One of the scientists at the Transient Universe symposium is working on an alien drawing.

Symposium participants are gathered at a table and are starting to create their aliens.

A participant's drawing of an alien, following the "Rogue Planet" and "Crystalline" prompts

Scientists drawing aliens at the Transient Universe symposium

A participant's drawing of an alien, following the "Lava Planet" and "Technological Life" prompts

A participant's drawing of an alien, following the "Circumbinary Planet" and "Awaken" prompts

A participant's drawing of an alien, following the "Eyeball Planet" and "Awaken" prompts

Imagine Aliens at McGill University

In September 2026, Imagine Aliens was presented at Illuminating the Transient Universe Through Big Data Science and Machine Learning, an interdisciplinary symposium held at McGill University in Montreal. Sponsored by CIFAR, the gathering brought together astronomers, data scientists, AI specialists, and researchers from other disciplines to explore new approaches to understanding dynamic astronomical phenomena and the challenges of contemporary astrophysics.

In a departure from workshops designed to introduce the public to scientific concepts, this session invited scientists to exercise their own creativity through artistic experimentation. Participants used Imagine Aliens cards to combine exoplanet environments with biological attributes, imagining unfamiliar forms of extraterrestrial life.

A collection of rubber stamps featuring ambiguous organic shapes provided a playful starting point for drawing. By combining and reinterpreting these shapes, participants were encouraged to move beyond familiar representations of alien life and explore how artistic imagination might open new perspectives on scientific questions.