SKANZ 2012

AUT, after the success of SKANZ 2010, again played host to the international SKANZ Conference at its city (Wellesley) campus.
The conference was held from Tuesday 14 - Thursday 16 February, 2012.

Pathways to SKA Science in Australasia

Chair of the Scientific Organising Committee, Dick Manchester's welcome to participants:

"The Square Kilometre Array represents the future of cm-band radio astronomy.  It will have orders of magnitude more sensitivity than existing radio telescopes and will enable imaging of wide fields with high angular resolution.  We can expect great advances in a diverse range of topics ranging from black holes in distant galactic nuclei to magnetic fields in our Galaxy.  With its enormous sensitivity it is likely to uncover new classes of objects not even dreamt of by today's astronomers.

Western Australia is an ideal site for the SKA with its wide expanses of sparsely populated territory and very low levels of man-made interference.  Combining this site with SKA antennas in New Zealand gives 6000-km baselines and milliarcsecond resolution at cm wavelengths.  The SKA provides wonderful opportunities not only for advancement of science but also for technological development and innovation.

The primary aim of this SKANZ 2012 conference is to foster interaction and collaboration between Australian and New Zealand scientists and engineers, building on the successful SKANZ 2010 meeting, and thereby helping to realise the exciting potential of the SKA.  I hope you can join us!"

Details

Auckland University of Technology   14 – 16 February, 2012

Tuesday 14 February

09:30 – 10:30  Opening and Overview

Opening and Welcome – Derek McCormack (AUT), Sergei Gulyaev, Dick Manchester (15 min)
SKA Overview – Peter Quinn (invited) (30 min)
SKA - the New Zealand Perspective –  Jonathan Kings (invited) (15 min)

11:00 – 12:30 SKA Science

Overview of SKA science– Joseph Lazio (invited) (30 min)
Why Black Holes do not yet exist! – Roy Kerr (invited) (30 min)
Tracing the buildup of galaxies with the SKA - Nicholas Seymour (15 min)

14:00 – 19:30  Visit to Warkworth Observatory and Winery

Wednesday 15 February

09:00 – 10:30 SKA and Related Development I

Overview of SKA Development– Lisa Harvey-Smith (invited) (30 min)
SKA Development in New Zealand – Melanie Johnston-Hollitt (invited) (20 min)
The changing face of citizen science – Arfon Smith (15 min)
Poster Session (20 min)

11:00 – 12:30 SKA and Related Development II

The Path to Aperture Synthesis- Ron Ekers (30 min)
Phased Array Feeds– John O’Sullivan (invited) (20 min)
Digital receivers for radio astronomy– Paul Roberts (invited) (20 min)
Big data technologies under development at JPL - Dayton Jones (15 min)

13:30 – 15:00 SKA Precursors

ASKAP Overview- Antony Schinckel (invited) (30 min)
The Murchison Widefield Array–  Ravi Subrahmanyan (invited) (20 min)
e-MERLIN - Peter Thomasson (15 min)
Probing the ISM in galaxies - Loretta Dunne (15 min)

15:30 – 17:00 Science with SKA Precursors

Overview of ASKAP Science – Ilana Feain (invited) (30 min)
Early Universe/EoR – Stuart Wyithe (invited) (20 min)
Abell 3125 and 3128: the merger continues! - a case study for cluster population dynamics in the SKA era - Geoff Grimwood (15 min)
Searching for high-redshift tailed galaxies in the CDFS - a model for future radio surveys - Simak Dehghan (15 min)

18:30  Conference Dinner –  Sky Tower

Thursday 16 February

09:00 – 10:30 Wide-field Science

Deep Radio Surveys– Ray Norris (invited) (20 min)
Wide-field Science with Gemini/AAO– Stuart Ryder (invited) (20 min)
Spectral Line Surveys – Baerbel Koribalski (invited) (20 min)
Bayesian power spectrum analysis of interferometric data- Paul Sutter (15 min)
Science with tailed radio galaxies in next generation radio surveys - Luke Pratley (15 min)

11:00 – 12:30 Computing and Networking for the SKA and ASKAP

How do we deal with 8.8*10ˆ16 pixels?? – Andreas Wicenec (invited) (20 min)
KAREN status and perspectives with a view towards the SKA - Steve Cotter (invited) (20 min)
Signal Processing with High Time Resolution - Willem van Straten (invited) (20 min)
Bringing order to chaos: Machine-learning applications for ASKAP and SKA- Peter-Christian Zinn (15 min)
Stream-based approach using hardware accelerators for radio astronomy applications - Mahmoud Mahmoud (15 min)

13:30 – 15:00 Transient and High-Resolution Science
Transients – Tara Murphy (invited) (20 min)
Australasian VLBI– Sergei Gulyaev (invited) (20 min)
Short time Fourier Transform-based method for fast transient detection- Gene Soudlenkov (15 min)
New Zealand path to gamma-ray burst follow-up and transient observations- Stuart Weston (15 min)

15:30 – 16:00 Closing Session

Closing Remarks – Phil Diamond

Invited speakers are indicated by *

Ajit Narayanan
Alastair Brickell
Andreas Wicenec *
Anne Berryman
Antony Gomez
Antony Schinckel *
Arfon Smith
Baerbel Koribalski *
Brett Telfer
David Britten
Dayton Jones
Delwyn Dickey
Dick Manchester *
Garry Tee
Gene Soudlenkov
Geoff Grimwood
Glenn Urquhart
Grant Christie
Hiroshi Takiguchi
Howard Fox
Ilana Feain *
Jill Wright
Joseph Lazio *
John Houlker
John Lewis
John O'Sullivan *
John White
Jonathan Kings *
Jordan Alexander
Lisa Harvey-Smith *
Loretta Dunne
Luke Pratley
Mahmoud Mahmoud
Marilyn Head
Melanie Johnston-Hollitt *
Miriam Chote
Nicholas Seymour
Nigel Jamieson
Paul Banks
Paul Roberts
Paul Sutter
Peter Quinn *
Peter Shield
Peter Thomasson
Peter-Christian Zinn
Phil Diamond *
Ralf Haeusler
Ravi Subrahmanyan *
Ray Norris *
Rick Millane
Robin McNeill
Ron Ekers *
Ross Muir
Rowan Miller
Roy Kerr *
Sarah Pearce
Sergei Gulyaev *
Siamak Dehghan
Stephen Maddox
Steve Cotter *
Stuart Ryder *
Stuart Weston
Stuart Wyithe *
Susan Shoebridge
Thomas Franzen
Tim Natusch
Tim Shimwell
Willem van Straten *

CSIRO Logo

Intertronic Logo

Organising Committees

Scientific Organising Committee

  • Tim Cornwell (CSIRO)
  • Phil Diamond (CSIRO)
  • Bryan Gaensler (University of Sydney)
  • Sergei Gulyaev (AUT; LOC Chair)
  • John Houlker (NZ Trade and Enterprise)
  • Melanie Johnston-Hollitt (Victoria University)
  • Roy Kerr (University of Canterbury)
  • Dick Manchester (CSIRO; Chair)
  • Peter Napier (NRAO-VLA)
  • Peter Quinn (University of Western Australia)
  • Elaine Sadler (University of Sydney)
  • Peter Thomasson (AUT, JBO - Merlin)

Local Organising Committee

  • Jordan Alexander
  • Ryan Butler
  • Melanie Curry-Irons
  • Sergei Gulyaev (Chair)
  • Eva Ihaia
  • Saide Lo
  • Mahmoud Mahmoud
  • Ajit Narayanan
  • Tim Natusch
  • Patricia Sallis
  • Hui Ling Tan
  • Stuart Weston