On April 10, 2026, Nilesh Pandey, a first-year PhD student at Charles University / ASU, delivered a talk at the Meeting of Students of Astronomy and Astrophysics from Czech, Slovak, and Polish universities, held as part of the General Assembly of the Czech Astronomical Society in Plzeň (10-12 April 2026). In his presentation, titled “Characterizing Blue Supergiants using Machine Learning,” he discussed his planned PhD research. He discussed the blue supergiant problem and the need for robust statistical and data-driven approaches. The talk mainly highlighted the use of machine learning tools as well as Gaussian processes, Fourier-based methods, and neural networks on synthetic spectra and spectroscopic data from Perek 2m telescope to study wind variability and pulsations among BSGs. This work is being developed in synergy with the broader goals of the OCEANS consortium to utilise machine learning for stellar variability studies.

In the week 6-10 April 2026, several OCEANS members participated in the international conference "Friends of Friends (FoF) Meeting", held annually at the Córdoba Observatory in Argentina, where they presented the results of their recent studies. As usual, the conference took place in a friendly atmosphere and brought together around 120 researchers from different fields of astronomy and from around the world.

OCEANS members contributed with the following presentations:

On 17 March 2026, Anahí Granada (UNRN), with the support of her colleague Nicolás Maffione, organized a public talk by Olga Maryeva (ASU) for amateur astronomers in Bariloche, as well as for UNRN staff and students. Olga presented the final stages of the evolution of massive stars, with a particular focus on Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs). All attendees received OCEANS informational flyers.

As part of their outreach and educational activities, OCEANS member Sergio Simón-Díaz, from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Spain), spent one week in March 2026 in Madrid delivering talks on stellar astrophysics to around 500 students in several high schools. The main purpose of these talks was to introduce stellar astrophysics to students who will soon need to make decisions about their future, whether pursuing university studies or vocational training.

The high schools where Sergio delivered his talks were Colegio Brains International School Arturo Soria, Lycée Français International Molière, Colegio Nuestra Señora del Pilar (Marianistas), Centro Educativo Salesianos Carabanchel, and IES Joaquín Rodrigo de Vicálvaro.

It was a highly rewarding experience in which Sergio engaged students aged between 15 and 18, explaining topics such as the difference between astronomy, astrophysics, and astrology; key milestones in the history of astronomy and astrophysics, including important contributions by women such as Hypatia, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, and Cecilia Payne; the tools used by astrophysicists; what stellar astrophysics is; and how to enjoy the journey toward becoming a stellar astrophysicist.

The plan is to repeat this initiative once or twice per year in different high schools across Spain.

On March 9, 2026, Michalis Kourniotis from ASU gave a dissemination talk at the Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics of the Masaryk University, in Brno. His talk, titled as "Variability in massive stars as a diagnostic of their evolutionary stage", described the challenges in refining the physics of massive stars beyond the main sequence, and highlighted the potential of variability studies in constraining parameters from the stellar interior, atmosphere and wind for assessing the evolutionary status of these objects. Michalis further discussed his current project in collaboration with colleagues from the OCEANS consortium on applying machine-learning methods over extended star samples, as a means of revealing variability patterns that are associated with the different evolutionary scenarios.

During 06-23 Mar 2026, Andreas Sander (UHEI) and two of his group members, all part of OCEANS, had a research stay on the Mitaka Campus of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) to collaborate with Takashi Moriya and colleagues at NAOJ. The stay was focussed on the connection between massive stars and supernovae. Beside many discussions and new model explorations, the stay also included an invited review seminar talk by Andreas Sander on the concepts of stellar atmosphere modelling and what we can learn about the properties of (evolved) massive stars.

Team members from the IAC are involved in the organization and implementation of the XXXVII Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics that will take place 16-27 November 2026 in San Cristóbal de La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain). For more information visit the school webpage.