Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Y. Sharma is a leading figure in time-domain astrophysics, specializing in the development of robotic telescopes and machine-learning tools for transient classification. As a key contributor to the GROWTH (Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen) collaboration, Sharma spearheaded the deployment of India’s first robotic eye for time-domain studies—the GROWTH-India Telescope (GIT), a 70 cm facility with a 0.7-degree field of view, established in partnership with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics and IIT Bombay. This instrument has been pivotal in rapidly capturing supernovae and other fleeting cosmic events. Sharma’s impact is further cemented by pioneering software innovations: the *byecr* and *contsep* modules for the SEDMachine, which remove cosmic-ray and non-target light contamination (57 citations), and the deep-learning tool *CCSNscore*, which classifies core-collapse supernovae from ZTF spectra. These contributions address the critical bottleneck of classifying thousands of nightly transients, accelerating discovery in the era of all-sky surveys. With over 90 combined citations and a focus on bridging observational infrastructure with automated analysis, Sharma’s work is essential reading for students and researchers advancing real-time astrophysics.