In brief
Reaching out to all ages in India BY SKAO
Outreach is an important part of the SKA project, connecting with under-represented groups and inspiring people of all ages with the challenges and opportunities of astronomy and the STEM fields. In September, Team SKA software specialist Snehal Valame joined a virtual science forum aimed at motivating women in STEM careers. Around 60 people attended, covering a wide age range from young girls to senior citizens, and including students at a women’s engineering college. The forum, Sharada Shakti, meaning “Women Power” in Hindi, is held in association with Siddhivinayak college in Pune. The city is a hub for the Indian software industry and is also home to India’s National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA). Sharada Shakti’s goal is to empower women with scientific knowledge and technology in the areas of health, science, environment and education. “The organisers wanted me to convey not only the scale and goals of the SKA project but also to make it relatable, to talk
ABOVE: Snehal Valame
about what I do day-to-day and the kinds of career opportunities in the field. It was also important to give some motivational messages for the younger girls in the group,” said Snehal. There were plenty of questions, with people asking about India’s participation in the SKA project, and what it takes for a person to get involved in a major international project like the SKAO. “Outreach isn’t just a one-way thing, it always feels motivating to me as well. People told me they were proud to see a woman leading in this area and some older people in the group said they now understand what radio telescopes are, and that astronomy is different to the popular astrology faiths in India,” said Snehal. “It’s important for us as a community to see the value of these events, to understand the impact they can have and to take time to get involved.”
ICRAR to build SKA-Mid telescope’s frequency distribution system BY ICRAR A €7.5 million construction contract awarded by the SKAO will see ICRAR’s Astrophotonics group (based at the University of Western Australia (UWA) build critical infrastructure for the SKA-Mid telescope in South Africa, keeping the dishes of the sprawling observatory perfectly synchronised over the hundreds of kilometres it will span once complete. “Having the UWA design selected for use on the SKA-Mid telescope was a great honour,” said A/Prof. Sascha Schediwy, the team’s lead. “It really validated the hard work the team put into the design and testing of the technology.” “With the frequency distribution system being such a specialised piece of hardware, winning the construction contract gives our team this fantastic opportunity to 4
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ensure the job is done how we’d envisioned.” The frequency distribution system will serve as the telescope’s “beating heart”, sending precise timing signals to each dish in the spiraling array, ensuring the timing signal does not degrade as it travels over the vast distances of fibre optic cable which will connect the dishes of the array together.
ICRAR’s Astrophotonics group began developing the project in 2014 with the aim of maintaining phase-coherence on large radio antenna arrays. The scope of the project has evolved substantially over its development, scaling from an experimental system into a tried and tested technology. In November 2017 ICRAR’s solution was formally selected for use on the SKA-Mid telescope, with the project awarded a AU$1.5m (€964,000) grant by the Australian Government to develop a prototype for mass-manufacturing in 2019.
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