Annual Report 2009-2010

ICRAR AnnuAl RepoRt 2009-2010

Annual Report 2009/10

Document ICRAR-DOC-0016

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

FRONT COVER: Top Left: A group photo of some members of the ICRAR Board, ICRAR Executive and Professor Richard Schilizzi (Director SKA Program Development Office) at the launch of ICRAR, 1 September 2009 – photo Jurgen Lunsmann Top Right: The Murchison Wide-field Array 32 tile system on the Murchison Radio- astronomy Observatory June 2010 – photo Paul Bourke and Jonathan Knispel, WASP Middle Left: Three-dimensional supercomputer model of supernovae 1987a – image Toby Potter, ICRAR Middle: Year 10 students attending the “Out There” SKA event in March 2009 - photo Paul Ricketts, Centre for Learning Technology UWA Middle Right: Supercomputer simulation of hydrogen gas in the early Universe – image Dr Alan Duffy, ICRAR Bottom Left: Radio emission from the inner core of the galaxy Centaurus A as seen by the first disk of the ASKAP telescope coupled to a dish in New Zealand 5500 km away – image Prof Steven Tingay (ICRAR) / ICRAR, CSIRO and AUT Bottom Right: Stars and gas in the colliding galaxy NGC 922 – image Prof Gerhardt Meurer (ICRAR) and Dr Kenji Bekki (ICRAR)

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

Table of Contents

1.0 Executive Summary ...... 5! 1.1 Major Developments and Highlights of 2009/10 ...... 5! 1.2 National and International Collaborations...... 6! 1.3 Issues associated with the SKA bid...... 8! 2.0 ICRAR Governance and Management...... 11! 2.1!Governing Board...... 11! 2.2!Management Structures and Systems...... 12! 2.3!ICRAR Financial Systems...... 13! 2.4!Meetings and Activities ...... 14! 3.0 ICRAR Research Program Progress, Highlights and Achievements ...... 16! 3.1 Science ...... 16! 3.1.1 Galaxy Assembly and Evolution...... 16! 3.1.2 Variable Universe...... 17! 3.1.3 High Angular Resolution Radio Astronomy...... 18! 3.2 ICT Program ...... 20! 3.2.1 Data Intensive Research Pathfinder (DIRP) ...... 21! 3.2.2 SKA Design Study...... 23! 3.2.3 HPC for Radio Astronomy...... 23! 3.3 Engineering Program...... 24! 3.3.1 Engineering Laboratory...... 26! 3.3.2 MWA and Next-Generation Aperture Arrays...... 26! 3.3.3 High Angular Resolution Systems...... 27! 3.3.4 High Time Resolution Systems ...... 27! 3.4 MRO...... 27! 3.4.1 MWA...... 28! 3.4.2 ALO ...... 29! 3.4.3 EMC ...... 29! 4.0 ICRAR Education and Outreach: Highlights and Achievements ...... 31! 4.1 Schools ...... 31! 4.2 Tertiary...... 31! 4.3 Community...... 32! 4.4 National Engagement ...... 32! 4.5 International Engagement...... 33! 4.6 ICRAR Online: Sept’09 – June’10 ...... 34! 4.7 Publications ...... 35! 5.0 Industrial Engagement and Collaboration ...... 36! 6.0 Intellectual Property (IP) Management and Commercialization Report ...... 37! 7.0 ICRAR Publications 2009/10...... 38! 7.1 Refereed Journals: 47 papers ...... 38! 7.2 Conference Proceedings: 6 papers ...... 42! 8.0 ICRAR Staff, Associates and Visitors 2009/10...... 44! 8.1 ICRAR Staff ...... 44! 8.2 ICRAR Associates ...... 45! 8.3 ICRAR Visitors...... 46! 8.4 ICRAR-Hosted Seminars...... 47! 9.0 ICRAR Students ...... 50! 9.1 PhD and Masters ...... 50! 9.2 Honours Program ...... 51! 3

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

10.0 ICRAR Financial Report and Audited Statements...... 52! 11.0 Acronyms ...... 54!

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

1.0 Executive Summary

This is the first annual report of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR). The report covers the period from the first ICRAR Board Meeting on 10 February 2009 until 30 June 2010. The agreements that define ICRAR (the Joint Venture Agreement, the State Funding Agreement and the Centre Agent Agreement) were signed on 19 August 2009 and ICRAR was formally launched on 1 September 2009. Future reports will contain activities in the July-June timeframe. A list of Acronyms is given in section 11.0 of this report

The Executive Summary also includes, in section 1.3, information about some of the broader issues associated with the SKA bid. 1.1 Major Developments and Highlights of 2009/10

The first year of activities at ICRAR has been one of significant growth:

• In terms of people, the total complement of staff and students has grown by more than a factor of two. Two ARC Future Fellowships and five Super Science Fellowships were awarded to ICRAR – more than any other astronomical organisation in Australia. • In terms of a joint venture of two universities, two young centres of astronomy science and engineering research (the Curtin Institute for Radio Astronomy and UWA Astronomy and Astrophysics) have grown into two research nodes within one coordinated and collaborating organisation through 100% membership in, and commitment to, ICRAR. • In terms of resources, ICRAR has moved into two world-class buildings that showcase our efforts. In the near future, one of the top 20 supercomputer centres in the world will be on our doorstep. • And finally, in terms of commitment and achievement, ICRAR is now the largest contributing organisation to several work packages within the international PrepSKA program, and has made major contributions to the Australian SKA bid through a new VLBI demonstrator and SKA configuration studies.

This significant growth would not have been possible without the generous funding made available by the WA State Government, the Curtin University of Technology and The University of Western Australia plus the guidance and advice provided by the ICRAR Board and the ICRAR Science and Technology Advisory Committee.

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ICRAR Level 1 KPIs for 2009/10

• Completion of high level defining agreements by 1 September 2009: ACHIEVED on 19 August 2009 • Construction and submission of Version 1 draft of ICRAR Plan, including STE Plan by 1 September 2009: ACHIEVED on 17 August 2009 • Launch of ICRAR 1 September 2009: ACHIEVED on 1 September 2009 • Defined relationship with iVEC on Pawsey Centre by June 2010: PARTIAL- ONGOING (see section 2.2) • Launch of ICRAR website by October 2009: ACHIEVED in August 2009 • First industry R&D relationship in place by end 2009: ACHIEVED with IBM in August 2009 • First international R&D partnership in place by end 2009: ACHIEVED with SKA Program Development Office (SPDO) in May 2009 • Submission of Australian national collaborative research proposal (CoE) by end of 2009: ACHIEVED in November 2009 • First ICRAR scientific publication by end 2009: ACHIEVED in November 2009 • First new ICRAR senior staff acquired and in post by July 2010: ACHIEVED from May 2009 to June 2010

Program reports against KPIs and major project highlights are contained in Section 3.0 of this report.

1.2 National and International Collaborations

ICRAR is following two strategic paths within its first five years. The first is to strengthen and promote radio astronomy in Australia as a part of the Australian bid for the SKA site. The second is to make a significant contribution to the international effort to design, fund and build the SKA. In pursuing these two paths, ICRAR must become a successful collaborator at the national and international level. The following are the main collaborative activities of ICRAR at the local, national and international level in the 2009/10 period.

• iVEC/Pawsey: ICRAR is working closely with the Pawsey Systems Project Control Group, the Pawsey Centre Steering Committee, CSIRO, the MWA Project, the Pawsey systems architect and project manager, to identify and quantify radio astronomy requirements for the Pawsey Centre design. The second phase of the initial 2009/2010 procurement (due for installation in early 2011) will focus on data intensive research needs related to ICRAR’s Data Intensive Research Pathfinder project (see section 3.2.1) • CSIRO: A highlight of ICRAR’s technical and scientific collaboration with CSIRO has been the first science with ASKAP using Very Long Baseline Interferometry, resulting in a scientific paper, a significant media pickup and a contribution to the 2010 international SKA forum (see section 3.1.3). Many publications, several joint meetings, and far-reaching ASKAP SSP (Science

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Survey Project) collaborations such as the top-ranked Wallaby project have also progressed. • Murchison Widefield Array project: ICRAR’s involvement in the MWA project continues as its largest practical expression of national and international collaboration, to build a $30m SKA Precursor at low frequencies at the MRO. The MWA consortium consists of seven Australian universities, CSIRO, two divisions of MIT, Harvard University and the Raman Research Institute in India, plus a range of secondary academic and industry partners. The Curtin node of ICRAR raised over $10m last year to kick-start the final stages of construction of the MWA (see section 3.4.1). • CAASTRO: A $29M proposal for an ARC Centre for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) involving the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne, Swinburne University of Technology, the ANU, ICRAR, CSIRO, AAO and eight overseas institutes has passed several stages of ARC review. ICRAR would host one of five national astronomy nodes to further research involving ASKAP, MWA and optical facilities. (Note: In July 2010 the proposal was approved) • ANZSCC: ICRAR, through its Director, continues its active involvement in the Australian and New Zealand SKA Coordination Committee and the Strategy and Bid Working Group. ICRAR staff formed part of the SKA Forum team (lead by DIISR and with staff from the WA Department of Commerce and the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development) that planned, produced and delivered Australia’s presence at the SKA Forum in The Netherlands in June 2010. • SPDO/PrepSKA: o ICRAR is one of the largest contributors to the PrepSKA program, with substantial inputs to work on aperture array receptors, system design and costing and ICT architectures for the SKA. In addition ICRAR staff either chair or serve on a number of review and consultative committees and working groups (see sections 3.2.2 and 3.3.2) o Dr Minh Huynh from ICRAR has been appointed as the Deputy International SKA Project Scientist, working with Project Scientist Dr Joe Lazio. o Cambridge: ICRAR is working closely with colleagues at the Cavendish Laboratory to develop the next-generation SKA performance and cost estimation tools, facilitating both high-level and detailed design of SKA Phase 1 and beyond. o Aperture Array Verification Program (AAVP): ICRAR plays a leading role in this new 11-member, European-led consortium, being responsible for a major work-package to deliver new-generation sparse aperture arrays for the SKA. The AAVP is a direct contributor to PrepSKA, and ICRAR works closely with ASTRON (The NL) and several other partners (see section 3.3.2)

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• Oxford: A fruitful PhD student exchange and co-supervision program has commenced with the Department of Astrophysics. Students Jacinta Delhaize (ICRAR) and Danny Price (Oxford) have undertaken reverse visits. • Max-Planck-Institute fur Kernphysik (MPIK), Heidelberg: Under a Go8/DAAD scheme, researchers from ICRAR and MPIK have been funded for a 2-year program of exchange visits to further the understanding of the generation of radio emission from expanding supernova shock fronts. • Jet Propulsion Laboratory (USA): ICRAR and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are engaged in a deep collaboration to develop and deliver new hardware and software to search for fast radio transients, initially on existing telescopes around the world, but with dual end goals of deployment on ASKAP and to inform the international SKA project (see section 3.1.2). • India (NCRA, RRI): Several ongoing collaborations, including with the Raman Research Institute that is a major partner in the MWA consortium (see above and section 3.4.1). • South Africa/Netherlands: As chair of the Pathfinders HI Survey Coordination Committee, ICRAR has now co-organised three international meetings involving science teams from the University of Cape Town, ASTRON, the University of Groningen, CSIRO and ICRAR. These meetings have resulted in coordinated HI surveys being proposed for the major pathfinder/precursor telescopes. • SKA Technology Demonstrator Program (USA). ICRAR assists in the Technology Development Program Review Committee and also acts as an advisor to the Cornell-led program.

1.3 Issues associated with the SKA bid

ICRAR was established by the Western Australian Government as part of its contribution to boost Australia’s chances of winning the SKA project. ICRAR resources are focussed on activities that advance Australia’s bid for the project. In this context, ICRAR provides inputs to an array of inter-connected activities aimed at assisting the Australian case. The following are some of the most important issues associated with the SKA bid, and includes an indication of the part played by ICRAR.

• The Australian SKA Bid: Through the work program coordinated by the ANZSCC during 2009/10, Australia has made a significant and substantial push to position itself as the best radio astronomy site in the world and the logical home for the SKA. The arguments presented by Australia at the International SKA Forum in the Netherlands in June highlighted the paramount importance of science requirements in choosing the SKA site. ICRAR is contributing to the Australian bid on several levels in order to achieve our primary goal of a successful Australia bid for the SKA site through the advancement of Australian capabilities and through contributions to the

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international effort to build the SKA. There are significant challenges and tasks ahead if ICRAR is to be part of a successful Australian bid. o Site: The MRO site needs to be protected to retain its pristine radio quite conditions. A combination of existing State and Federal legislation needs to be complemented and welded together through new legislation and commonwealth-state cooperation. A joint policy, legislative and collaboration effort of State and Federal authorities, working together with organisations and industries seeking to develop the Mid-West, is essential for Australia’s successful SKA bid and the long term scientific viability of the MRO. Through its leadership role in the MWA project and work in the EMI compliance testing, and coordination with CSIRO as MRO site manger, ICRAR has an important role to ensure that radio-quietness of the MRO is preserved. o Funding: The completion of the SKA detailed design for Phase 1 and the construction of Phase 1 will require of the order 500 million Euro. As a significant partner in the SKA Phase 1, Australia will have to make a contribution to these funds in the period 2012-2015. A detailed business case will need to be prepared for the State and Federal Governments to secure these funds. The case will be prepared by a collaborative effort of State and Federal teams, and ICRAR staff will be involved. Given the time lines, the international financial landscape, and a number of critical project governance, scope and funding issues at the level of the international project partners, the securing of Australian and international funds for Phase 1 level will be challenging. • The International SKA Project: The current governance arrangements for the international SKA project (SPDO and SSEC) will expire at the end of 2011. A new governance structure and SKA organisation will need to be agreed and be in place by mid 2011 so that pre-construction activities can begin in 2012 and the site selection process concluded. The choice of governance model, the scope and cost of the pre-construction phase and the choice of the site are critical issues for Australia’s effective involvement in the SKA from 2012. ICRAR, through the involvement of its Director in ANZSCC and the SSEC, will contribute to the team Australia bid to achieve a successful outcome for Australia. Through its involvement in the PrepSKA program, ICRAR will make a significant contribution to the establishment of the SKA Phase 1 project in a manner consistent with realistic funding models and the effective engagement of international industries. • The design and operation of the Pawsey Centre: The ICRAR ICT program and the support of ICRAR scientists in conducting research with ASKAP and MWA depends significantly on the design and successful completion of the Pawsey Centre. ICRAR, in collaboration with radio astronomy stakeholders, has produced specific requirements for Pawsey systems that need to be in place starting in 2010. A successful Pawsey-iVEC-ICRAR partnership is essential to meeting ICRAR requirements and to the successful completion of

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the ICRAR ICT program on the timescale needed for contributions to the international SKA design effort. Through involvement in Pawsey design groups and collaboration with stakeholders, ICRAR will work with iVEC to achieve an operational peta-scale Pawsey facility for radio astronomy by the end of 2013. Once operational, Pawsey must secure the necessary State and Federal funds for its ongoing operations including power, personnel and storage capabilities. • The successful completion of the ASKAP and MWA projects: ICRAR scientists are playing leading roles in the scientific utilization of ASKAP and MWA. The data from these facilities will form the majority of the material on which ICRAR’s scientific success will be based in the period beginning in 2013. Both projects are proceeding well and will deliver world-class and unique data to ICRAR provided the MRO site retains its radio quietness and the essential power and network infrastructure is delivered on the appropriate time scales. Continued funding for the NBN effort, the operational funding of Pawsey and the infrastructure support of the WA State Government are essential to realising the scientific outcomes of ASKAP and MWA data by Australian astronomers.

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2.0 ICRAR Governance and Management

2.1 Governing Board

The Centre is governed by the ICRAR Governing Board established under the Joint Venture Agreement and appointed by the State Government. The Board has an independent Chair and appointments to the Board are made by the Minister for Science and Innovation. Membership of the Governing Board is competency based and not representative. Four Board members are appointed as nominees, with one member each nominated by the Curtin University of Technology, The University of Western Australia, CSIRO and the Department of Commerce. The Board meets on a quarterly basis. The Director of ICRAR participates in the Board meetings and the ICRAR General Manager is the Board Secretary. Six Board meetings have been held since February 2009. Membership of the ICRAR Governing Board since February 2009 is:

Dr Bernard Bowen Chair Appointed February 2009 Professor Lyn Beazley Independent member (science education) Appointed February 2009 Professor Brian Boyle Independent member (radio astronomy) Appointed February 2009 Professor Jeanette Hacket Nominated member (by Curtin University) February 2009 to August 2009 Mr Phillip Jenkins Nominated member (by the Dept. of Commerce) Appointed February 2009 Professor Linda Kristjanson Nominated member (by Curtin University) Appointed August 2009 Mr Graham McHarrie Independent member (corporate governance) Appointed June 2010 Mr Wayne Osborn Independent member (corporate governance) April 2009 to May 2010 Professor Alistar Robertson Nominated member (by The University of WA) Appointed February 2009 Professor Tom Spurling Nominated member (by CSIRO) Appointed February 2009

The Board places on record its thanks to Professor Jeanette Hacket and to Mr Wayne Osborn for their advice and wisdom during the time that they were members of the Board.

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The Board has appointed a Science and Technology Advisory Committee (STAC) and a Finance and Audit Committee. The STAC advises the Board on Science and Technology plans, has an independent Chair and seven competency- based members. Current members of STAC are:

Professor Ron Ekers Chairman, CSIRO Professor Arnold van Ardenne ASTRON, The Netherlands Professor Matthew Bailes Swinburne University of Technology Professor Erwin de Blok University of Capetown, South Africa Professor Elaine Sadler University of Sydney Professor Tom Spurling ICRAR Board Member A/Professor Geoff Bower University of California, Berkeley, USA Dr. Peter Dewdney University of Manchester, UK

The STAC meets on a six monthly basis.

ICRAR Finance and Audit Committee members are:

Mr. Wayne Osborn Chair (until May 2010) Mr. Graham McHarrie A/Chair(following resignation of Mr Wayne Osborn) Mr. Philip Jenkins Member Mr. Mark Woffenden Member

The Governing Board Chairman, ICRAR Director and General Manager attend the meeting and the Administrative Officer is the Executive Officer. The Finance and Audit Committee meets on a quarterly basis.

2.2 Management Structures and Systems

The Centre is headed by the Director who is also the CEO of the Centre and the Director is supported by an Executive Assistant. The Executive Team of ICRAR consists of the Director, the three Deputy Directors from the Science, Engineering and MRO programs and the General Manager of ICRAR. The Director represents the ICT Program in the Executive meetings. The three Deputy Directors and the General Manager report to the Director.

Executive Team 2009/2010

Professor Peter Quinn Director and CEO Professor Peter Hall Deputy Director for Engineering Dr. Renu Sharma General Manager Professor Lister Staveley-Smith Deputy Director for Science Professor Steven Tingay Deputy Director for MRO

The Centre is managed by the General Manager who is responsible for the over-all management of the Centre and is a member of the Executive Team. For effective management of the ICRAR, the Centre has appointed a management team including the Administrative Officer, Administrative/Purchase Assistant, an Education and

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Outreach Manager and an Education and Outreach Officer who is also responsible for ICRAR web. The Services of IT Officer are currently being sourced from the IT Services of the University.

ICRAR Plan has four Science and Engineering Programs and the recruitment of scientific research and engineering staff for ICRAR programs has been structured in two phases with most of phase 1 appointees already recruited and the phase 2 appointments planned to be in place before December 2010. The structure of the ICRAR programs will evolve over the next five years of the Centre and will be updated annually with the ICRAR Plan update.

ICRAR Organisational Structure

ICRAR in the first year of its operations has initiated development of robust support systems for staff, students and visitors and has established the required procedures and policies in line with the two university systems.

2.3 ICRAR Financial Systems

The financial management system of ICRAR has been set up through a well defined Business Unit (BU) in the PeopleSoft Financial Systems at UWA, the Centre Agent for ICRAR. The unique ID Number of ICRAR BU is 01570. ICRAR funds are not held in a separate Bank Account but managed through the BU in PeopleSoft financial system at UWA. The BU system will enable management of multiple streams of funds while maintaining income and expenditure from each fund stream independent of the other. The BU has been structured in accordance with the ICRAR Plan. Project Grant (PG) Numbers in ICRAR Business Unit have been created and are designed to align with the Individual Project Plan Activities as identified in ICRAR Programs and ICRAR Plan. 13

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ICRAR Cash: Tracking ICRAR Cash Expenditure ICRAR incurs expenditure at the two ICRAR nodes. The mechanism for tracking and accounting for expenditure at each of the node is given below. • ICRAR cash Expenditure incurred at Curtin Node: ICRAR’s Curtin Node will incur expenditure from the ICRAR cash of $22.4 million and it will be recouped from the ICRAR Head Quarter based at UWA. • ICRAR cash Expenditure incurred at UWA Node: ICRAR’s UWA Node will incur expenditure from the ICRAR cash of $22.4 million and it will be recouped from the ICRAR Head Quarter based at UWA.

UWA Cash Contribution The cash contribution from UWA is to be spent in accordance with ICRAR Plan and has been designated as part of ICRAR Cash $22.4 m. The 2009/10 contribution made by UWA has been received into ICRAR BU in a designated PG 10504001.

Curtin Cash Contribution Curtin cash contribution is budgeted in ICRAR Plan at a value of $10.74 million and this cash will be spent at Curtin through Curtin Financial Management System. ICRAR has included this expenditure in the ICRAR Annual Report to the State Government as Curtin’s cash contribution.

In-Kind Contributions The in-kind contributions for personnel, buildings, equipment and maintenance are listed in the JVA Schedule 4 and reported against the commitments on an annual basis. The source of in- kind contributions for the period is included in the ICRAR Financial Report referred to in the Financial Report Section (Section 10.0) of this document. ! 2.4 Meetings and Activities

Governing Board Meetings: The Governing Board meets on a quarterly basis.

Science and Technology Advisory Committee (STAC): The STAC meets on a six monthly basis.

Finance and Audit Committee: The Committee meets on a quarterly basis.

Executive Team Meetings: The ICRAR Exec Team meets on a regular basis and in 2009/10 the team met more than 10 times in 2009/10 since Feb 2009.

All Hands Meetings: ICRAR endeavours to inform and discuss with all ICRAR staff and students the progress made by ICRAR by organising all ICRAR team meetings. Three ICRAR All Hands meetings were conducted in the first year.

Journal Club Meetings: The scientific discussions are encouraged by inviting staff and students to participate in the Journal Club and the Astro-Club meetings held on Wednesdays at UWA and on Monday at Curtin.

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Postgraduate Seminar Day: The Postgraduate students coordinate and organise the PG Seminar where all ICRAR postgraduates present their research to the invited ICRAR academic and other staff. Eminent international speakers are invited to address the students on a relevant topic. The Postgraduate Seminar was held on 30th April 2010.

Vacation Student Day: ICRAR, ICRAR/iVEC and other astronomy vacation students present the results of their research to fellow students and staff. This year’s symposium was on February 10.

Social events: ICRAR encourages staff and students to meet and greet each other and build strong working relationships through the group meetings organised from time to time.

Department of Commerce: Regular meetings are conducted with the Department of Commerce to discuss any operational matters and matters related to ICRAR agreements.

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3.0 ICRAR Research Program Progress, Highlights and Achievements

The ICRAR work program consists of four program areas: Science, Information and Communications Technologies, Engineering and MRO Support. Across these four program areas, 13 specific projects have been defined which together constitute a coordinated ICRAR effort on our four signature themes:

• Galaxy Assembly and Evolution through the study of neutral Hydrogen [HI] • The Variable Universe and transient phenomena in radio astronomy [VU] • Data Intensive Research – methods, technologies and capabilities [DIR] • MRO Instrumentation – radio astronomy engineering, technologies and capabilities [MROI]

During the course of our first year, these programs and projects have been defined and initiated taking advice from the ICRAR Science and Technology Advisory Committee and guidance from the ICRAR Board. A hiring program based on core ICRAR program (as defined in V1.5 of the ICRAR Plan, 8 April 2010) was initiated (Phase 1) in October 2009 and will be completed (Phase 2) by the end of 2010. The following sections highlight the performance and achievements of the four program areas in the period February 2009 to July 2010.

3.1 Science

Program-level KPIs for 2009/2010:

• At least 40 refereed journal papers per year: ACHIEVED • At least 10 invited talks at international astronomy meetings: ACHIEVED • Six substantial ongoing international collaborations, and two new international collaborations each year: ACHIEVED • Hire staff according to ICRAR plan: ACHIEVED

3.1.1 Galaxy Assembly and Evolution

The Widefield ASKAP L-band Legacy All-sky Blind survey (WALLABY, Principal Investigators (PIs) B. Koribalski & L. Staveley-Smith) and the Deep Investigations of Neutral Gas Origins (DINGO, PI M. Meyer) surveys were both successful in to proceeding to the design study phase, a step towards being awarded substantial amounts of ASKAP time to further our understanding of galaxies and their evolution. Wallaby, in particular, is one of only two top-rated projects for which the ATNF will provide full support.

The arrival of Professor Gerhardt Meurer from Johns Hopkins University and Professor Kenji Bekki from the University of NSW (and winner of a prestigious ARC Future Fellowship) has done much to increase activity in this field.

Highlights of the past year have been:

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• Detection of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in data from the 6dF galaxy survey. • Simulation of the ‘cosmic web’ in neutral hydrogen. • Successful detection and measurement of radio recombination lines using the HIPASS survey in order to better subtract foreground radio emission from WMAP and Planck cosmic microwave background data. • Measurement of cosmic gas density at distances of 1.3 Gly using the Arecibo telescope. • Successful Parkes detection of gas at similar distances using ‘stacking’ techniques. • First detection of Ammonia in the Large Magellanic Cloud. • First direct measurement of the cosmic distribution function of rotation velocities for late-type galaxies. • Recognition of the role of cluster mergers in triggering synchronised star- formation in gas-rich galaxies. • Important studies with radio telescopes and the Spitzer Space Telescope of the molecular, atomic and dust components of nearby galaxies.

Several workshops and meetings were organised to facilitate collaboration between ICRAR and other Australian and international researchers were held.

3.1.2 Variable Universe

The Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients (CRAFT) experiment (PIs R. Dodson and J.-P. Macquart) was approved as one of six A- proposals that CSIRO invited to proceed through to a design study phase and which CSIRO will make all reasonable efforts to support. Substantial planning and design towards CRAFT and related activities have occurred under the direction of project engineer Professor Peter Hall. Activities have included algorithms, GPU research, astrophysics and pathfinder activities on existing telescopes.

A collaborative project, led by Professor Tingay at ICRAR, has developed with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the US. The project seeks to utilise the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) in a new and novel fast transient detection mode, in order to search for radio transients on millisecond timescales, similar to the “Lorimer burst” that has sparked so much attention in the community over the last few years. This mode of operation is a novel use of the ten antenna VLBA. The ten independent data streams are simultaneously analysed in real-time, as an adjunct in commensal fashion to the regular VLBA correlation process. This provides advantages in searching for fast transients, since the system is highly robust to non-astronomical signals and potentially allows for localisation of any astronomical signal with milliarcsecond accuracy. A full proposal has been submitted to the VLBA for approval to pursue the project in full operational mode. Hardware has been procured, installed and configured at the VLBA. And analysis software has been written, installed and benchmarked. The project will start collecting data in the second half of 2010.

Important papers, led by ICRAR PhD students, have been published in international refereed astronomy journals describing recent observations and the past history of

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010 the radio emission from Supernova 1987A. These observations show the recent exponential growth of the radio emission resulting from the interaction of the expanding shock front with the famous circumstellar ring the supernova exploded within. In an attempt to better understand the astrophysics of this interaction, three- dimensional computer simulations are being run on iVEC computers (see Figure 1). These simulations will benefit greatly from the new Pawsey infrastructure.

Figure 1: a density cut through a simulation of the shock wave from Supernova 1987A as it passes through the ring which surrounded the precursor star. A FLASH simulation run on iVEC computers (courtesy Toby Potter, ICRAR).

Dr Linqing Wen (a joint ICRAR/UWA gravity wave fellow) was the recipient of a 2010 ARC Future Fellowship to work on aspects of radio astronomy/gravity wave science and algorithm synergies.

3.1.3 High Angular Resolution Radio Astronomy

The ICRAR high angular resolution team (ICRAR project 1.3), in collaboration with a team at CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, completed a high impact set of observations that utilised the first ASKAP antenna at the MRO and the new 12 m antenna at Warkworth in New Zealand, in conjunction with existing east coast radio telescopes. These observations produced the first science from ASKAP, resulting in a press release (http://www.csiro.au/news/Aussies-and-Kiwis-forge-a-cosmic- connection.html: Figure 2), a paper submitted to an international refereed journal ("Four decades of monitoring the pc-scale structure of PKS 1934!638: first science

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with the Australian SKA Pathfinder", submitted to The Astronomical Journal), and a featured role in the Australian presentations at the recent International SKA Forum in Assen, The Netherlands. The ICRAR contribution to this work was to develop high speed data recording systems (ICRAR engineering project 3.3) used at the new antennas at the MRO and in New Zealand, provide assistance to the CSIRO and New Zealand teams that undertook the observations, correlate the data from the array of telescopes at the Curtin VLBI correlator (only such facility in the Southern Hemisphere), analyse the data to form images, and contribute heavily to the press release, paper and SKA forum materials. The high speed data recording systems were developed using commercial off-the-shelf components and computing hardware.

Figure 2: One of the targets imaged as part of the first science observations with ASKAP, the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A. The figure shows the entire radio source to the top left (produced from the Australia Telescope Compact Array), zooming into the inner structure of the radio galaxy at the top left (produced from the Very Large Array), finally zooming in to the highest resolution structure image at bottom, produced from the combination of the new ASKAP and Warkworth (New Zealand) antennas and existing east coast antennas. Image credit – Whole galaxy: I. Feain, T. Cornwell & R. Ekers (CSIRO/ATNF); ATCA northern middle lobe pointing courtesy R. Morganti (ASTRON); Parkes data courtesy N. Junkes (MPIfR). Inner radio lobes: NRAO / AUI / NSF. Core: S. Tingay (ICRAR) / ICRAR, CSIRO and AUT

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Also in the first year of ICRAR, under this project, science has been undertaken using the real-time e-VLBI capability of the Australian Long Baseline Array, in particular the first long duration monitoring observations of the X-ray binary system, Circinus X-1, consisting of 8 observations over the course of the 17 day orbit of the system, designed to follow the evolution of the flaring radio source.

The wide-field imaging science component of the project has been initiated with successful and highly ranked observing proposals submitted to the European VLBI Network and the Very Long Baseline Array in the US.

Work has also been initiated to use the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India in conjunction with Australian telescopes, including ASKAP. Test observations have been made, pending analysis.

Finally, considerable effort has been made to develop the science and technical case for the long baseline Square Kilometre Array, as a contribution to the international project. This has involved presentations at international meetings and the development of a document putting forward the science case for long baselines and the technical requirements. Further, this has connected to activities in Australia that seek to specify the optimal distribution of remote stations for the Square Kilometre Array, to support the science goals and enhance Australia’s bid. This has involved consultation with and briefing of government agencies and network providers, as well as close coordination with CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science. 3.2 ICT Program

The first year of the ICT Program has been dominated by the acquisition of key staff, the development of the relationship and planning with the Pawsey Centre including a definition of ICRAR requirements, and contributions to the definition of Australian national strategies for investments in astronomical data management.

Program-level KPIs for 2009/2010:

• Finalise planning with iVEC surrounding ICRAR-Pawsey involvement by June 2010: PARTIAL - ONGOING: due to the late arrival of key Pawsey staff (the project director and systems architect) the planning for Phase 1 of the Pawsey acquisition will not be complete until August 2010. ICRAR planning input was received for Phase 1a. Meetings of Pawsey stakeholders surrounding Phase 1b/c have agreed that the data intensive research needs of ICRAR will be a key focus. • Decision to proceed with full scope DIR signature program by June 2010: ACHIEVED: Phase 2 of the ICRAR core program budget approved at the 8 April Board contains the necessary ICT staff to initiate the DIR theme. • Acquisition of design team (contingent on decision to proceed) by end Q3 2010: PARTIAL – ONGOING: The DIR theme leader Professor Andreas Wicenec has been hired and will be at ICRAR by the end of July. Dr. Chris Harris has been appointed head of Project 2.3 (HPC for Radio Astronomy) and A/Professor Kevin Vinsen has been appointed to the team with responsibilities in database design and systems. A further three positions will

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

be advertised and acquired by the end of 2010 as part of Phase 2 core hires defined in version 2.0 of the ICRAR Plan (V 2.0 20 July 2010) • Identification of key industrial partners and collaborative arrangements in place by end 2010: PARTIAL-ONGOING: A Letter of Intent is in effect with IBM with the intension to sign and Research and Development Agreement before the end of 2010. Design studies on cloud computing have commenced with eMediaTrack Ltd. • Following decision to proceed on design team, formation of collaboration team with WP2 partners and collaborators by Q3 2010: ONGOING: Several discussions have been held with partners from Cambridge, India and CSIRO but not advanced. Systems-level leadership/vision is needed from SPDO. WP2 ICT partners are planning a systems level discussion at the SSEC/WP2 meetings at Oxford in October 2010.

3.2.1 Data Intensive Research Pathfinder (DIRP)

The DIRP Project (ICRAR Project 2.1) was defined in April 2010 and signed in June 2010. The aim of the project is to produce a data intensive research demonstrator that meets the basic data flow needs of the MWA project and defined set of requirements for ICRAR teams working on ASKAP surveys. The project is lead by Professor Andreas Wicenec and will draw up the DIR design team and Pawsey Centre hardware resources.

The main activities for 2009/2010 focused on:

• The ICRAR requirements for the DIRP as part of the Pawsey architecture where defined and captured in ICRAR Requirements for the Phase 1 Pawsey System (ICRAR-REQ-0001, version 0.24, 26 April 2010) by C. Harris, K. Bekki, R. Dodson, A. Duffy, M. Glossop, P. Hall, M. Meyer, T. Potter, P. Quinn, L. Staveley-Smith, S. Tingay, K. Vinsen, R. Wayth , A. Wicenec.

Figure 3: The overall systems architecture of the ICRAR components within Pawsey where DIRP utilizes elements of the Archive Research Environment and Architecture R&D Environment. Data flows into the DIRP from simulation activities, the MWA Real Time Computer with DIRP interfaces within the Front End. (Peter Quinn (ICRAR)).

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• The overall radio astronomy requirements for the Pawsey Centre have been developed with CSIRO (ASKAP Project team) and the MWA Project team with the an agreed overall architecture and requirements concept shown in Figure 4. The system is based on a nominal 40 Gb/s link from Pawsey through to Boolardy.

Figure 4: A proposed radio astronomy architecture for systems within Pawsey to meet data flow and processing needs of CSIRO (ASKAP), MWA and ICRAR.(Tim Cornwell (CSIRO), Peter Quinn (ICRAR), Steve Tingay (ICRAR))

• In an attempt to secure additional funding for ICRAR DIR theme activities, several submissions have been made to Astronomy Australia Limited (6 May 2010) and the Federal Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR, 10 May 2010). These white papers are intended to drive discussions with the Federal ARCS (Australian Research Collaboration Service) and ANDS (Australian National Data Service) programs towards funding proposals by the end of 2010. These papers/proposals will position the ICRAR DIRP as “soft infrastructure” that could be developed into a national research infrastructure and facility for astronomy, and will seek the development of astronomy specific capabilities within the Pawsey Centre.

Figure 5: Proposed development of the DIRP into soft infrastructure (top two tiers) needed for Australia’s national astronomy needs.

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• ICRAR staff are actively participating in the Pawsey HPC Project Control Group and the Pawsey Steering Committee. (Peter Quinn (ICRAR)).

3.2.2 SKA Design Study

The SKA Design Study Project (ICRAR Project 2.2) was defined in April 2010 and signed in June 2010. The aim of the project is to produce a costed systems design for the SKA Science Data Flow System as an ICRAR contribution to the PrepSKA WP2 deliverables in 2012. The project is lead by Professor Andreas Wicenec and will draw up the DIR design team and experience gained in ICRAR Projects 2.1 and 2.3.

The main activities for 2009/2010 focused on: • Participation at the PrepSKA WP2 meetings in March 2009, October 2009 and March 2010. • Preliminary discussions with WP2 ICT teams from Oxford (Paul Alexander), India (NCSA) and CSIRO (Tim Cornwell) on systems studies and interfaces. A draft design document is being prepared (SKA Data Flow and Processing, P. Alexander, J.A. Bregman, P. Quinn, A.J. Faulkner, April 2010). • A design study was launched with eMediaTrack Ltd in collaboration with iVEC and Oxford University to: o Examine the computing requirements for the planned SKA data processing pipeline in the context of the growing popularity of cloud computing. o Develop one or more prototype applications to demonstrate the efficacy of Desktop Cloud computing in the context of the Astrophysics problems motivated by the SKA. The study utilizes the Nereus cloud computing infrastructure developed by Dr. Rhys Newman from eMediaTrack. Rhys visited ICRAR in April-June 2010 period and will deliver a final report in August. To date successful prototypes at ICRAR have been created for computational cosmology, HI processing, gravity wave signal processing and a potential citizen science interface.

3.2.3 HPC for Radio Astronomy

The HPC for Radio Astronomy Project (ICRAR Project 2.3) was defined in April 2010 and signed in June 2010. The aim of the project is to coordinate and facilitate ICRAR R&D in algorithms, methods and systems to meet the HPC needs of radio astronomy with particular deliverables to ICRAR projects. The project is lead by Dr. Chris Harris and will draw up manpower from both ICRAR research nodes.

The main activities for 2009/2010 focused on: • Contributions to the HPC requirements for the ICRAR Requirements for the Phase 1 Pawsey System (ICRAR-REQ-0001, version 0.24, 26 April 2010) • HPC concepts were taught by ICRAR staff in the EE2310 Computer Architecture unit at UWA in 2009. These activities are aimed to inspire and attract the interest of prospective research students with a strong computational background in the coming years, and ensure that they have the tools they will need to tackle the challenges ahead. This unit will be taught again in 2010 by A/Professor Kevin Vinsen and Dr. Christopher Harris.

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• The HPC for Radio Astronomy project currently has two research students supervised primarily by Professor Karen Haines and Dr. Christopher Harris: o Stefan Westerlund is a PhD student that commenced in April 2010. His area of research is the development of HPC source-finding algorithms for the multi-terabyte spectral cubes produced by observations in the WALLABY and DINGO surveys. Such algorithm development is required, as existing serial algorithms do not scale to datasets of this magnitude. o Alexander Ottenhoff is a final year undergraduate student. His final year project is investigating the GPU acceleration of the gridding algorithm in radio astronomy aperture synthesis. This algorithm is the key bottleneck in the post-correlator imaging pipeline, and feasible parallel approaches will be a necessity to achieve throughput on future compute architectures. • The core kernels for the GPU Fast Transient detection engine required for the High Time Resolution project (ICRAR Project 3.4) were developed by Dr. Christopher Harris, with input from other project members. The kernel code enables a GPU-accelerated system to integrate along thousands of prospective transient events simultaneously in parallel. These kernels were subsequently provided to Dr. Richard Dodson, who is continuing development of the GPU Fast Transient engine. 3.3 Engineering Program

Top-level KPIs for the five-year ICRAR engineering program are set out below, and first-year highlights in the path to achieving them are discussed briefly in the subsequent sections.

Program-level KPIs for 2009/2010:

• Establishment of a leading-edge radio astronomy engineering laboratory: PARTIAL-ONGOING. Key staff arrived in 2010, Q1. Project plans for laboratory completed. Key stakeholder consultations complete. Fit-out of new laboratory space underway. Phase 1 test equipment acquisition commenced. • Thorough characterisation of the MWA and delivery of new prototype aperture arrays within the context of a significant international collaboration having substantial input to the PrepSKA design process: ON-GOING. New array project commenced with arrival of key staff in 2010, Q2. • Delivery of new hardware and software instrumentation to facilitate the integration of ASKAP into the Australian VLBI network: ACHIEVED - ONGOING. New equipment successfully deployed to produce first science from ASKAP. Further instrumentation development underway. • Delivery of new hardware and software instruments (deployable on ASKAP and other telescopes) for exploring the high-time resolution Universe: PARTIAL - ONGOING. ICRAR leadership of collaborative ASKAP transient science and engineering project established. Project and deliverables defined nationally and internationally. Trailblazer projects using first-phase software and hardware instruments about to commence, following arrival of key staff in 2010, Q2.

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• Ten engineering and technical astronomy PhDs candidates involved over the course of the next five years: PARTIAL - ONGOING. Two new engineering PhD students commenced at Curtin in 2009.

The first year of ICRAR's engineering program has seen a rapid growth in staff numbers, with recruitment efforts focussed on attracting world-class individuals able to lead and contribute to national and international SKA research and development. Despite strong competition from radio astronomy engineering projects around the world, ICRAR has succeeded in appointing first-tier professionals who are now fully engaged in Australian and international projects. Staff appointed to date include:

• Mr Mark Waterson (via the RASE CoE), formerly of ANU, to manage the development and operation of ICRAR's engineering laboratory, and to play a leading role in linking the Centre's MWA and new-generation aperture array activities; • Dr Shantanu Padhi, formerly of ANU, to manage the ICRAR new-generation aperture array project; • Dr Nathan Clarke, formerly of Lateral Sands Solutions, to manage ICRAR's digital systems development, including instrumentation for high angular resolution and high time resolution projects; • Dr Franz Schlagenhaufer, formerly of WATRI, to manage ICRAR activities in the domain of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), in particular the protection of the pristine radio-quiet environment of the MRO; and • Mr Jonanthan Tickner, formerly of Qinetiq (UK), to provide senior technical officer support to electronic engineering staff and students.

In addition to these key individuals, a further four ICRAR engineering positions will be filled over the next 12 months as projects increase in scale. This second phase recruitment will include two more research engineering positions, a research assistant and a postdoctoral fellow. At its full complement, ICRAR will have eleven full-time engineering staff (including Prof Peter Hall and Mr David Emrich, the MWA commissioning engineer), with another ten or so "cross-over" staff from the technical astronomy and ICT domains working closely with the core group. All ICRAR engineering staff will contribute to engineering education and outreach in Perth, with the second-phase staff having increased responsibilities in this area.

ICRAR has also been successful in attracting two new engineering PhD students via Curtin's premium international scholarship scheme. Mr Aziz Jiwani is working on antennas for new-generation aperture arrays, while Mr Kevin Koay is working in on a cross-disciplinary project searching for intergalactic scintillation and examining its implications for radio telescope design.

As well as its full-time staff, ICRAR is fortunate to have secured the services of Professor John O'Sullivan, FAA, in the position of Adjunct Professor of Radio Astronomy Engineering at Curtin. Dr O'Sullivan is a distinguished radio engineer, inventor of WiFi and winner of the 2009 Prime Minister's Science Prize. He is closely associated with the CSIRO ASKAP telescope development, further strengthening a vital ICRAR link.

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Programmatically, ICRAR's first year has been about refinement and detailed definition of its engineering projects, the forging of necessary Australian and international collaborations, and the commencement of activities designed to achieve the milestones and deliverables set out in the various project plans. Alongside this, Professor Hall has remained an active participant in international SKA engineering activities, including leadership of, or leading roles in, PrepSKA activities concerned with SKA system design and costing, power provision, and receptor technologies. He is also a member of the SKA International Engineering Advisory Committee, a small group advising the SKA Science and Engineering Committee on project directions.

3.3.1 Engineering Laboratory

This $2.4M facility is central to the success of ICRAR's engineering and technical astronomy programs. A 100 m2 space within the Brodie-Hall Building (which houses ICRAR/Curtin) is currently being equipped as the main engineering laboratory. It includes a 3 x 3 m screened enclosure for the development and test of radio- frequency systems. Adjacent spaces will house engineering computing facilities and a specialized network analyser, while an outside area has been identifier to accommodate an antenna development and test facility. Basic test equipment and tools have been purchased, and the next year will see a substantial expenditure on high-priority, advanced equipment. The ICRAR laboratory is located in the heart of the joint astronomy/engineering area in the Brodie-Hall Building, and both engineering and technical astronomy staff and students are already using the facility.

3.3.2 MWA and Next-Generation Aperture Arrays

Following extensive technical input and negotiation by Professor Hall, ICRAR has successfully engaged with the Aperture Array Verification Program (AAVP), the main next-generation aperture array development activity for PrepSKA and beyond. ICRAR is the only non-European collaborator and is also a work-package leader, charged specifically with the development and prototyping of explorative technologies for sparse arrays operating in the 70-450 MHz range. With key engineering staff involved in both MWA (see also Section 2.4.1) and AAVP, ICRAR is playing a unique role in bringing US and European groups together and in translating experience with the MWA into the AAVP. An importance consequence of ICRAR's leadership within the AAVP will be the increased presence of European personnel at the MRO, and the construction of a high-visibility prototype new- generation array in the Murchison. These and related outcomes serve to highlight both the superior technical nature of the Australian candidate site and the capacity of Australia to contribute to pivotal international collaborations.

Although several staff have arrived only recently, a number of novel wide-band antenna elements for new arrays have already been examined. Current efforts centre on the electromagnetic design, construction and characterization of log-spiral (conical) antennas. These may offer the SKA a low-frequency element with benign radiation and terminal characteristics, potentially important factors in achieving SKA science goals.

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3.3.3 High Angular Resolution Systems

In the first year of ICRAR, a high data rate recording system was built that was used to perform the first science observations with ASKAP and the new 12 m antenna at Warkworth in New Zealand. These observations were performed in conjunction with existing radio telescopes on Australia’s east coast and are described in Section 2.1.3 above.

The recording system consisted of a Signatec analog--to digital converter, with a two-channel RF input and a voltage sample output with a precision of 14 bits per sample. The RF input to the system was provided by CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science and delivered dual polarisation 64 MHz bandwidth signals. The recording system Nyquist sampled the input signals and recorded the voltage time series data to a large raid disk set, consisting of 16 x 2 TB disks. Software developed for the system provided conversion from the native 14 bit format to a 2 bit format compatible with the existing radio telescope systems in Australia. The recording systems were installed at the ASKAP antenna and at the Warkworth antenna in New Zealand.

3.3.4 High Time Resolution Systems

ICRAR has taken the leadership role in defining the time-domain instrumentation for the ASKAP telescope, with a view to making this specification scalable to the SKA. Under the leadership of Prof Hall, engineers and scientists from ICRAR, CSIRO, JPL and other institutes are working together to undertake selected "trailblazer" activities which will provide insight into the science requirements, and engineering design, of ASKAP and SKA systems. In its first year of operation, ICRAR has established the collaboration, defined the key deliverables and timescales, organized a variety of international working meetings, presented the project at a number of international meetings, and undertaken design work on its own trailblazer platforms to be deployed in the next 12 months. These include CPU, GPU and FPGA-based signal processing engines for use at telescopes such as the VLBA (see Section 2.1.2), as well as the progressively-commissioned ASKAP. 3.4 MRO

Program-level KPIs for 2009/2010:

• Prime role in delivering the MWA instrument o ACHIEVED AND ONGOING • Contribute to MWA commissioning and early operations o DELIVERABLE FOR LATER YEARS • Contribute to support of PAPER, CoRE, EDGES and other experiments carried out at the MRO o ACHIEVED AND ONGOING • Support engineering components of ICRAR science program activities at the MRO o DELIVERABLE FOR LATER YEARS • Establish and operate an EMC certification facility for the MRO o ONGOING

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3.4.1 MWA

In the first year of ICRAR, the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) has completed a full project plan and has passed formal reviews by funding agencies in Australia (Astronomy Australia Limited: AAL) and the US (National Science Foundation: NSF). A major milestone was passed in the full test and verification of the prototype 32 antenna array, which is now operational and collecting substantial amounts of engineering and science data (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Science image of a 30 degree field of view around the bright radio galaxy Pictor A. The image shows a large number of real sources throughout the field. This image indicates that the major MWA sub-systems are working well and are ready for mass production and installation in the field, for the full 512 antenna array. (Steve Tingay (ICRAR) and MWA collaboration).

This substantial progress has been due to an increased level of project management professionalism over the last two years, initially provided by interim Project Manager, Professor Steven Tingay, from July 2008 to June 2009. A fully qualified professional Project Manager was appointed in July 2009, by ICRAR, Mr Wayne Arcus, for a four year tenure. Under Mr Arcus, the major initial milestones of the MWA have been achieved and the project is poised to commence the construction of the full 512 antenna instrument.

This technical progress has allowed AAL to release $4.6m of funds from the National Collaborative Research Strategy (NCRIS) to the project, under a contract to Curtin University. Furthermore, Professor Tingay submitted a successful proposal to AAL for $3.07m of Education Investment Fund resources, due for release under a

28 ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010 contract to Curtin in early 2011. Finally, successful proposals by Tingay to the Super Science Fellowship scheme and the Australia India Strategic Research Fund have brought a further $1.6m into ICRAR to support MWA science and engineering.

The $9.3m of new funding now available to ICRAR to support the Australian contribution to the MWA will now be augmented by a new proposal to the US NSF, by the US partners in the MWA project. Mr Wayne Arcus is assisting with the preparation of this proposal, to ensure that it addresses unmet needs in the MWA Project Plan. It is expected that the proposal will be submitted in July/August 2010. Further, the India partner organisation, Raman Research Institute, has committed a further $US500k to the project and ICRAR is providing $A400k over a five year period.

With the Australian and Indian commitments and prospective US funding, the project is hopeful that the approximately $16m cost to complete the 512 antenna array will be secured in 2010, thus allowing the project to pursue the full scope of the project plan. Preparatory steps toward construction are currently being undertaken, in particular the installation of infrastructure at the MRO.

ICRAR has provided critical financial and management support to the MWA project, in order to keep the project alive during a difficult period. The project is now emerging from this period and has secured significant funding to bring the MWA to completion. ICRAR is therefore poised to prosecute the project over the coming years, through construction and taking a larger science role in the long term via Super Science Fellowships.

The successful completion of the MWA will be to the direct benefit of ICRAR, Western Australia, the Australian SKA bid and the global astronomy community.

3.4.2 ALO

In the first 12 months of ICRAR, an Aboriginal Liaison Officer (ALO) has been appointed at the Curtin node. The ALO is funded at Curtin under a contract with the Western Australian Office of Native Title, for a period of four years. The ALO appointed was Ms Robin Boddington. The ALO is seconded from Curtin to CSIRO and is based in Geraldton, where most liaison activities with the Aboriginal communities of relevance to the MRO take place.

The ALO works primarily for CSIRO, with some specific duties for ICRAR, with reporting to both organisations. The ALO has thus far discharged all duties very well.

3.4.3 EMC

ICRAR has recruited Dr Franz Schlagenhaufer, an acknowledged expert in the field of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). Although a recent arrival, he has been active in forging links with CSIRO, the Department of Commerce, and several industry players with interests in the establishment of MRO facilities (and at the same time maintaining the site's radio-quietness). First results from this project include an invitation from CSIRO for ICRAR to participate in the drafting of EMC/RFI

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010 protocols for the MRO, the definition of an ICRAR expert EMC consultancy service for the benefit of government and industry, and the specification of new electromagnetic simulation and test systems to support ICRAR's activities in the EMC area. The anechoic test chamber at ICRAR/Curtin is currently undergoing an upgrade to support ICRAR's operations and, as part of this process, ICRAR (through Dr Schlagenhaufer) now holds the only NATA "competent body" certification for EMC in Western Australia. The next year will see acquisition of key laboratory and field test equipment, commencement of internal and external consultancy services (including EMC education initiatives) by Dr Schlagenhaufer, and initial operation of an EMC certification facility for the MRO.

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4.0 ICRAR Education and Outreach: Highlights and Achievements

4.1 Schools

ICRAR has quickly established itself in the educational space by playing an active role in educationally focussed groups and committees and engaging school aged students and educators in a variety of ways, including:

• Representation on several educationally focused committees including the WA committee for National Science Week, Astronomy WA and the WA branch of the Australian Science Communicators. • Support of a number of educationally focused events and initiatives including the National Youth Science Forum, the Governors Science Forum, the Science Experience, Travelling Scientist, the Astronomy WA Challenge Cup, National Science Week and Scientists in Schools. • Presentations delivered both on and off university campus’, engaging more than 750 high schools students from schools across WA, and in some cases from other states. • Participation in Spice’s ‘Travelling Scientist’ program. ICRAR PhD student Jacinta Delhaize travelled to the towns of Hedland, Karratha, Newman and Tom Price in the Pilbara region. During the trip Jacinta presented to more than 150 secondary students engaging them with information relating to her career path and choices, ICRAR and the SKA. • Participation in ‘Science Awareness’ festivals in Kalgoorlie and Karratha, with over 1,750 students from regional areas engaged by ICRAR. • A mass mail out to science coordinators of every West Australian high school including an introductory letter and information about ICRAR, SKA and radio astronomy. • Support of an Internet Telescope Project being developed by the Centre for Learning Technologies. This project will allow students located anywhere to access a research grade remotely operated telescope with which to experience real astronomy and potentially conduct real research. • Dr Megan Argo, John Goldsmith and CSIRO’s Rob Hollow visited schools based in the Murchison with the aim of raising awareness of MWA, ASKAP and SKA. Schools visited were Pia Wadjarri, Yalgoo, Yulga Jinna, Meekatharra, Carnarvon, Cue and Geraldton. Viewing nights and talks were also carried out for Meekatharra School of the Air and Carnarvon School of the Air. • See ‘International’ (Dr Megan Argo’s project).

In the pipeline… • Launch of Internet telescope (September) • Second instalment of Spice’s ‘First Light’ Web Video

4.2 Tertiary

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ICRAR has a strong postgraduate teaching program at the Honours, Masters and PhD levels, with students and mentors coming from around the globe to work at the Centre. National and international scholarships provide students from other universities with a pathway to work with ICRAR researchers and become involved in the science and engineering of radio astronomy.

• ICRAR Studentships ran from November to February involving ten students from UWA, Curtin, Monash and UniSA. This comprised of four ICRAR only scholarships, four ICRAR-iVEC joint scholarships, one NVIDIA scholarship and one other.

In the pipeline… • Scholarships for international students will soon be made available. • The Internet Telescope will become available for use by Physics undergraduates. 4.3 Community

• Astrofest – this enormous event was delivered as part of the culmination of the International Year of Astronomy and took place on Edinburgh Oval and in Curtin Stadium. Astrofest featured talks, informative displays, astrophotography, competitions, a host of telescopes and a lecture by Professor Fred Watson of the Australian Astronomical Observatory. Approximately 4,000 people attended through the course of the day and night. • Stars and tanks – A unique ‘fusion’ of components put together by David Nicholson, founder of the Southern Cross Cosmos centre (now Gingin Observatory). This one off event took place at Fremantle Military Museum, attracting a range of audiences. • Kalgoorlie and Karratha – While the Science Awareness Festivals in these regional towns were educationally focused, members of the community were also engaged adding value to ICRAR’s presence.

In the pipeline… • Tuning In – this travelling mini-exhibition for National Science Week will feature several pieces of equipment including TRT’s (tiny radio telescopes), MWA dipoles and Dobsonian optical telescopes. With a unique display and several science communicators this program will draw in and engage members of the community. During National Science Week 2010, Tuning In will travel to Joondalup, Forrest Chase (Perth CBD) and Geraldton. The strength of the program will likely see it become part of ICRAR’s outreach ‘suite’ for community based outreach initiatives/events. • Badgingarra community observing event (August) • Astronaut Andy Thomas visit (September) • Phone hook-up with astronauts aboard the International Space Station (September) • Astrofest 2011 (March)

4.4 National Engagement

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• As a member of the ANZSCC Communication Working Group Pete Wheeler plays an active role in the development and implementation of the national communications strategy for SKA. • As of February Pete Wheeler is also a member of the anzSKA Educational Advisory Group (EAG). • From March to June Pete Wheeler was seconded to DIISR to work as part of a team dedicated to arrangements for the SKA Forum, taking place in the Netherlands in mid June. Working closely with the team and cumulatively spending 5 weeks based in Canberra ICRAR made a valuable contribution to anzSKA’s presence at the forum and in the delivery of the anzSKA booth, presentation, creative assets and logistics in general. • The Illgarijiri exhibition/initiative, driven by Professor Steven Tingay, has engaged audiences in Perth (at Curtin’s Chemistry Centre), in Canberra (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies) and at the ‘Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2010’ (CAP) in Cape Town, South Africa. Illgarijiri also featured as part of ABC’s Message Stick program.

In the pipeline… • Over the past few years Scitech and Questacon have developed a number of SKA educational and awareness raising projects. Pete Wheeler is assisting with the delivery of two such projects which when complete will carry the ICRAR brand. Specifically these are; o ‘Presenters Toolbox’ –This resource will provide those wishing to present and communicate the SKA with the visual tools they need to engage and inspire an audience. o SimSKA – An interactive game which is to be hosted by the Australian educational SKA website www.ska.edu.au o See 4.7 4.5 International Engagement

• Dr Megan Argo and Pete Wheeler are both members of the International SKA Outreach Committee. • The ‘365 Days of Astronomy Podcast’ is an initiative carried over from the International Year of Astronomy. Astronomers (amateur or professional), students, teachers, organisations and clubs submit an astronomically themed podcast of between 5 and 10 minuted in length. Megan Argo and Pete Wheeler assisted with the compilation of one such podcast for the International SKA Outreach Committee and another for ICRAR. • Universe Aware - Dr Megan Argo headed this project in which students from schools in WA, the Netherlands and South Africa built models of radio telescopes before ‘getting together’ via video conferencing to discuss their respective lives and parts of the worlds they come from. A short video capturing this international outreach initiative was played to delegates attending the SKA forum in the Netherlands. • Illgarijiri Exhibition at the CAP conference in Cape Town. • The strong presence of ICRAR at this year’s international SKA forum provided an opportunity to solidify awareness of the Centre amongst the SKA community.

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• Dr Megan Argo provides the news section for the popular podcast Ô JodcastÕ , which regularly receives 8000+ downloads per show in the month of issue. As of February it is also played regularly on Astronomy. FM which itself has more than 1,500 listeners located primarily in the US. • See 4.7 4.6 ICRAR Online: SeptÕ 09 Ð JuneÕ 10

Since coming on board in January, Kirsten Gottschalk has taken over the role of Webmaster. In the past six months Kirsten has endeavoured to maintain up-to-date and fresh content, while reshaping our online presence into something that engages our online visitors and keeps them coming back for more.

Country All visits Visits over 10 sec % 10 sec+ Australia 9,361 4,495 74.8% United States 775 267 4.4% UK 533 250 4.2% Germany 328 121 2.0% South Africa 272 109 1.8% Netherlands 210 100 1.7% India 161 72 1.2% Russia 150 42 0.7% France 149 72 1.2% New Zealand 141 65 1.1% Other 1,023 416 6.9% 13,103 6,009 100%

• 13,103 total site visits from 5,295 unique visitors. • 66.93% of visitors saw the home page. • 80.37% of visitors are from Australia, with the US, UK, Germany and South Africa the next four top visiting countries. • After the home page, the news section is the most visited section, and 88% of visitors stay for over 10 seconds. • Most visited pages are the home page, news, then contact us, then employment then research. Our employment page is visited frequently, even when no jobs are advertised, or no external advertising refers to the ICRAR page.

34 ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

• Almost 55% of visitors spend more than 10 seconds on the ICRAR site, with an average site visit length of 6:33, • The average visitor who stays for more than ten seconds views 5.36 separate pages within the site, • New visitors to the site saw a marked increase (almost doubling) from April to May, after steady decline from September. This can be accounted for by the increase in news articles and the release of the eNewsletter, as well as the ads in the Cosmos eNewsletter. • The website represents 656 man-hours in spreading ICRAR's key messages (or 17.5 work weeks). • The first edition of the ICRAR eNewsletter launched in early March. We currently have 176 subscribers to this bi-monthly electronic publication.

4.7 Publications

• Several promotional/informative publications have been produced to support activities, events, programs and general communications. Our current suite of materials now includes the ICRAR brochure produced prior to the launch, the anzSKA factsheets and an A3 ICRAR-SKA poster for teachers, students and the general public. • ‘Engaging the world’ SKA Educational Brochure – Developed by Questacon in time for the SKA forum in the Netherlands, this brochure is a compilation of Australian and New Zealand work in the education space. • A full page ad featured as part of the April to May edition of the science magazine COSMOS. This publication has a readership of 70,000. As part of the deal ICRAR also featured on two editions of the COSMOS eNewsletter, which has a readership of 33,000. • Dr Megan Argo was interviewed on ABC's astronomy podcast, ‘StarStuff’ in relation to a paper on supernova 2007gr that Megan had published in Nature. Megan’s findings were also discussed in an article on the Scientific American website following the publication of a short story explaining the science, which led to articles on numerous SciFi news sites and an interview on the DWO WhoCast, reaching new audiences.

In the pipeline… • A publication called ‘Stories of Australian Astronomy 2010’ is in construction with ICRAR submitting several potential stories for inclusion. Stories encompass radio astronomy, engineering, ICT and outreach. Additionally it is expected that a full-page ad promoting ICRAR will feature in this publication. • ICRAR has recently signed up to ‘The Forum for European–Australian Science and Technology Cooperation’ (FEAST). This organisation was established by the Australian Government and the European Union to highlight, promote, and facilitate research collaboration. As part of the initiative FEAST will be producing at least 20,000 copies of a publication highlighting research activities. ICRAR has secured a two page spread in this publication and also a presence on the FEAST website.

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

5.0 Industrial Engagement and Collaboration

ICRAR is now a full member of the Australasian SKA Industry Consortium (ASKAIC), being represented on this body by Prof Peter Hall. As a strategic Australasian industry body, ASKAIC has a substantive role in supporting Australia’s involvement in the SKA Project. Throughout the last year ASKAIC has organised a number of meetings, including two in WA. ICRAR, along with iVEC, is playing an important role in connecting WA industry with national ASKAIC activities. In the ICT arena ICRAR, via Profs Hall and Quinn, collaborated closely with iVEC and consultants to produce a well-received report on opportunities for WA enterprises wishing to become involved with the SKA. In national activities, Prof Hall has taken a leading role in the Industry Policy and Procurement Advisory Group, a body advising the ASCC on strategies and initiatives for maximizing returns from the SKA to regional companies.

ICRAR has linked to the international industry through diverse activities such as fostering links with Dutch SMEs (via the hosting of Mr Henk Koopmans in late 2009), contribution to SKA procurement and management policy development (via the PrepSKA secondment of ICRAR/Curtin PhD student Phil Crosby, with additional input from Prof Hall), and workshops for the global electrical power industry (including Western Australia's Horizon Power). At the local level, ICRAR has been successful in its first year in engaging with several Perth SMEs, most notably Poseidon Scientific Instruments (PSI). PSI have produced prototypes of field-ready receiving systems for the MWA and, as a result, are well placed to have a larger role in both the MWA and the new Aperture Array Verification Program (see section 3.3.2).

An Industry Participation Plan was developed by ICRAR and submitted to the State Government in October 2009. The Plan was approved by the Department on 13 November 2009.

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

6.0 Intellectual Property (IP) Management and Commercialization Report

Since its inception ICRAR has maintained a strong focus on Intellectual Property creation and management and the potential benefits from commercialising Intellectual Property arising from research activities. ICRAR developed an IP Management Plan that was approved by the Department of Commerce in November 2009. ICRAR Finance and Audit Committee reviews the progress of IP and maintains an advisory role in IP management. ICRAR has undertaken the following key actions in order to safeguard its current and future IP assets:

1. Developing Background IP register

All researchers are required to complete a Background IP declaration on commencing with ICRAR. This Background IP declaration captures all IP that researchers own or otherwise have an interest in prior to their engagement on ICRAR projects, to avoid future issues as to the timing of creation of any particular IP assets. The Background IP declaration also enables collaborative research through an explicit license to allow other ICRAR researchers to use any Background IP for research purposes within ICRAR.

2. Establishing Project IP protocols for research projects

Negotiations between ICRAR and the joint Venture Partners established common rules for the discovery, management and possible commercialisation of Project IP arising from ICRAR Projects. All Project Plans now include standardised wording and approaches to discovery, management and possible commercialisation of Project IP.

3. Establishing agreed commercialisation protocols and commercial returns policy

ICRAR, through discussions with the JV Partners, has established protocols for managing any commercialisation of Project IP that arises from ICRAR projects and has established agreed parameters for distributing economic benefits that may be realised through the commercialisation process. A key outcome is the capacity for ICRAR to be entitled to an agreed commercialisation return, notwithstanding its status as an unincorporated JV

4. Ongoing Education Program

Ongoing education of researchers as to the nature of IP and related matters is a key priority for ICRAR. ICRAR has planned its first IP seminar for all researchers (to be held in July 2010) and will continue to educate its researchers in this regard. (NOTE: The first IP Seminar was held on 19th July and was attended by 29 staff and students from ICRAR and was delivered jointly by the IP experts from both the universities).

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

7.0 ICRAR Publications 2009/10

7.1 Refereed Journals: 47 papers

The velocity function of gas-rich galaxies; Zwaan, M. A.; Meyer, M. J.; Staveley- Smith, L.; Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 403, Issue 4, pp. 1969-1977

23 GHz VLBI observations of SN 2008ax; Martí-Vidal, I., Marcaide, J. M.; Alberdi, A., Guirado, J. C., Pérez-Torres, M. A., Ros, E., Shapiro, I. I,; Beswick, R. J., Muxlow, T. W. B., Pedlar, A., Argo, M. K., Immler, S., Panagia, N., Stockdale, C. J., Sramek, R. A., van Dyk, S., Weiler, K. W.; Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A); 2009 A&A 499 649

Extremely anisotropic scintillations; Walker, M. A., de Bruyn, A. G., Bignall, H. E.; Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 397, Issue 1, pp. 447- 452

Multiwavelength Monitoring of the Enigmatic Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 PMN J0948+0022, The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 707, Issue 1, pp. 727-737

Timing stability of millisecond pulsars and prospects for gravitational-wave detection; Verbiest, J. P. W., Bailes, M., Coles, W. A., Hobbs, G. B., van Straten, W., Champion, D. J., Jenet, F. A., Manchester, R. N., Bhat, N. D. R., Sarkissian, J. M., Yardley, D., Burke-Spolaor, S., Hotan, A. W., You, X. P.; Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 400, Issue 2, pp. 951-968.

Gravitational-Wave Detection Using Pulsars: Status of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array Project; Hobbs, G. B., Bailes, M., Bhat, N. D. R., Burke-Spolaor, S., Champion, D. J., Coles, W., Hotan, A., Jenet, F., Kedziora-Chudczer, L., Khoo, J., Lee, K. J., Lommen, A., Manchester, R. N., Reynolds, J., Sarkissian, J., van Straten, W., To, S., Verbiest, J. P. W., Yardley, D., You, X. P.; Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, Volume 26, Issue 2, pp. 103-109.

Radio polarization measurements from RRAT J1819-1458; Karastergiou, A., Hotan, A. W., van Straten, W., McLaughlin, M. A., Ord, S. M.; Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Volume 396, Issue 1, pp. L95-L99.

High-Resolution Timing Observations of Spin-Powered Pulsars with the AGILE Gamma-Ray Telescope; 70 authors; The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 691, Issue 2, pp. 1618-1633 (2009).

Faraday Rotation Structure on Kiloparsec Scales in the Radio Lobes of Centaurus A; Feain, I. J., Ekers, R. D., Murphy, T., Gaensler, B. M., Macquart, J-P., Norris, R. P., Cornwall, T.J., Johnston-Hollitt, M., Ott, J., Middelberg, E.; The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 707, Issue 1, pp. 114-125 (2009).

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

Annual cycles in the interstellar scintillation time-scales of PKSB1519-273 and PKSB1622-253; Carter, S. J. B., Ellingsen, S. P., Macquart, J-P., Lovell, J. E. J.; Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 396, Issue 3, pp. 1222- 1230.

VLBA Observations of Sub-Parsec Structure in Mrk 231: Interaction Between a Relativistic Jet and a BAL Wind; Reynolds, C., Punsly, B., Kharb, P., O'Dea, C. P., Wrobel, J.; The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 706, Issue 1, pp. 851-865 (2009).

Parsec-Scale Shocks in the Kiloparsec-Scale Jet of Centaurus A; Tingay, S. J., Lenc, E.; The Astronomical Journal, Volume 138, Issue 3, pp. 808-812 (2009). e-VLBI observations of GHz-peaked spectrum radio sources in nearby galaxies from the AT20G survey; Hancock, P. J., Tingay, S. J., Sadler, E. M., Phillips, C., Deller, A. T.; Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 397, Issue 4, pp. 2030-2036.

The Murchison Widefield Array: Design Overview; Lonsdale, C. J., Cappallo, R. J., Morales, M. F., Briggs, F. H., Benkevitch, L., Bowman, J. D., Bunton, J. D., Burns, S., Corey, B. E., Desouza, L., Doeleman, S. S., Derome, M., Deshpande, A., Gopala, M. R., Greenhill, L. J., Herne, D. E., Hewitt, J. N., Kamini, P. A., Kasper, J. C., Kincaid, B. B., Kocz, J., Kowald, E., Kratzenberg, E., Kumar, D., Lynch, M. J., Madhavi, S., Matejek, M., Mitchell, D. A., Morgan, E., Oberoi, D., Ord, S., Pathikulangara, J., Prabu, T., Rogers, A., Roshi, A., Salah, J. E., Sault, R. J., Shankar, N. U., Srivani, K. S., Stevens, J., Tingay, S., Vaccarella, A., Waterson, M., Wayth, R. B., Webster, R. L., Whitney, A. R., Williams, A., Williams, C; Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 97, Issue 8, p.1497-1506.

Precision Southern Hemisphere VLBI Pulsar Astrometry. II. Measurement of Seven Parallaxes; Deller, A. T., Tingay, S. J., Bailes, M., Reynolds, J. E.; The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 701, Issue 2, pp. 1243-1257 (2009).

Implications of a VLBI Distance to the Double Pulsar J0737-3039A/B; Dller, A. T., Bailes, M., Tingay, S. J.; Science, Volume 323, Issue 5919, pp. 1327- (2009).

Precision Southern Hemisphere Pulsar VLBI Astrometry: Techniques and Results for PSR J1559-4438; Deller, A. T., Tingay, S. J., Brisken, W.; The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 690, Issue 1, pp. 198-209 (2009).

The Sub-Parsec Scale Radio Properties of Southern Starburst Galaxies. II. Supernova Remnants, the Supernova Rate, and the Ionised Medium in the NGC 4945 Starburst; Lenc, E., Tingay, S. J.; The Astronomical Journal, Volume 137, Issue 1, pp. 537-553 (2009).

Geodetic VLBI correlation in software; Tingay, S. J., Alef, W., Graham, D., Deller, A. T.; Journal of Geodesy, Volume 83, Number 11, November 2009, pp 1061-1069.

A GPU-based Real-time Software Correlation System for the Murchison Widefield Array Prototype; Wayth, R. B., Greenhill, L. J., Briggs, F. H.; Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Volume 121, issue 882, pp.857-865

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

'Multifrequency Radio Measurements of Supernova 1987A Over 22 Years' Zanardo, G., Staveley-Smith, L., Ball, L., Gaensler, B. M., Kesteven, M. J., Manchester, R. N., Ng, C.-Y., Tzioumis, A. K., Potter, T. M. (2010) ApJ, 710, 1515-1529.

'First Detection of Ammonia in the Large Magellanic Cloud: The Kinetic Temperature of Dense Molecular Cores in N 159 W' Ott, J., Henkel, C., Staveley-Smith, L., Weiß, A. (2010) ApJ, 710, 105-111.

'NOIRCAT - the Northern HIPASS Optical/IR Catalogue' Wong, O. I., Webster, R. L., Kilborn, V. A., Waugh, M., Staveley-Smith, L. (2009) MNRAS, 399, 2264-2278.

'High-Resolution X-Ray Imaging of Supernova Remnant 1987A' Ng, C.-Y., Gaensler, B. M., Murray, S. S., Slane, P. O., Park, S., Staveley-Smith, L., Manchester, R. N., Burrows, D. N. (2009) ApJ, 706, L100-L105.

'High Resolution 36 GHz Imaging of the Supernova Remnant of SN 1987A' Potter, T. M., Staveley-Smith, L., Ng, C.-Y., Ball, L., Gaensler, B. M., Kesteven, M. J., Manchester, R. N., Tzioumis, A. K., Zanardo, G. (2009) ApJ, 705, 261-271.

'Molecular and Atomic Gas in the Large Magellanic Cloud. II. Three-dimensional Correlation Between CO and H I' Fukui, Y., Kawamura, A., Wong, T., Murai, M., Iritani, H., Mizuno, N., Mizuno, Y., Onishi, T., Hughes, A., Ott, J., Muller, E., Staveley-Smith, L., Kim, S. (2009) ApJ, 705, 144-155.

'The Second Survey of the Molecular Clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud by NANTEN. II. Star Formation' Kawamura, A., Mizuno, Y., Minamidani, T., Filipovi", M. D., Staveley-Smith, L., Kim, S., Mizuno, N., Onishi, T., Mizuno, A., Fukui, Y. (2009) ApJS, 184, 1-17.

'Properties and Origin of the High-Velocity Gas Toward the Large Magellanic Cloud' Lehner, N., Staveley-Smith, L., Howk, J. C. (2009) ApJ, 702, 940-954.

'GASS: The Parkes Galactic All-Sky Survey. I. Survey Description, Goals, and Initial Data Release' McClure-Griffiths, N. M., Pisano, D. J., Calabretta, M. R., Ford, H. A., Lockman, F. J., Staveley-Smith, L., Kalberla, P. M. W., Bailin, J., Dedes, L., Janowiecki, S., Gibson, B. K., Murphy, T., Nakanishi, H., Newton-McGee, K. (2009) ApJS, 181, 398-412.

'Evidence for a Nonuniform Initial Mass Function in the Local Universe' Meurer, G. R., Wong, O. I., Kim, J. H., Hanish, D. J., Heckman, T. M., Werk, J., Bland-Hawthorn, J., Dopita, M. A., Zwaan, M. A., Koribalski, B., Seibert, M., Thilker, D. A., Ferguson, H. C., Webster, R. L., Putman, M. E., Knezek, P. M., Doyle, M. T., Drinkwater, M. J., Hoopes, C. G., Kilborn, V. A., Meyer, M., Ryan-Weber, E. V., Smith, R. C., Staveley-Smith, L.

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

(2009) ApJ, 695, 765-780.

'First detection of cosmic structure in the 21-cm intensity field' Pen, U.-L., Staveley-Smith, L., Peterson, J. B., Chang, T.-C. (2009) MNRAS, 394, L6-L10.

'Cool Gas in the Magellanic Stream' Matthews, D., Staveley-Smith, L., Dyson, P., Muller, E. (2009) ApJ, 691, L115-L118.

'Methanol masers probing the ordered magnetic field of W75N' Surcis, G., Vlemmings, W. H. T., Dodson, R., van Langevelde, H. J. (2009) A&A, 506, 757-761.

'A multifrequency study of the large radio galaxies 3C46 and 3C452' Nandi, S., Pirya, A., Pal, S., Konar, C., Saikia, D. J., Singh, M. (2010) MNRAS, 203-

'Simultaneous Multi-Wavelength Observations of Sgr A* During 2007 April 1-11' Yusef-Zadeh, F., Bushouse, H., Wardle, M., Heinke, C., Roberts, D. A., Dowell, C. D., Brunthaler, A., Reid, M. J., Martin, C. L., Marrone, D. P., Porquet, D., Grosso, N., Dodds-Eden, K., Bower, G. C., Wiesemeyer, H., Miyazaki, A., Pal, S., Gillessen, S., Goldwurm, A., Trap, G., Maness, H. (2009) ApJ, 706, 348-375.

'Outlying H II Regions in H I-Selected Galaxies' Werk, J. K., Putman, M. E., Meurer, G. R., Ryan-Weber, E. V., Kehrig, C., Thilker, D. A., Bland-Hawthorn, J., Drinkwater, M. J., Kennicutt, R. C., Wong, O. I., Freeman, K. C., Oey, M. S., Dopita, M. A., Doyle, M. T., Ferguson, H. C., Hanish, D. J., Heckman, T. M., Kilborn, V. A., Kim, J. H., Knezek, P. M., Koribalski, B., Meyer, M., Smith, R. C., Zwaan, M. A. (2010) AJ, 139, 279-295.

'The evolution of star clusters: the resolved-star approach' Pellerin, A., Meyer, M. J., Harris, J., Calzetti, D. (2009) Ap&SS, 324, 247-252.

'First LIGO search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic (super)strings' Abbott, B. P. et al. (2009) Phys.Rev.D, 80, 06202 -

'Search for gravitational wave ringdowns from perturbed black holes in LIGO S4 data' Abbott, B.P. et al. (2009) Phys.Rev.D, 80, 062001 -

'Search for gravitational waves from low mass binary coalescences in the

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

first year of LIGO's S5 data' Abbott, B. P. (2009) Phys.Rev.D, 79, 122001 -

'All-Sky LIGO Search for Periodic Gravitational Waves in the Early Fifth-Science-Run Data' Abbott, B. P. (2009) Phys.Rev.L., 102, 11102 -

'Astrodynamical Space Test of Relativity Using Optical Devices I (ASTROD I)—A class-M fundamental physics mission proposal for Cosmic Vision 2015-2025' Appourchaux, T., Burston, R., Chen, Y., Cruise, M., Dittus, H., Foulon, B., Gill, P., Gizon, L., Klein, H., Klioner, S., Kopeikin, S., Krüger, H., Lämmerzahl, C., Lobo, A., Luo, X., Margolis, H., Ni, W.-T., Patón, A. P., Peng, Q., Peters, A., Rasel, E., Rüdiger, A., Samain, É., Selig, H., Shaul, D., Sumner, T., Theil, S., Touboul, P., Turyshev, S., Wang, H., Wang, L., Wen, L., Wicht, A., Wu, J., Zhang, X., Zhao, C. (2009) ExA, 23, 491-527.

'The Square Kilometre Array', Dewdney, P.E., Hall, P.J., Schilizzi, R.T and Lazio, J., Proc. IEEE, Vol. 97, issue 8, 2009, p1482 - 1496.

'Experimental Demonstration of Focal Plane Array Beamforming in a Prototype Radiotelesescope', Hayman, D.B, Bird, T.S, Esselle, K.P and Hall, P.J., Trans. IEEE Ant. and Prop., Vol. 58, No. 6, June 2010, pp. 1922 - 1934.

‘The Recent Star Formation History of NGC 5102’, Beaulieu, Sylvie F.; Freeman, Kenneth C.; Hidalgo, Sebastian L.; Norman, Colin A.; Quinn, Peter J., The Astronomical Journal, Volume 139, Issue 3, pp. 984-993 (2010)

‘The MACHO Project HST Follow-Up: The Large Magellanic Cloud Microlensing Source Stars’, Nelson, C. A.; Drake, A. J.; Cook, K. H.; Bennett, D. P.; Popowski, P.; Dalal, N.; Nikolaev, S.; Alcock, C.; Axelrod, T. S.; Becker, A. C.; Freeman, K. C.; Geha, M.; Griest, K.; Keller, S. C.; Lehner, M. J.; Marshall, S. L.; Minniti, D.; Pratt, M. R.; Quinn, P. J.; Stubbs, C. W.; Sutherland, W.; Tomaney, A. B.; Vandehei, T.; Welch, D., eprint arXiv:0902.2213, 02/2009

7.2 Conference Proceedings: 6 papers

'SKA Developments at ICRAR', Hall, P.J., Proc. PrepSKA WP2 Meeting, Manchester, October, 2009. (http://www.skatelescope.org/pages/WP2_29Oct2009/Presentations/WP2- 091029_1-9_Hall.pdf)

'ICRAR Contributions to the Aperture Array Verification Program', Hall, P.J., in "Widefield Science and Technology for the SKA", SKADS Conference, Limelette, Belgium, November 2009, pp. 405-406.

'ICRAR PrepSKA Program Work', Hall, P.J, Proc. SKA2010, Manchester, March, 2010. (http://www.skatelescope.org/indico/getFile.py/access?sessionId=18&resId=9&mater ialId=0&confId=2)

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

'The Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients Survey', Macquart, J.-P., Hall, P.J. and Colegate, T., Proc. SKA2010, Manchester, March, 2010. (http://www.skatelescope.org/indico/getFile.py/access?sessionId=15&resId=4&mater ialId=0&confId=2)

'The New Improved SKAcost: Design Solutions from 70 MHz to 10GHz', Colegate, T., Hall, P., Alexander, P., Bolton, R., Ford, D. and McCool, R., Proc. SKA2010, Manchester, March 2010 (http://www.skatelescope.org/indico/materialDisplay.py?contribId=73&sessionId=3& materialId=0&confId=2)

'The Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients (CRAFT) Project', Macquart, J.- P. and Hall, P.J., Proc. New Golden Age of Radio Astronomy, Assen, The NL, June 2010. (http://www.astron.nl/iskaf2010/astronomy-meeting/programme/programme)

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

8.0 ICRAR Staff, Associates and Visitors 2009/10

The following tables identify the current personnel working under the ICRAR JVA as of 30 June 2010. The allocation of the staff to particular projects, their contract type and funding source are detailed in the ICRAR Plan V2.0 (ICRAR-DOC-0001) and attached project plans. As of 30 June 2010, the ICRAR staff complement stood at 47 with an additional 12 individuals identified as ICRAR associates.

ICRAR Staff, Students and Associates: Growth as Compared to August 2009.

8.1 ICRAR Staff

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ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

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8.3 ICRAR Visitors

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ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

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8.4 ICRAR-Hosted Seminars

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ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

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ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

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ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

9.0 ICRAR Students

The following table lists all ICRAR PhD and Masters students enrolled as of 30 June 2010. 9.1 PhD and Masters

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ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

9.2 Honours Program

In 2010, ICRAR also conducted a coordinated Honours program between UWA and Curtin University. The following course structure was presented to 12 students and other attendees. The lecture topics were:

• Advanced Radio Astronomy Techniques • Radiation Mechanisms – I • Radiation Mechanisms – II • The Dynamics of the Milky Way

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

10.0 ICRAR Financial Report and Audited Statements The ICRAR financial report, including the auditor’s statement, is set out in Attachment 1 of this Annual Report. The statement itemising each payment to any person or entity which is greater than $10,000 on each occasion is given in Attachment 2 of this Annual Report. % Grant funds of $3,000,000 received from the State Government of Western Australia, through the Department of Commerce during the period have been used solely in accordance with the terms of the Grant Agreement. The actual expenditure in 2009/10 versus the approved ICRAR Budget is given in the Table below along with a high level variance report. % /'*?%@@%AB)+$!%C$>*B*%'/!B'#%-D%EFGHE%I&026%HJ% !! !! !! !! ! ! ! !! "/>'>%/473% AB)+$!%KEEFGHE% D!)%'/!B'#*% C'>"'&/$% !! ),>,$7/! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!8UZ*ZZZ!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!8ZZ*"8L!! !!!!!!!!!!!RY*XVU!! !! 0$15$,T!)6\\1$4! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"E8*XZZ!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]!!!! !!!!!!!!!"E8*XZZ!! !! !! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]!!!! !! !024<%$LM61N829:6% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%KOKPHOQFR%% %%%%%%%%%%%%HOSQPORRR%% %%%%%%%%%QKTOSTH%% !! #84U8<82V%0W%"1X08=67%>6=68X6N%81%Y916%W:05%/9:281% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%KHSOKPT%%% !! !024<%$LM61N829:6%Z823%#84U8<82V% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%KOKPHOQFR%% %%%%%%%%%%%%KOER[OFTF%% %%%%%%%%%KE[O[[S%% M14/!8!C!E! H\%.6:80N%87%730]1%87%KEEFGHEO%236%W8;9:67%4=294<

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ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

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ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

11.0 Acronyms

ACRONYM DESCRIPTION AA Aperture Array AAL Astronomy Australia Ltd AAOmega the new spectrograph of the AAT AARNet Australian Academic and Research Network AAT Anglo-Australian Telescope AAVP Aperture Array Verification Program ACMA Australian Communication and Media Authority AEEMA Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturer's Association ALMA Atacama Large Millimetre Array ANDS Aust National Data Service ANU Australian National University APAC Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing ARC Australian Research Council ARCS Aust Research Collaboration Services ARRC Aust Resources Research Centre ASA Astronomical Society of Australia ASCC Australian SKA Coordination Committee ASKACR Australian Square Kilometre Array Capabilities Register ASKAIC Australian SKA Industry Cluster ASKAP Australian SKA Pathfinder ASTRON Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy ATA Allen Telescope Array ATCA Australia Telescope Compact Array ATNF Australian Telescope National Facility BAO Baryon Acoustic Array BETA Boolardy Engineering Test Array CAA Centre Agent Agreement Caltech Californian Institute of Technology Cambridge Cambridge University CASS CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science at Marsfield Sydney CDM Cold Dark Matter CEO Chief Executive Officer CfA Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics CIRA Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy CORE The Computing Research and Education Association of Australasia CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Curtin Curtin University of Technology DFAT Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade DIISR Department of Innovation Industry Science and Research DIR Data Intensive Research DoIR Department of Industry and Resources EAG Education Advisory Group

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

EC European Commission EELT European Extremely Large Telescope EIF Education Infrastructure Fund ELT Extremely Large Telescope EMC Electromagnetic Compatibility EoI Expression of Interest EoR Epoch of Reionization ESFRI European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructure ESO European Southern Observatory EU European Union FPGA Field Programmable Gate Array FTE Full Time Equivalent Gbps Gigabits per second GMT Giant Magellan Telescope GMRT Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope GPU Graphics Processing Unit GRB Gamma Ray Burst HI Neutral Hydrogen HPC High Performance Computing IBM International Business Machines ICNWA Industry Capability Network Western Australia ICRAR International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research ICT Information and Communication Technologies IEAC International Engineering Advisory Committee ILUA Indigenous Land Use Agreement INAF Italian Funding Agency for Astronomy IP Intellectual Property IPPAG Industry Participation and Procurement Advisory Group IR International Research ISCC International SKA Steering Committee ISPO International SKA Program Office iVEC Hub of Advanced Computing in Western Australia IYA International Year of Astronomy JVA Joint Venture Agreement K12 Kindergarten to Year 12 KPI Key Performance Indicator LNA Low-noise Amplifiers LOFAR Low Frequency Array LSST Large Synoptic Survey Telescope meerKAT South African SKA Pathfinder MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT/Kavli Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research MIT/Haystack Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Haystack Observatory MOST Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope MOU Memorandum of Understanding Mpc Mega parsecs MRO Murchison Radioastronomy Observatory

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

MROI Murchison Radioastronomy Observatory Instrumentation MWA Murchison Widefield Array NCA National Committee for Astronomy NCSS National Centre for SKA Science and High Performance Computing NCRA, TIFR National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India NCRIS National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy NRAO National Radio Astronomy Observatory NSF The National Science Foundation OTAC Optical Telescope Advisory Committee OTC Overseas Telecommunications Commission PAPER Precision Array Probing and Epoch of Reionization PREPSKA SKA Preparatory Phase Program QSO Quasistellar Object Questacon The National Science and Technology Centre R&D Research and Development RALI Radio Communications Assignments and Licensing Instruction RF Radio Frequency RFI Radio Frequency Interference RRI Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India RQZ Radio Quiet Zone RSA Republic of South Africa RSAG Regional Stakeholders Advisory Group SAF Science Archive Facility SBWG Strategy and Bid Working Group SCITECH Science Discovery Centre in Perth Western Australia SD+PAF Small Dish Plus Phased Array Feed SDSS Sloan Digital Sky Survey SFA State Funding Agreement SGI Silicon Graphics Industry SKA Square Kilometre Array SKADS Square Kilometre Array Design Studies SKAMP The SKA Molonglo Prototype SME Small and Medium Enterprises SPCG Systems Project Control Group SPDO SKA Program Development Office SPICE Secondary Science Teachers Professional Development Program SSEC SKA Science and Engineering Committee STAC Science and Technology Advisory Committee STAG Science and Technology Advisory Group STFC Science and Technology Facilities Council SWOT Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats TDP Technical Demonstrator Program TMT Thirty Meter Telescope UC University of California

ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010

U Melb University of Melbourne UWA The University of Western Australia U Washington University of Washington VLA Very Large Array VLBI Very Long Baseline Interferometry VOTC Virtual Observatory Technology Centre WA Western Australia/n WARAC Western Australian Radio Astronomy Committee WARASE CoE Western Australian Radio Astronomy Science and Engineering Centre of Excellence WASKAC Western Australian Square Kilometre Array Committee WSRT Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope