The Practicality of Citizen Science for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

Deep within the ice at the South Pole lies the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a cubic kilometer particle detector utilizing light detectors. These detectors collect Cherenkov radiation produced by particle interactions in the ice. One crucial step here is to categorize light signals according to their topology. In this presentation, I will show how Name that Neutrino, a citizen science project, has found a parameter space where the novice volunteers are more accurate in predicting topologies compared to a machine learning algorithm. In the future, this could lead to improved data sets and, ideally, more accurate physical analyses.