Hello!
I'm a PhD student at MIT as well as a private pilot. My research focuses on understanding when and why convective weather deviations happen for en-route air transport aircraft. The study uses machine learning techniques to identify weather that causes tactical weather deviations from looking at historical radar tracks and weather radar data.
In order to do this we need a set of cases evaluated by pilot experts to provide examples to train the algorithms. We need people to look at a set of cases where aircraft deviated en-route and evaluate if it looks like the deviation was due to the tactical weather situation or for some other reason (traffic, ATC, shortcut, etc.).
If you are an instrument-rated pilot and would be willing to help out you can either fill out this form or contact me directly at wx_avoidance@MIT.edu. Also, if you know anyone who would be interested in participating, please forward this information!