From jhurley at swin.edu.au Mon Jun 2 10:25:58 2014 From: jhurley at swin.edu.au (Jarrod Hurley) Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2014 00:25:58 +0000 Subject: [ASA] Reminder - current ASTAC call for time on NCI, Swinburne and iVEC HPC facilities in Semester 2 2014 closes on Friday Message-ID: <538BC494.1080609@swin.edu.au> Astronomy Supercomputer Time Allocation Committee: Call for Proposals ? NCI peak facility, Green II (gSTAR/swinSTAR) and iVEC Galaxy ** Call closes at 5pm (AEST) Friday 6th June, 2014 ** Attached is a call for proposals for time on two Australian Supercomputer Facilities for Q3-Q4 in 2014. The same information is available on the Astronomy Australia Limited website at http://www.astronomyaustralia.org.au/commitees/astac We would like to draw your attention to the following key points: 1. ASTAC encourages potential applicants to contact us should you require any technical or scientific advice. 2. The GPU facility gSTAR, part of the Swinburne University of Technology Green II machine, offers users an opportunity for very high performance computational power for appropriately written code. We would also like to highlight that researchers may apply for an account on this facility at any time, independent of the ASTAC process, and make use of resources through general access arrangements. More information can be found at http://www.astronomy.swin.edu.au/supercomputing/hpc_wiki/ 3. The deadline for this current round of proposals is 5pm (AEST), Friday 6th June, 2014. 4. ASTAC is particularly keen to encourage graduate students and early career researchers to become involved in this rapidly developing field, which offers the capacity to perform simulations of numerous astrophysical situations at high resolution and in three dimensions. Advisers are available to assist people in getting started in this area. 5. ASTAC allows applications to be led (Lead Chief Investigator) by PhD students, with their thesis supervisor as a Chief Investigator. ASTAC would like to highlight the benefits of showing leadership on successful time allocation applications to a student?s CV. 6. Along with this call for proposals, ASTAC is seeking feedback from Australian astronomers on the ASTAC process and access to high-performance computing resources. Whether you have previously applied for time through ASTAC or not, we would appreciate you taking a few minutes to provide us with your feedback by completing the following survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7SSLPLJ If you would like to directly receive ASTAC news and announcements, you can sign up to our mailing list at:http://www.astronomyaustralia.org.au/commitees/astac ASTAC Mark George Beckett (iVEC representative; ex-officio), Geoff Bicknell (Australian National University), Ben Evans (NCI representative; ex-officio), Amr Hassan (ASTAC Secretary, Swinburne University), Luke Hodkinson (Swinburne supercomputer user consultant), Jarrod Hurley (Swinburne Supercomputer Manager; ex-officio), Katherine Mack (Chair, University of Melbourne), Steve Ord (Curtin University), Jon Smillie (NCI user consultant), Chiara Tonini (University of Melbourne), Matthew Whiting (CSIRO). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ASTAC-call.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 385321 bytes Desc: ASTAC-call.pdf URL: From dcroton at astro.swin.edu.au Mon Jun 2 13:51:27 2014 From: dcroton at astro.swin.edu.au (Darren Croton) Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2014 13:51:27 +1000 Subject: [ASA] ANITA lecture: A New Window on Inflation, David Parkinson -- Wed 1pm (AEST) 11th June Message-ID: <87AE216E-3CBF-429F-AEE8-85F9771340E7@astro.swin.edu.au> Dear ANITA and ASA members. Next Wednesday 11th June at 1pm (AEST) ANITA will hold its next online lecture: "A New Window on Inflation: Cosmological Perturbations and Gravitational Waves", by David Parkinson from the University of Queensland. This lecture will be of particular interest to those who wish to better understand the recent BICEP2 results. All are welcome to join! The target audience will range from undergrad to postdoc, however anyone interested is sure to get something out of it. More details (including lecture notes and slides) are available at: http://anita.edu.au/lectures/ Thanks, and see you there! Darren Croton & Chris Power ----------------------------- The lecture will be held through Google Hangouts on Air. You'll first need a Google account (e.g. gmail). Log in to it. If you've never done a Google Hangout before you'll need to install a plugin for your browser. See https://www.google.com/tools/dlpage/hangoutplugin On Google+ search for "Anita Chapter" and head to our page. Alternatively, go directly to our Chapter page here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/104967001091880466806/posts You'll see a post for the Hangout on Air at around 12pm - hit play and enjoy! Some hints for a better experience: You can breakout the small video window on the Google+ page by opening it in YouTube. This gives you a much bigger view. Post any comments/questions under the video in the comments box on the Google+ or YouTube page. We'll try and answer them in real-time. I don't believe that comments are updated automatically; you may need to reload the page to see the latest. All lectures will be hosted on our ANITA YouTube page for later viewing. -- Darren Croton Associate Professor & QEII Research Fellow Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing Swinburne University of Technology PO Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia Phone: 61-3-9214-5537; Fax: 61-3-9214-8797 http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~dcroton -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ahassan at swin.edu.au Mon Jun 2 14:36:58 2014 From: ahassan at swin.edu.au (Amr Hassan) Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2014 04:36:58 +0000 Subject: [ASA] HPC and GPU Webinar Series - Webinar 1 : Code Testing for Researchers Message-ID: <5F8F5C66F7178541A3DB09532740A590C4FED1C0@gsp-ex01.ds.swin.edu.au> Dear ASA members, We will start a series of webinars aiming to provide researchers in general and astronomers in specific with a range of High Performance Computing, e-Research, and Coding skills. These webinars are free and open to any Australian-based researcher. While our examples and demos will be tightly coupled to the gSTAR architecture and software modules, researchers who do not use gSTAR are still welcome to attend. The first Webinar of this series will be: Code Testing for Researchers By: Luke Hodkinson - Swinburne University of Technology On Tuesday 10th June 2014 - 2:00 to 4:00 PM (AEST) Topics to be Covered: * Motivating Examples * Testing Methods * Unit Testing * Integration Testing * System Testing * Regression Testing * Other Types of Testing * Automated Testing * Testing Frameworks o C++ Frameworks o Python Frameworks * Code Coverage This webinar will target: C/C++ and Python Developers Please register on : https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7751831112983675137 (Please use your Academic Email in registration) This series of webinars is sponsored by Swinburne University of Technology, Australian Government (via NCRIS Fund), and Astronomy Australia Limited (AAL). Best Regards, Dr. Amr H. Hassan gSTAR Projects and Engagement Support Leader Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing Swinburne University of Technology H30, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia Phone: +61-3-9214-8546 Fax: +61-3-9214-8797 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au Tue Jun 3 22:38:16 2014 From: john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au (John O'Byrne) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2014 22:38:16 +1000 Subject: [ASA] STA newsletter - including Federal Budget update Message-ID: <9C59A244-0F1C-4DA6-A8B3-600BBFF589B4@sydney.edu.au> FYI - the latest STA Newsletter: Please click below to access the full newsletter http://scienceandtechnologyaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/STA-Newsletter-May-2014.html Dear STA members and friends, Now that there has been some time to absorb the implications of the Federal Budget, and look more closely at the figures, it is time for an updated and expanded version of the STA Special Budget Night Bulletin. It is not exhaustive, because science and technology spans so many portfolios and programs in the Federal Government. The aim is to supply as much information as we can on a wide range of measures - cuts and new funding - that have an impact on science and technology, research, industry and innovation. You will also find some suggested avenues for further reading. In the days leading up to and following both the Federal Budget and the National Commission of Audit, STA has been working hard to inform the public and stimulate debate around the harsh and counterproductive cuts. A selection of our public comments are gathered here, and is being regularly updated. The best way to keep up with developing issues and debates is to keep an eye on Twitter and/or Facebook. Catriona Jackson Chief Executive Officer Science & Technology Australia Giving voice to Australian Science & Technology for over 27 years www.sta.org.au www.respectthescience.org.au catriona.jackson at sta.org.au T: 02 6257 2891 M: 0417142238 PO Box 259 Canberra City ACT 2601 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR JOHN O?BYRNE Associate Head (Teaching & Learning), School of Physics Associate Dean (Standards), Faculty of Science Secretary, Astronomical Society of Australia Inc. Sydney Institute for Astronomy School of Physics | Faculty of Science THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Rm 205, Physics Building A28Rm 222 | alternate: 44-70 Rosehill St Redfern H90 (see map) Postal address: School of Physics | The University of Sydney | NSW | Australia | 2006 T +61 2 9351 3184 | F +61 2 9351 7726 E john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au | W http://sydney.edu.au/science/people/john.obyrne CRICOS 00026A This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email uses 100% recycled words and ideas. Do you really need to print it? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yeshe.fenner at astronomyaustralia.org.au Thu Jun 5 14:39:12 2014 From: yeshe.fenner at astronomyaustralia.org.au (Yeshe Fenner) Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2014 14:39:12 +1000 Subject: [ASA] Funding for ASKAP PAFs and operations Message-ID: <000001cf8078$19b050d0$4d10f270$@astronomyaustralia.org.au> Dear ASA members, CSIRO and Astronomy Australia Ltd (AAL ) are pleased to announce that funding has been secured to enable the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP ) to be equipped with a total of 30 Mark II Phased Array Feeds (PAFs), six of which will be installed on the central BETA antennas that are currently fitted with Mark I PAFs. Installing Mark II PAFs on BETA antennas will introduce a number of short baselines that will significantly enhance the surface brightness sensitivity of the array, thus boosting surveys of neutral hydrogen emission from the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. This has been made possible through an agreement between AAL and CSIRO in which AAL is allocating $6M for ASKAP early operations and CSIRO will provide a matching contribution to construct, install and commission six additional Mark II PAFs. This agreement brings the total number of funded Mark II PAFs to 30, emphasising CSIRO's continued commitment to the success of ASKAP. CSIRO intends to engage with the community regarding the order in which to roll-out the Mark II PAFs numbers 13-30. The expected timeline for community consultation and deployment is given below: * 21st October 2014: All-day community workshop to discuss options for the order in which ASKAP antennas are fitted with Mark II PAFs #13-30, including when the BETA Mark I PAFs will be relocated from their locations during commissioning (further details of the workshop will follow). * April 2015: Roll-out plan for ASKAP Mark II PAFs #13-30 is finalised, taking into account community input. * By mid-2018: Installation of 30 Mark II PAFs, including six on the central antennas, is completed. CSIRO and AAL thank the Commonwealth government for its support of ASKAP through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) and the Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme (CRIS) programs. Kind regards, Lewis Ball, Chief, CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science Mark McAuley, CEO, Astronomy Australia Ltd -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au Thu Jun 5 21:16:34 2014 From: john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au (John O'Byrne) Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2014 21:16:34 +1000 Subject: [ASA] ASA 4th announcement attached Message-ID: <10987910-3A48-4C1B-8ECC-7628CFCE76E6@sydney.edu.au> Fourth Announcement: 2014 Astronomical Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting The ASM will be held from the 20th to 25th of July, hosted by the Macquarie Research Centre for Astronomy, Astrophysics and Astrophotonics (MQAAAstro) http://physics.mq.edu.au/astronomy/ at Macquarie University in Sydney, NSW. The deadline for abstract submission for a poster presentation is ** 5pm AEDT Friday 13th June ** STOP PRESS: The LOC are delighted to announce that through the generosity of the Donovan Trust and MQAAAstro 8 x $250 attendance scholarships will be awarded for the upcoming ASA Meeting. These awards are open to all HDR students (whether already registered or not) and will help contribute to costs associated with attending the main ASA conference. Applications should be sent to Kristie at asnevents.net.au with a brief half page case as to why you think you merit this award. We do particularly encourage applications from HDR students who have not already registered but awards will be made based on the half-page case submitted. HARLEY WOOD WINTER SCHOOL The Harley Wood Winter School will be held immediately prior to the ASM from July 17th to 20th in the lovely Collaroy beach suburb of northern Sydney so bring a wet-suit and surf-board. The theme for this year's Harley Wood Winter School is ?Bridging the Gaps: Integrating astronomy for the future?. For further information on both of these associated meetings, as well as links to the registration and abstract submission systems, visit the dual-meeting website at: http://www.asa2014.mq.edu.au/ Follow the link below to download the ASM and HWWS flyer for circulation: http://www.asa2014.mq.edu.au/assets/ASA2014/ASA2014-Flyer.pdf KEY DATES ? MARK YOUR DIARY! ASA Annual Scientific Meeting - July 20th ? July 25th 2014: Poster abstract submission deadline - Friday 13th June 2014 Harley Wood Winter School - July 17th ? July 20th 2014 Quentin Parker 5th June 2014 on behalf of the 2014 ASA ASM local organising committee Email contact: Quentin.parker at mq.edu.au, Amanda.manypeney at mq.edu.au -- Prof. Quentin A Parker Joint MQ/AAO lecturer in Astronomy Director, MQ Research Centre in Astronomy, Astrophysics & Astrophotonics Director "Space to Grow" Member MQ teaching Excellence Academy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: