Project Grant 2607971

The National Science Foundation Division of Physics awarded Drexel University $287,049 on August 15, 2026, under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to advance neutrino classification and physics education research through the Name That Neutrino citizen-science project.

Drexel will operate Name That Neutrino, a Zooniverse platform that engages citizen volunteers to classify the topological shape of neutrino events detected by the IceCube telescope at the South Pole. The project harnesses pattern recognition by more than 5,100 registered volunteers, who have generated over 460,000 classifications since the initiative launched in 2023. IceCube records enormous volumes of events to search for astronomical neutrino sources, and accurate topological classification is critical for downstream reconstruction algorithms; misclassification can cause events to be lost or falsely retained, introducing background noise into final datasets. Name That Neutrino has identified event classes where citizen-scientist classifications outperform deep neural networks. The project will use citizen classifications in these regions to improve training datasets for new deep neural networks, thereby increasing IceCube's sensitivity to neutrino astrophysics. In parallel, a partnership between the IceCube Project and the Drexel Physics Education Research Network will study how citizen-science participants learn from the classification process, capturing novel educational data alongside improved neutrino characterization.

Performance takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from award through July 31, 2028. No sub-awards are planned.