Data science, consulting, and science communication
Data surrounds you. It comes from your phone, your customers,
your
environment — any system that can record information. And it’s accumulating
constantly. Spark Scientific can help you make sense
of it and uncover
what is working for your business and what is not.
Spark Scientific is led by a Ph.D. scientist and veteran college teacher
who can
also take on science communication engagements for many types
of audiences —
hobbyists, the general public, children, and more.
Selected work
Real problems on real data, from a nationwide education study to NASA mission pipelines. Nine public repositories, with tests and documentation throughout.
Every US library opening from 2008 to 2024, 528 checked by hand, and reading scores for nearly every school district. A pre-registered test, with access measured in walking minutes. Preliminary findings.
An entire infrared survey run in software against synthetic solar systems, to correct real catalogs for the objects nobody saw.
Eclipse events recovered from scattered, irregular photometry, with the orbital period nailed to a tenth of a percent.
Three physical models fight over one asteroid’s light curve. The contact-binary model wins, and radar imaging agrees.
No telescope can resolve this body. Its proportions and spin-pole direction fall out of the light curve anyway.
Wavelet defringing strips periodic detector artifacts out of a spectrum while the mineral absorption features stay put.
Automated source detection, PSF fitting, and photometric calibration, with error bars you can defend.
Services
Every engagement ends with something you can use — a report, a deck, a tool, or a stronger proposal.
What’s really going on in your numbers? Rigorous statistical analysis separates true patterns from noise — and tells you exactly how much confidence each answer deserves.
Tools: Python, NumPy, pandas, SciPy, Monte Carlo methods
Your results as finished, shareable documents: a clearly written report or a ready-to-present slide deck, with visuals that make the story obvious at a glance — deliverables your team can circulate, reuse, and build on.
Custom tools and automated pipelines that turn hours of manual data work into a button press — documented, dependable, and yours to keep using long after the engagement ends.
Tools: Python, git, pytest, GitHub Actions CI
Talks, workshops, and public events that make complex science click for any audience — from classrooms to conference stages, honed by years of teaching and outreach.
A scientist’s eye on your proposal before the reviewers see it — sharpening the science, the story, and the structure, informed by firsthand experience writing and winning grants.
How it works
You and I talk through your data, your questions, and what a useful answer looks like for you. No jargon required.
Your data gets the full scientific treatment: careful methods, honest uncertainties, and conclusions that hold up.
You receive a polished report or presentation — plus a walkthrough, so the findings actually land with your audience.
About
Spark Scientific is led by Dr. Sarah Sonnett, a practicing astrophysicist and veteran college teacher with more than a decade of research experience, including nearly ten years working on NASA space missions, beginning at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech. She has used her research to cultivate the skills your data demands: customized software development, careful statistical analysis, compelling scientific interpretation, and clear communication to diverse audiences.
With an M.S. and Ph.D. in Astronomy, more than three years of collegiate teaching, and experience writing and managing science grants, she brings the full science toolkit to real-world data problems — and a genuine passion for helping organizations think like scientists.
Contact
Tell me a little about your data and your goals — even if you’re not sure what’s possible yet. That’s exactly where the interesting conversations start.
info@sparkscientific.org