Work Status

16 Mar 2009

project text
Algorithms With the encouragement from Fred Lo, this coordination effort has finally been approved. It is to support the EVLA initially. The first announcement to the participants will go out this week.
ALMA First radiometric ASDM (cross-scans of the moon) observed in Chile. R6.1 freeze date at the end of March, although the implementation of the new SDM (v1) will extend about a week later. CIPT review response released and presented to the ALMA Board.
Archives Three more NGAS machines have been ordered for Socrro. This will bring the number to six: three operational pairs (primary and backup).
EVLA data is presently being mirrored from the VLA site to the systems in Socorro.
CASA Freeze for the next release coming up at the end of this month, planning for the next cycle needed. EVLA *SRO concerns and ALMA single dish will probably be the main project inputs. David King has left the project, we are in discussion about what to do with his position. We will face-to-face interview two candidates for "new Joe" (hah!) in April.
CIS  
EVLA Lorant Sjouwerman gave a successful presentation of the OPT via video.
The EVLA advisory board meeting is later this week.
GBT Hiring: We've filled our Software Engineer III position.
Dynamic Scheduling: The software team is continuing work on a scheduling simulator with DanaBalser and has an evolving design for the GUI to create and modify projects/sessions (used by the telescope scheduler). The WBS for software work now reflects tasks through the end of May. We've created a web service for the BOS to let the DSS system retrieve Green Bank site reservations to help determine "observer on site" status; the service is ready for sponsor testing.
GoogleSky  
Guppi We are working to get Guppi integrated into Astrid (including the GBT configuration tool and balancing API) by June 1. Additional work on the M&C Manager is also required in order to make it reflect the current state of the hardware.
KAT To pursue possible collaborations, BillCotton, EdFomalont, and GarethHunt visited the MeerKAT offices. You can read their trip report. The senior engineers from Socorro, Jim Jackson (EVLA) and Chris Langley (ALMA), visited earlier. DebraShepherd is there now describing her experiences with the ATF.
Interactive Services  
Management Observatory Science Operations will proceed as a marriage between NAASC and the present NM Array Operations. The combination will be an advantage, but we have to ensure that we do not interfere with upcoming EVLA deployment. We will have a feasibility helpdesk study based on Kayako. This will be explored by gap analysis.
Pipelines KFPA: Green Bank Software Development is for a Software Engineer II to work on the KFPA pipeline (position located in CV).
KFPA: We competed for "free funding" from the UVa computational science group and got it. The ultimate goal of the collaboration is to examine the existing code, the systems involved, and the 7-element -> 100-element problem so that we not only get a robust system in place for 7-element, but also have a clearly defined path and proposed architecture to get to 100-element.
VAO VAO has been funded with work due to commence in April
Planning for a VAO development system at NRAO is in progress
A VO service for the VLA observation summary table is under development using the VAO DALServer framework
A program to cross correlate the VLA observations table with those of other major observatories is in preparation
A TWiki page "NRAO Guide to the Virtual Observatory" is now available
A whitepaper "Astronomical Data Reduction and Analysis for the Next Decade" was submitted to the decadal panel March 15
IVOA standards development (TAP, SIAV2) continues in preparation for IVOA interop in Strasbourg this May
Web Wiki:Ccs.WebInternalContentMigration proceeding (calendar functions next)
Donar plan for update to RHEL 5 (Sat March 28)
Wiki:Ccs.WikiMigration next phase: Green Bank Wiki to safe / staff
Investigating helpdesk for NAASC and other Astronomical-themed functions

02 Mar 2009

project text
Algorithms  
ALMA  
Archives  
CASA  
CIS  
EVLA  
GBT Dynamic Scheduling: The software team is continuing work on a scheduling simulator with Dana Balser and has an evolving design for the GUI to create and modify projects/sessions (used by the telescope scheduler). We are also fleshing out our WBS for software work through the end of May this week.
GoogleSky  
Guppi  
KAT  
Interactive Services The postmortem meeting was held on 19 February. The plan of record was discussed and amended. A schedule is in place for the next cycle.
Pipelines  
VAO VAO has been funded! More details on status and plans to follow soon.
Web Wiki:Ccs.WikiMigration complete, some issues keeping us busy
Wiki:Ccs.WebInternalContentMigration still proceeding, still slow
New Server Side Includes for better use of space in top bar, CSS instead of tables
Wiki:Ccs.NRAOTinyUrl: URL shortening service (prototype), with RonDuPlain (holding pattern)
Blog testing security and cvcomp; latter now uses AD, pave the way for wider deployment?
Donar needs to be updated to RHEL 5
Web Calendar Working Group formed (scheduling and personal calendars separately )

16 Feb 2009

project text
Algorithms  
ALMA  
Archives  
CASA  
CIS  
EVLA Obs Prep Tool: two observers who were allocated time this trimester have been enlisted to help test OPT. They will run their observations as proposed by using JObserve and obs2script. As a reward for helping test OPT they will be granted extra observing time to repeat their observation using OPT.
  Single sign-on: Ashish, Stephan, and Dave worked on the user xml schema and fetching of users from database. Things are going well and we hope to have single sign-on working for OPT / SCT / RCT very soon.
GBT We are currently interviewing for two open Software Engineer positions - one more general purpose and one for KFPA. We have rewritten the KFPA job as a data pipeline job rather than an M&C position and moved it to CV as a result of the CDR.
  Dynamic Scheduling: The software team is working on a scheduling simulator with Dana Balswer and has a straw man design for the GUI to create and modify projects/sessions. Work to flesh out and code up the straw man starts this week.
  We expect to release version 9.1 of the GBT software system this week during a maintenance day. The Release Notes are available if you are interested.
GoogleSky  
Guppi  
KAT  
Interactive Services We received 91 VLA, 50 GBT, and 28 VLBA proposals for the 2 February deadline. Overall the process was pretty smooth. We plan to have the postmortem meeting on 19 Feb. The plan of record for the next cycle will be discussed.
Pipelines  
VAO  
Web  

02 Feb 2009

project textSorted ascending
Algorithms  
ALMA  
Archives  
CASA  
CIS  
GoogleSky  
Guppi  
KAT  
Interactive Services  
Pipelines  
Web Blogs: testing the waters with security and cvcomp journals/blogs; need to solve authentication problem
  May need to split NVO and IVOA TAP development into two tracks due to coordination issues within IVOA
  NVO/OPTICON whitepaper on applications framework to be finalized, submitted this week
  Plan in preparation to begin to update NRAO VO services (VLA observation catalog)
  SIAP 2.0 on hold for the moment, except for data model discussions
VAO Still waiting for word from NSF on VAO proposal (should be soon though)
  Tests will be run this week on the communication of observation from OPT to dynamic scheduler.
  The earliest a Ka proposal will be observed is March 2.
  The KFPA project had an external review January 30-31, see CriticalDesignReview for materials.
  The software team is working on implementing scheduling algorithms and is just starting the design for the GUI to create and modify projects/sessions.
  Version 0.32 of TAP specification in preparation within NVO
  Version 2 of conceptual design document for applications framework in progress
GBT We are currently interviewing for two open Software Engineer positions - one more general purpose and one for KFPA. I am working to schedule an on-site interview for the III position.
  We are gearing up to create a W-band Focal Plane Array workshop sometime this year in Green Bank. Stay tuned for details.
EVLA We're testing scripts produced via Obs Prep Tool (OPT) on the EVLA.
Web Wiki:Ccs.NRAOTinyUrl: URL shortening service (prototype), with RonDuPlain (holding pattern)
Web Wiki:Ccs.UseNRAOLogos: Added favicon.ico
Web Wiki:Ccs.WebInternalContentMigration proceeding (slowly); need to identify stakeholders/owners
Web Wiki:Ccs.WikiMigration now complete
  Work on "LAVA" (AURA with VAO/AUI coordination) future software whitepaper in progress

19 Jan 2009

project text
Algorithms  
ALMA Meeting in Santiago Jan 22-23 to sort out commissioning etc. requirements (follow-up from external review).
  Review of SDM with EVLA. ALMA implementation (FBT has started).
  B. Glendenning on business travel / vacation (Patagonia) through the end of February.
Archives We are refactoring how we handle download requests for single dish data... modification request document (MR) is coming soon...
CASA Patch 2.3.1 held-up by a late discovery of application of clean tuning parameters (cyclefactor etc), final release in prep now.
  Interviewing for NAASC position in progress.
  Tutorial in Chile for ALMA commissioning etc. staff January 26-27.
CIS  
EVLA  
GBT We are currently interviewing for two open Software Engineer positions - one more general purpose and one for KFPA.On-site interviews didn't pan out. Back to phone interviews.
  The internal and external reviews of the Dynamic Scheduling Project went very well. The team is finalizing their project plans this week.
  The KFPA project will be having an external review January 30-31, see CriticalDesignReview for materials as they are being developed.
  We are gearing up to create a W-band Focal Plane Array workshop sometime this year in Green Bank. Stay tuned for details.
  Mustang is on the GBT and commissioning is going well.
GoogleSky We debuted "KML Now!" at AAS 2009 with a poster and a new release of the application at http://go.nrao.edu/kmlnow. We started a development topic for KmlNow.
Guppi We are working toward full integration with the GBT M&C system. We're trying to figure out where how to keep output data. Currently GBT pulsar data isn't archived...
KAT We're working out an agenda for the Feb 16th meeting in Cape Town
Interactive Services OpenSky released the updated version of the PST on 16 January to be used for trimester 09B. Proposal deadline on Feb 2 passed - 167 proposals received.
Pipelines  
VAO  
Web (sorry, forgot! See more recent reports)

05 Jan 2009

project text
Algorithms  
ALMA The ATF has been closed as planned.
The review of the ALMA Computing IPT has been released. BrianGlendenning will write a response. One recommendation was to be more proactive in the development and use of VO tools.
The SDM for both ALMA and EVLA is being reviewed.
Archives SDM data from the EVLA is being stored in the archive. JohnBenson is developing classes to convert to CASA MS and/or UVFITS.
CASA TakTsutsumi is moving from ALMA to NRAO within the CASA project.
DavidKing will be leaving at the end of February.
Patches for the next release are being worked on. The freeze date is 01 Apr 2009. Subsequent releases will be every 6 months in synchronism with other ALMA software.
CIS In conjunction with e2e, CIS will build a High Performance Computing forum to address computing, storage, and communication needs.
EVLA After some debugging, OPT is now producing scripts that correctly control the antennas.
There will be a meeting on Jan 12 to discuss the feasibility of making an early call for Ka band. The decision needs to be made known to OpenSky by Jan 16 - the PST release date.
AllenFarris, the realtime lead, has resigned and will be joining MRO.
GBT We are currently interviewing for two open Software Engineer positions - one more general purpose and one for KFPA. We have an interview scheduled tomorrow for the Software Engineer III position and we have an interview scheduled this Thursday for the KFPA position.
The internal and external reviews of the Dynamic Scheduling Project went very well. The team is currently completing project planning work.
Traditional holography of the GBT's surface is going well. Also, the PTCS project will be having an external review some time in April.
The KFPA project will be having an external review January 30-31, see CriticalDesignReview for materials as they are being developed.
Mustang is scheduled to be installed on the GBT tomorrow, January 6.
GoogleSky JaredCrossley will be making a presentation at the AAS this week on the KML to produce files ready for Google Sky from a cone search.
Guppi  
KAT  
Interactive Services OpenSky will release a PST candidate for testing sometime this week. New features will include changes to the VLA/GBT resources; minor UI changes; and Phase I referee users.
First implementation of the DSS integration may be released this week.
The SAA is working on a document to reorganize the NRAO proposal process.
Pipelines  
VAO  
Web Wiki:Ccs.WikiMigration: migrated the internal wiki to staff.nrao.edu; also migrated external one (wikio) to safe.nrao.edu
Wiki:Ccs.UseNRAOLogos: New logos, including an EPS version
Wiki:Ccs.NRAOTinyUrl: URL shortening service (prototype), with RonDuPlain

-- GarethHunt - 2009-07-06
Topic revision: r3 - 2016-06-08, PatrickMurphy
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