South African SKA Project Office (SASPO) Visit

November 8-11, 2010

Outcomes

The top level outcomes of the meeting are summarized in this summary

Logistics / Web Site / Mailing List

All participants should make all of their own travel arrangements.

Heidi Winter can assist with local CV accommodation and other arrangements. Jessie Taylor and Shirley Curry can help with local GB accommodation and other arrangements.

This web site is publically visible, although not particularly well advertised. If you have any concerns about this, send mail to Richard Prestage. To request / make changes to this page, send mail to Richard Prestage, or register for this wiki at UserRegistration.

We also have our own NRAOSASPO Mailing List (visit the Subscriber List or Archives). This is only visible to list members, again send mail to Richard Prestage if you wish to subscribe. This list should not be confused with the SKA-NRAO mailing list, which is for internal to NRAO, more general SKA discussions.

Introduction

This page is to coordinate a visit by members of the South African SKA Project Office (SASPO) to NRAO Charlottesville and Green Bank during the week starting Monday November 8th 2010. Basic information about SASPO can be found at the South African SKA web site; latest news is available from the SKA Newsletter.

Memorandum of Understanding

Here is a copy of the MOU Between NRAO and SASPO.

Agenda

Sun. 7: Arrive

Some participants arrive in CV on Sunday. No formal plans for dinner; but Richard Prestage can co-ordinate if desired. Remember Daylight Saving Time ends in the United States on Sunday, November 7, 2010 at 2 a.m. Don't get your clocks confused!

Mon. 8: Introductions; Dish Verification Programs; Pulsars and NanoGRAV

In CV-230, Breakout Room CV-245, by video to TUC-525, GB-137 and Socorro AOC-West (Session One); Portable Video Unit (Session Two and Three)
  • Breakfast in Residence Inn
  • 08:00 - 10:00 Pre-meeting informal discussions as desired
  • 09:00 - 10:00 [Fred Lo and Bernie Fanaroff meet privately]
  • 10:00 - 10:30 Refreshments
  • 10:30 - 13:00 Session One: Introductions and Overviews
    • (30min) Jonas: Update on the SKA international project; summary of the SKA timeline, MeerKAT design, science & schedule
    • (30min) Fanaroff: Review of the MOU (why it was put into place, what the goals are, provisions for engineer exchange and cooperative development). Accomplishments to date.
    • (30min) Prestage / Dickman: NRAO current and future perspective on MOU and collaboration plans
    • (60min) Open Discussion
  • 13:00 - 14:00 Catered Box Lunch
  • 14:00 - 15:30 Session Two: Dish Verification Program
    • Motivation: SASPO will be prototyping a 13.5m offset Gregorian dish. The fully outfitted dish, receiver, feeds, etc… will be tested against the KAT 7 array. Is the NRAO interested in participating in this programme?
    • (30min) Jonas: Overview of the production and commissioning timeline for the 13.5 m offset Gregorian. The system to be built includes- e.g.- the antenna, receivers, digitization, phase monitoring, an integrated control and monitoring system optimized to minimize power consumption.
    • (30min) Myers Overview of current NRAO related activities
    • (30min) Open discussion. Potential topics:
      • What aspects of the SA antenna development and verification program would NRAO be interested in? High frequency receivers?
      • Would NRAO want to provide resources for this program?
  • 15:30 - 16:00 Refreshments
  • 16:00 - 17:30 Session Three: Pulsars and NanoGrav
    • Motivation: SASPO would like to work closely with the NRAO pulsar researchers to explore the use of the MeerKAT as the primary instrument in the Southern Hemisphere for this research and pulsar research in general
    • (30min) Jonas: Overview of MeerKAT planned pulsar surveys and KAT-7 opportunities to observe pulsars.
    • (30min) Ransom Overview of NRAO pulsar observation program
    • (30min) Open Discussion
  • 17:30 - 19:00 Rest / Email break
  • 19:00 Dinner - Boathouse Restaurant, 101 Seminole Ct. Charlottesville

Tue. 9: Next Generation Interferometric Data Processing; PAPER and HERA; Commissioning of KAT and MeerKAT

In CV-230, Breakout Room CV-245, by video to TUC-525, GB-137 and Socorro Portable Video Unit
  • Breakfast in Residence Inn
  • 08:00 - 09:00 Available for pre-meeting informal discussions as desired
  • 09:00 - 10:00 [NRAO internal discussion meeting]
  • 09:00 - 10:00 SASPO staff available for discussions
  • 10:00 - 10:30 Refreshments
  • 10:30 - 12:00 Session Four: Software I: Next Generation Interferometric Data Processing
    • Motivation: Collaboration on parallelisation of CASA with particular focus on GPU technology; general scalability testing of a parallel version of CASA; further development of the CASA simulator applicable to MeerKAT; on-line automatic flagging of RFI
    • (30min) Horrell: Provide a summary of discussions to-date with NRAO software groups and how we propose to further this collaboration in the MOU. Focus on wide-field imaging, polarization imaging, parallelization efforts within CASA. Provide a summary of what we are doing with others (e.g., ASTRON & MeqTrees), where relevant.
    • (30min) Kern: Current status of CASA and current NRAO development work.
    • (30min) Bhatnagar: NRAO Algorithm Development
  • 12:00 - 13:00 Catered Box Lunch
  • 13:00 - 14:30 Session Five: PAPER and HERA
    • Motivation: SASPO has committed to hosting the PAPER array and participating in the project. We would like to discuss the future plans and what will be expected from the SASPO.
    • (30min) Bradley: NRAO Current status and future plans for PAPER. (requested, details on SA’s involvement in the science, the process with the MWA and HERA going forward)
    • (30min) Jonas: SKA Africa’s commitment to the PAPER project.
      • SA-local production of future PAPER antennas is viable. Is there any interest in this?
    • (30min) Open Discussion
  • 14:30 - 15:00 Refreshments
  • 15:00 - 16:30 Session Six Commissioning of KAT and MeerKAT
    • Motivation: The role of the NRAO has been invaluable. SASPO would like to discuss the continued involvement of the NRAO in the commissioning and science verification activities.
    • (45min) Shepherd: The commissioning program scope, where we are and where we are going; NRAO’s contribution to KAT-7 commissioning and MeerKAT
    • (45min) Open Discussion
  • 16:30 - 22:00 Drive to GB, light dinner (sandwiches) in Residence Hall on arrival

Wed. 10: GB Site Visits; SKA Colloquium; Massive Data Sets and Heterogenous Computing; Radio Quiet Zones; Summary and Action Items

In GB, GB-137/Auditorium, by video to CV-230 (morning), CV-209 (afternoon), TUC-525 and Socorro Portable Video Unit
  • Breakfast in Cafeteria
  • 08:00 - 10:30 Session Seven: Tours of Visitor Center, GBT, PAPER and Facilities
  • 10:30 - 10:45 Refreshments
  • 10:45 - 12:00 Colloquium - Justin Jonas / Debra Shepherd "SKA - South Africa".
    • Jonas (20 min): SKA-SA/MeerKAT introduction – Science and Engineering
    • Shepherd (20 min): The road to MeerKAT – KAT 7 commissioning and how NRAO fits into it all.
  • 12:00 - 13:00 Lunch in Cafeteria
  • 13:00 - 14:00 Session Eight: Software II: Data Mining for Massive Datasets; Heterogenous Computing
    • (30min) O'Neil / Shelton: NRAO handling of massive data-sets
    • (30min) Ford NRAO heterogeneous computing development
  • 14:00 - 15:00 Session Nine: Radio Quiet Zones
    • (30min) Beaudet: Logistics of the WVRAZ/NRQZ and enforcement policies and mechanism
    • (30min) Open Discussions
  • 15:00 - 15:30 Refreshments
  • 15:30 - 17:30 Summary of Meeting; Conclusions; Action Items
    • Fanaroff/Prestage Provide a summary of the meeting and identify draft action items
    • Open Discussions

  • 17:30 - 22:00 Dinner in GB Residence Hall for those interested.

Thu. 11: In GB or travelling; informal discussions only

Veteran's Day Holiday for NRAO

Informal discussions; please agree your own arrangements ahead of time.
  • Amy Shelton (Head of Software)- Horrell
  • Jay Lockman (GBT Principal Scientist)- Jonas
  • John Ford (Head of Electronics) - Jonas and Horrell
  • Sue Ann Heatherly (Education Officer) - Shepherd

Fri. 12: All Done

Participants

The following staff are expected to attend some or all of the meeting, either in person or via video. Others may be added if it seems appropriate.

Note: "location on date x" is referring to the daytime. It does not refer to the evening, so if someone is e.g. in CV on Monday, they may arrive on Sunday evening or Monday morning, and may depart on Monday night or stay over Monday night. Please check with Heidi Winter (CV) or Jessie Taylor (GB) if you want to (re-) confirm your actual hotel bookings.

Thursday 11th is an NRAO holiday. GB Residence Hall accounts must be settled on Wednesday. I assume only NRAO staff marked as "in GB" are available for discussions on that day.

click on a column name to sort by that column
First Last email Org Mon 08 Tue 09 Wed 10 Thu 11
Rich Bradley rbradley@nrao.edu NRAO-CV CV CV GB X
George Clark gclark@nrao.edu NRAO-CV CV CV CV X
Rick Fisher rfisher@nrao.edu NRAO-CV CV CV CV X
Gareth Hunt ghunt@nrao.edu NRAO-CV CV CV GB X
Phil Jewell pjewell@nrao.edu NRAO-CV CV CV CV X
Fred Lo flo@nrao.edu NRAO-CV CV CV CV X
Matt Morgan mmorgan2@nrao.edu NRAO-CV CV CV CV X
Scott Ransom sransom@nrao.edu NRAO-CV CV CV CV X
John Webber jwebber@nrao.edu NRAO-CV CV X X X
Carla Beaudet cbeaudet@nrao.edu NRAO-GB GB GB GB X
Marty Bloss mbloss@nrao.edu NRAO-GB CV CV GB X
Dennis Egan degan@nrao.edu NRAO-GB GB GB GB X
John Ford jford@nrao.edu NRAO-GB CV CV GB GB
Sue Ann Heatherly sheather@nrao.edu NRAO-GB GB GB GB GB
Jay Lockman jlockman@nrao.edu NRAO-GB GB GB GB GB
Karen O'Neil koneil@nrao.edu NRAO-GB CV CV GB X
Richard Prestage rprestag@nrao.edu NRAO-GB CV CV GB X
Amy Shelton ashelton@nrao.edu NRAO-GB CV CV GB X
Sanjay Bhatnagar sbhatnag@nrao.edu NRAO-SOC CV CV GB X
Chris Carilli ccarilli@nrao.edu NRAO-SOC Tuc Tuc Tuc Tuc
Bob Dickman rdickman@nrao.edu NRAO-SOC CV CV GB X
Dale Frail dfrail@nrao.edu NRAO-SOC Soc Soc Soc X
Jim Jackson jjackson@nrao.edu NRAO-SOC Soc Soc Soc X
Jeff Kern jkern@nrao.edu NRAO-SOC Soc Soc Soc X
Chris Langley clangley@nrao.edu NRAO-SOC Soc Soc Soc X
Steve Myers smyers@nrao.edu NRAO-SOC CV CV GB X
Tracy Cheetham tcheetham@ska.ac.za SASPO X X X X
Willem Esterhuyse esterhuyse@gmail.com SASPO CV CV GB CV
Bernie Fanaroff bfanaroff@fanaroff.co.za SASPO CV CV GB CV
Jasper Horrell jasper@ska.ac.za SASPO CV CV GB CV
Justin Jonas J.Jonas@ru.ac.za SASPO CV CV GB CV
Debra Shepherd dshepher@nrao.edu NRAO/SASPO CV CV GB CV




The following Admin Assistants are also on the NRAOSASPO email exploder, but not attending the meeting:

First Last email siteSorted ascending
Heidi Winter hwinter@nrao.edu NRAO-CV
J.J. Utley jutley@nrao.edu NRAO-CV
Shirley Curry scurry@nrao.edu NRAO-GB
Jessie Taylor jtaylor@nrao.edu NRAO-GB
Lori Appel lappel@nrao.edu NRAO-SOC

Presentations

Discussion Topics

Dish verification programme

SASPO will be prototyping a 13.5m offset Gregorian dish and testing it against our KAT 7 array. Is the NRAO interested in participating in this programme? If so, how?

PAPER

SASPO has committed to hosting the array and participating, and would like to discuss the future plans and what will be expected from them.

Nanograv

SASPO would like to work closely with the NRAO pulsar researchers to explore the use of the MeerKAT as the primary instrument in the Southern Hemisphere for this research and pulsar research in general.

Software

Collaboration on parallelisation of CASA with particular focus on GPU technology; general scalability testing of parallel version of CASA; further development of the CASA simulator applicable to MeerKAT; on-line automatic flagging of RFI

Commissioning of the KAT 7 and MeerKAT

The role of the NRAO has been invaluable. We would like to discuss the continued involvement of the NRAO in the commissioning and science verfification activities.

MeerKAT and other science

Use of the KAT 7 for VLBI and pulsar research

Radio Quiet Zones

Discuss logistics of the WVRAZ/NRQZ and enforcement policies.

-- RichardPrestage - 2010-10-06

Topic revision: r34 - 2011-01-06, RichardPrestage
This site is powered by FoswikiCopyright © by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
Ideas, requests, problems regarding NRAO Public Wiki? Send feedback