CSIRO Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Application of Deep Learning Methods to Radio Astronomy

• Do you have a PhD in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mathematics or Astrophysics?
• Are you ready for the next step in your career?
• Work alongside radio astronomers to develop new methods in spectral line science

CSIRO Early Research Career (CERC) Postdoctoral Fellowships provide opportunities to scientists and engineers who have completed their doctorate and have at least one and less than four years of relevant postdoctoral work experience. These fellowships aim to develop the next generation of future leaders of the innovation system.

Applications are invited for a two-year CERC Fellowship role to work on the application of Deep Learning or Machine Learning methods to the next-generation radio astronomy spectral line surveys in the SKA era, within the research group led by Dr Ivy Wong.  Specifically, the focus of this CERC Fellowship is aimed at the Big Data challenges brought forth by the WALLABY survey using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), that will map the entire Southern sky of Atomic Hydrogen (HI) further, deeper and wider than ever before.  The goal is to enable WALLABY to better detect HI in galaxies with a lookback time of ~1 billion years.  

ASKAP is a correlated array of 36 12-m dishes and it maps the sky via synthesis imaging – an indirect imaging technique similar to that used in medical imaging (eg. CT scans or MRIs).  The ASKAP data rate is ~2Gb per second, yielding ~75 Pb per year.  Hence, smarter automation of data verification processes plus post-processing processes are two work areas that Deep Learning methods can help contribute towards.

The CERC Fellow will work in close collaborations with Dr Ivy Wong, the ASKAP spectral line commissioning scientist(s) and other WALLABY CERC Fellow(s) to provide novel solutions to the scientific and technical challenges faced by the next-generation radio sky surveys.  To apply, please submit an online application together with a cover letter that explicitly addresses each of the selection criteria for this position.