The 2024 Radio School will be jointly hosted by CSIRO, the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research and the SKA Observatory (SKAO). We will convene in Geraldton, Western Australia, in the week of 30 September –  4 October.

In line with the first of these west-coast radio schools in 2018, we will focus on the new capabilities provided by the Murchison Widefield Array, CSIRO’s ASKAP radio telescope and the SKAO’s SKA-Low telescope in Western Australia as well as opportunities for engagement with the SKAO.

In addition to teaching the fundamentals of radio interferometry, the School will introduce participants to hands-on reduction of data from ASKAP and MWA. With ASKAP and MWA in full science operations, the School also intends to facilitate more cross-use of the two facilities and to expose participants to tools and techniques likely to be useful for analysis of data from the future SKA telescopes. Participants will also be introduced to the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, part of which is dedicated to the reduction and analysis of radio astronomy data.

The 2024 Radio School is aimed at PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in astronomy. The format of the School will be similar to previous ATNF Radio Schools, with a mix of lectures and practical sessions. No prior experience with radio interferometry is required.

Program

The draft program for the 2024 Radio School is available here.

Recordings

Recordings of the lectures and tutorials are available here.

Important dates

– February 2024Save the date email
– 9 May 2024First announcement and registration opens
– 31 July 2024Applications for Accessibility Grants close
– 31 July 2024In-Person Registration NOW CLOSED
– 6 September 2024Biographies for Booklet due
– 6 September 2024Accommodation Block Bookings Close
– 30 September 2024Radio School starts
– 1 October 2024Conference Dinner
– 3 October 2024Day trip to Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO’s Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory

List of Speakers

  • Dr Jess Broderick (SKAO)
  • Pablo Carrillo (SKAO)
  • Dr Jordan Collier (AusSRC)
  • Dr Laura Driessen (University of Sydney)
  • Dr Phil Edwards (CSIRO)
  • Prof. Ron Ekers (CSIRO)
  • Emily Goddard (CSIRO/SKAO)
  • Juan Carlos (JC) Guzman (CSIRO)
  • Dr Stefan Duchesne (CSIRO)
  • Dr George Heald (SKAO)
  • Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker (ICRAR)
  • Dr Karen Lee-Waddell (AusSRC)
  • Mx Dev Null (AusSRC)
  • Dr Danny Price (SKAO)
  • Dr Wasim Raja (CSIRO)
  • Dr Chris Riseley (Università di Bologna)
  • Dr Kathryn Ross (Curtin)
  • Angela Teale (SKAO)
  • Lucio Tirone (SKAO)
  • Dr Max Voronkov (CSIRO)
  • Dr Jennifer West (Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Centre, NRC)
  • Allison Weidenbaum (CSIRO)

Venue

Radio School will take place at the Batavia Coast Conference Centre, 25 Cathedral Avenue, Geraldton WA, located within The Gerald Apartment Hotel.

The main meeting will be held in the ‘Fitzgerald’ room. A floorplan for the venue can be found here. 

Parking: There are free parking bays at the venue, subject to availability. There is also free on-street parking available at the Geraldton foreshore, which is a 7 min walk from the venue. 

Day Trip to Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory

An itinerary for the day trip can be found here. 

A Safety and General Information Guide for the observatory tour can be found here.

Registrations for the observatory tour have now closed.

Conference Dinner

The 2024 Radio School Conference dinner will be held at The Old Man & The Sea Bar located on the rooftop of The Gerald Apartment Hotel. There will be a fee to attend the 2 hour canape style dinner. Please indicate your interest in attending the conference dinner via the registration form. 

Accommodation & Travel Information

Block bookings with the hotels in Geraldton have now expired. Please contact the hotels directly to make a booking. Details are here. 

Registration

Registration has now closed

Accessibility Grants

The allocated budget for Accessibility Grants has now been exhausted. 

Organising Committee

SOC: Tim Galvin (CSIRO), Barnali Das (CSIRO), Natasha Hurley-Walker (ICRAR), Andreas Wicenec (ICRAR), Jess Broderick (SKAO), Tobias Westmeier (ICRAR), Tessa Vernstrom (ICRAR)

LOC: Amanda Gray (amanda.gray_at_csiro.au), Beth Cloake (beth.cloake_at_csiro.au)

If you have any questions about the Radio School, please contact Amanda Gray at amanda.gray_at_csiro.au.

Code of Conduct

The organizers are committed to making this meeting productive and enjoyable for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, nationality or religion. We will not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Please follow these guidelines:

  • Behave professionally. Harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate. Harassment includes sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, sexual attention or innuendo, deliberate intimidation, stalking, and photography or recording of an individual without consent. It also includes offensive comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race or religion.
  • All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate.
  • Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other attendees.

Participants asked to stop any inappropriate behaviour are expected to comply immediately. Attendees violating these rules may be asked to leave the event at the sole discretion of the organisers without a refund of any charge. Any participant who wishes to report a violation of this policy is asked to speak, in confidence, to any of the LOC or SOC members.

This code of conduct is based on the “London Code of Conduct”, as originally designed for the conference “Accurate Astrophysics. Correct Cosmology”, held in London in July 2015. The London Code of Conduct was adapted with permission by Andrew Pontzen and Hiranya Peiris from a document by Software Carpentry, which itself derives from original Creative Commons documents by PyCon and Geek Feminism. It is released under a CC-Zero licence for reuse. To help track people’s improvements and best practice, please retain this acknowledgement, and log your re-use or modification of this policy at https://github.com/apontzen/london_cc

Jointly hosted by

Logos for CSIRO, SKAO, ICRAR, UWA, and Curtin University.

Sponsored by

Logos for AusSRC and Pawsey Supercomputing Centre.

We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamaji as Traditional Owners and Native Title Holders of Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory site.