophomore researcher for solving a persistent data bottleneck that has slowed deep-space cosmological research. By training custom convolutional autoencoders to identify subtle absorption line signatures in high-noise spectral captures, Cervantes achieved a 98.4 percent classification accuracy across more than 250,000 celestial targets. The computational model processes astronomical catalogs in minutes rather than the months required by conventional algorithmic methods.

High school science department chairs and STEM program coordinators from San Ramon, Danville, and Lafayette visited the Moraga campus on Monday to celebrate the milestone and discuss undergraduate mentoring pipelines for East Bay students. Faculty deans noted that Cervantes's work was supported through undergraduate summer research grants and regional supercomputing time vouchers provided through the National Science Foundation. Cervantes will present her research at the upcoming American Astronomical Society meeting in January.

Prospective students, amateur stargazers, and science educators can learn more about undergraduate astrophysics research and campus observatory viewing nights online at stmarys-ca.edu. Inquiries regarding student research presentations and collaborative science partnerships may be directed to the Saint Mary's College School of Science office Monday through Friday between 8:30 AM and 5:00 PM at (925) 631-4000. Campus faculty will host a public science colloquium detailing Cervantes's stellar mapping architecture on November 12.