The Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER) was founded thirteen years ago to make specialized computational methods for radio astronomy widely available. It has since become a community of hundreds of scientists and engineers worldwide and their methods have become ubiquitous throughout radio astronomy. CASPER has had such a broad impact in radio astronomy that its methods and tools underlie each of the top-ranked radio astronomy initiatives of the last decadal review.
This project will support the CASPER Conference scheduled for 12-16 August 2019 at the Harvard College Observatory. The workshop will include five days of lectures, tutorials and hands-on exercises. This workshop will be run in collaboration with NSF supported PIRE summer school on astronomy techniques (OISE/1743747). This workshop will include a new technical focus on emerging Radio Frequency System on a Chip (RFSoC) applications. Students will have the opportunity to meet and interact with experienced researchers by being paired with "lab mentors." In addition to academic presentations, speakers from industry will be invited. These presentations give students an opportunity to network with potential employers outside of academia. Presentations from the conference will be made publicly available on the conference and CASPER websites. The conference will also feature a public lecture on radio astronomy, a poster session and several live demonstrations for the general public. Requested funds will offset costs of student registration, accommodation and travel.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
