Opening the door for Team SKA of tomorrow

Above: Summer students Jasper Fromant and Lizzy Phillips worked with the SKA-Low Operations and Commissioning Science teams.

BY ANNE DANIELS AND GINA PEARSE (SKAO)

The SKAO’s sustainability commitments include inspiring the next generation through education and training. Across its three host countries, the Observatory is providing opportunities aimed at attracting students to science and engineering.

Choosing careers in the UK

Staff in all three SKAO host countries gave more than 70 students from across the UK a glimpse into life at the Observatory during a three-day virtual work experience in October 2024, through a partnership with the charity Speakers for Schools. Inspirational speakers working in science, engineering, project management and business support roles shared their professional journeys and chatted with students directly through question-and-answer sessions.

Activities included a guided tour of the night sky, a quiz challenging their knowledge of the Universe, and a coding exercise in Python. During a session run by the SKAO’s UK partner the Science and Technology Facilities Council, students programmed a virtual Arduino, equipping them with valuable skills.

In a survey, 93% of the students rated the work experience good or excellent, with 90% interested in pursuing a career in the science or engineering industries, and the same figure saying they felt confident about achieving their career ambitions.

“The best thing about the placement was the day in the lives of the different members of staff as it gave an honest insight to what a career within those fields would be like,” shared a student afterwards.

In February SKAO Global HQ welcomed 60 pupils from the UK National Citizens Service – which provides opportunities for teenagers from less advantaged backgrounds – in partnership with the neighbouring Jodrell Bank Observatory. They were treated to a live demonstration of the SKAO Table-top Radio Telescope by System Scientist Dr Shin’ichiro Asayama, observing neutral hydrogen in the Milky Way.

SKA-Low team welcomes summer vacation students

Two Australian university students have had the opportunity to contribute to the SKA project, working with teams to operate and observe with an early working version of the SKA-Low telescope.

Lizzy Phillips, who is studying space science at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, used the first pulsar observational data from SKA-Low stations to assist with telescope calibration and to investigate how the ionosphere is affecting incoming radio waves.

“I haven’t been treated like a student – I’ve been treated as part of the team. Learning how to use the telescope, to calibrate, to take observations, and then running my own analysis on the data, as a full circle, was really a highlight,” she said.

University of Western Australia student Jasper Fromant focused on characterising radio frequency interference sources for the SKA-Low telescope to better understand the radio environment at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory.

Jasper’s supervisor, SKA-Low Operations Scientist Danny Price, said that the Undergraduate Studentship

Programme offered by CSIRO, the SKAO’s collaboration partner in Australia, attracts some of Australia’s top STEM undergraduates and is important to the future of the industry.

“Internship programmes like this are hugely important to develop the next generation of astronomers, scientists, and engineers, and to foster a vibrant research environment within the SKAO,” he said.

SKA-Mid invites home-schooled learners

In April a group of home-schooled students will be visiting the SKAO offices in Cape Town, South Africa, to see behind the scenes of the Observatory that is being developed on their home turf.

Twenty learners aged between 17 and 18 years old will meet members of the SKA-Mid team, getting an opportunity to hear about the latest construction progress and science goals driving the SKAO, as well as the wider impact it is having in South Africa.

Look out for an update in the next issue of Contact.