Steven Tingay (Swinburne University)

A renaissance for Australian VLBI: achievements of the MNRF - Steven Tingay colloquium

ATNF Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

The current round of Major National Research Facility (MNRF) funding
draws to a close after five years at the end of June. At Swinburne
the MNRF program has supported supercomputer simulations for the SKA
as well as demonstrations of SKA-related technologies. One of the
main technical outcomes of this work has been a significant upgrade of
Australian VLBI facilities. VLBI is an interesting test-bed for SKA
concepts and we have attempted to push the boundaries of resolution,
sensitivity, and imagable field-of-view for the Australian array, to
attack areas of science that are relevant to the SKA. Swinburne, the
ATNF, and the University of Tasmania (and others) have collaborated
closely to radically change the way in which the Australian VLBI array
operates, making it a world-leading array in some respects. These
advances will be discussed in this talk, recent science results will
be highlighted, and some exciting work that will come to fruition in
the near future will be outlined.