Proposal for an ALMA Community Day event at the Institute for Astronomy 
at the University of Hawaii


The Institute of Astronomy (IfA) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa
proposes a two day workshop to prepare the community for ALMA early science.
The IfA has a long history of research in submillimeter astronomy through
its unique access to the three submillimeter facilities, CSO, JCMT, and SMA
on Mauna Kea. Examples include the ground breaking work on SCUBA
photometry and high resolution interferometry of protoplanetary disks
and high redshift galaxies.

There is substantial interest in hosting an ALMA Community Day at the IfA.
Following the announcement of opportunity, a quick head count showed that
about 20 people from IfA Manoa were likely to attend. Although our location
is remote, the density of astronomers is high and we would also expect
participation from the outer islands, including IfA Hilo, IfA Maui, and
staff from the Mauna Kea telescopes headquartered on the Big Island.
We would also be happy to host astronommers from the mainland US and
Canada who might be tempted by the proposed early date of the workshop.

The main goal of the event would be to educate the community about
the capabilities of ALMA as it begins Early Science and its potential
as it grows to the full 64 antenna array. We envisage a two day
workshop that includes introductory lectures on radio interferometry,
the Early Science user tools, science talks, and a hands-on session
with the proposal generation and ALMA simulation tools. A possible
agenda is as follows:

Day 1 morning:   ALMA overview (NAASC)
                 Radio inteferometry basics (Williams)
                 Mm/submm interferometry in practice (NAASC + Williams or SMA staff)

Day 1 afternoon: introduction to CASA (NAASC)
                 ALMA simulator (NAASC)
                 ALMA observing tool (NAASC)

Day 2 morning:   science talks on potential ALMA ES projects
                 solar system (Meech)
                 circumstellar disks (Williams)
                 star formation (Pandian)
                 ULIRGS (Sanders)
                 Submm galaxies (Cowie)
                 + some short student talks

Day 2 afternoon: hands-on use of ALMA user tools (NAASC)


The science talks will be predominantly by IfA personnel or other attendees
but we would also be happy to hear a science talk from one or more NAASC
staff. We will host the event at the IfA Manoa auditorium, which has
seating for over 50 people and allows high speed wireless internet access.
Given the initial expression of local interest, and allowing for
participants from the neighbor islands and the mainland, we expect
at least 20, but perhaps many more, attendees. If necessary, we would
cap registration at 50.

The event will be advertised IfA-wide and to the Mauna Kea telescope
headquarters via email. We will also broadcast the event to the US
astronomical community via the AAS and, we anticipate, through the NRAO
email list, as well as on the IfA webpage (ifa.hawaii.edu).

We propose and have checked the availabilty of the auditorium for the
following four dates:
Feb 10/11
Feb 14/15
Mar 14/15
Mar 17/18